A Question

While I do not believe the Supreme Court will reverse itself, it is a remote possibility. More likely, but still not unassured; restrictions may be imposed adding some additional protections to the unborn.

My question, are we as Christians anywhere near prepared to support the mothers who may soon be facing a more difficult future? Are we capably of assuring that the additional new mothers and new babies are adequately embraced and supported?

For years many of us have worked and prayed that changes would occur. We may at last need to match our words with our actions. I wonder if we are up to the task?

There are homes and services and they are seldom awash with resources.

Thank you so much for bringing up this very important subject.

I have been around Christians both online and in real life who were upset with me for not doing the things they were doing to fight abortion (writing to politicians, demonstrating in front of clinics, etc.) But I think this is a good example of how God calls us each to different places in the fight, because I am wondering how many of those same people would be willing to help out a single mother or abandoned children within their own homes and paychecks.

I remember a single mother here on CC telling her story of when her child needed emergency medical attention, but not one person in her church would help her because they didn't want to be associated with a "sinner" (unwed mother.)

While it's wonderful that people want to save children from abortion, I don't think many who do so realize that this is only the first step. They don't seem to understand that even though a child's life might have been saved, that doesn't mean that the child is healthy, safe, wanted, or loved, and that in many cases, others will have to step in and actually do that work themselves. I used to work with a young woman from a strong Christian family who was a single stressed-out mom (the father had abandoned them,) and she would frequently say that she wished that she would have aborted her child.

As a former orphan and adopted child myself, I've seen how much work, money, and dedication it requires to take in an unwanted child and raise her as your own, and I am forever grateful to my "real Mom and Dad" -- the people who raised me.

I have found that many of the people who speak fiercely against abortion would never consider adoption or helping a child beyond signing a petition. I'm not trying to criticize this in any way, but I have often wondered if the reason the fight has been so long and so hard is because God would also then have to hold His people responsible for raising, caring, and providing for the children they have saved, and many are unprepared and/or unwilling to do so.

My personal leg in the fight has always been with trying to support my former adoption agency and its endeavor to find permanent, loving homes for kids who are unwanted or cannot stay with their biological families. Even if families are willing to adopt, almost everyone wants babies, and so even children who are over 18 months are often seen as undesirable. The older a child becomes, the fewer chances they have of being adopted. The odds are even tougher for children with medical issues (HIV, drug or alcohol withdrawal due to a birth mother who used them during pregnancy, etc.) and nearly impossible for children with special needs.

Not too long ago we had someone posting here who said that adoption is "unnatural" and that the children taken in by it are "fake." I have also talked to other adoptees who, lacking biological connections when they were growing up, would only choose to have their "own" biological children and never consider adopting. I'm not criticizing this, nor am I saying that adoption is for everyone.

But what I do ponder are the very things you've brought up with this thread: If the church can get abortion taken off the table, are they then ready to deal with the consequences, because surely God will hold us responsible for that as well? I honestly don't think that God's plan is to tell people, "Ok, we've now made it a legal mandate for you to have this child -- we've done our part -- so sorry, but now you're on your own. The rest of this is all your problem." Most churches can't handle the great needs of their members and community as it is -- how will they manage when that becomes multiplied by the numbers of unwanted and/or special needs children they've saved, too?

My personal strategy (as I feel this is what God has called me to do) is to try to provide as much support to those who are struggling with parenthood or parenthood-to-be as we can.

I am the type of person who is always looking for legal loopholes around the corruptions of the legal system.

If we could create a church environment in which parents and their children, no matter what circumstances brought those children into being are valued, loved, supported, and in turn, these people are able to pass these beliefs and actions onto their children, we could rise above and nullify any pro-abortion law that was passed.

If a young woman knew her church family loved her and her child and would truly be there for them, this would hopefully increase her confidence in becoming a mother and greatly reduce, and ideally eliminate, any consideration of abortion. If we could sustain a system where children were wanted and treasured and given adequate life support, including others to step in if parents succumbed to weaknesses (such as addiction,) laws that legalized abortion would lose their power because ideally, no one would be interested in getting an abortion to begin with.

I know that because we live in a sinful world, we will never see such ideal circumstances occur perfectly in this life, but I think the OP has made some crucial points regarding this issue.

I think that as Christians, we often concentrate all our efforts into knocking down just one door, completely forgetting that there may be an infinite number of other doors that are behind it.

I also believe that this is why we are often met with so much resistance and opposition -- God is preparing and equipping us for the even longer haul we have ahead even if we win any particular battle we set our sights on.

I have read that when God freed His people from slavery in Egypt, He could have chosen to take them on a route to the Promised Land that would have taken less than a week (roughly 11 days.) Rather, God took them the long way, with the trip lasting 40 years instead. The Bible says that God did so because He knew that if they would have gotten there right away, they would have turned and ran rather than fighting all the enemies God knew they would have to overcome in order to be able to take over the land and live there. God wasn't just going to hand it over to them -- they were going to have to trust Him continuously in many battles to come.

I can't help but wonder if our long-held fight against abortion is just one of the many ways in which God is preparing us for the long battles ahead, even if we succeed in getting to where we think we want to go.

Please forgive my egregious typo -- I meant to say, "He could have chosen to take them on a route to the Promised Land that would have taken less than 2 weeks."

Thank you again for bringing such crucial points to the table of discussion!

Thank you! You have stated the issues clearly and more directly than I ever could. I too have directed my attention to the support of mothers and babies. I really fear we are unprepared.

The national "Snews Media" is waiting in the wings to highlight ANY tragic instance that occurs if any restrictions are imposed. It will be replayed again and again to lead the public into believing that the incident pandemic.

This will not be the end of the fight, just the beginning.

I don't have a horse in this race, in any manner. All I have are opinions, and none of them are based on experience. This is why I have nothing to contribute to this thread.

So why bother making a post? Just to say that this IS a good issue to discuss, in a forum, in a church, in a christian home. I wish people would discuss it more, even if I have nothing to add to the discussion.

Hello @Seeker47, if the dictates of Roe change (to one degree or another in certain States), I suspect that adoptions will replace many of the abortions that we, sadly, continue to see happening today. At the time that we adopted our son (23 years ago) we were told by our adoption agency not to get our hopes up too high, because for every baby available in the US for adoption at that time, there were 100+ qualified adoptive parents who wanted to adopt (him or her).

This was, by the way, at a time when there were almost no single parent and/or LGBTQ+ adoptions happening, so I suspect that the number of qualified/available parents looking to adopt today is even greater than it was 23 years ago (when my wife and I decided to try to adopt).

The long and the short of it is this, there are NO unwanted babies (even babies with problems of one kind or another will always find parents who very much want to adopt, love and support them). We, in fact, need more birth moms who are willing to put their newborns up for adoption (rather than aborting them) as there is a GREAT desire out there for MANY more babies to adopt (as I hope the stats have already made clear to you). The wonderful thing is this, birth moms never need to worry that they need to abort their babies, because none of them will ever be "unwanted", rather, all will find a family to love them and a home to grow up in

So yes, I believe that we are ready for many more babies to be born. We have been for decades now!!

God bless you!

~Deut

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Your words are wise and encouraging. I will continue to pray for the day that all babies are adopted by loving families; and no child ever again experience being "unwanted". We, Bestwife and I; will continue to support our local pregnancy support organizations. I hope much of the resources and efforts that have gone into ending this national tragedy can now be directed to the aid and support of at-risk mothers and children.