Why the Church’s response to abortion matters on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

In early January, actress Michelle Williams accepted a Golden Globe and credited her achievement to exercising a “woman’s right to choose.” Her statements were met with applause and approval in a room full of Hollywood’s elite. 

Williams used her platform to push a false narrative—that a woman must suppress her body’s natural ability to have children in order to achieve success. This suppression, masquerading as feminism, is an idea that is detrimental to women. Live Action shared in response to Williams’s speech, “A feminist world is one in which a woman never feels compelled to choose between her child and her education or career.”¹

Williams’s speech told women they must choose between pursuing their dreams and life for their children. Thankfully, we know this isn’t true. We know women are strong, capable, and that life is worth celebrating no matter the circumstance. At GPCC, we see this strength, resilience and drive to succeed in the women we serve every day.

While Williams’s speech was a sad reflection of the lie that has taken root in our culture—that nothing, not even human lives, should get in the way of personal success—this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday the church has a special opportunity to come together to take a stand for the truth. 

The Truth

As Christians, we know that all lives—regardless of age, abilities, or background—are of precious value, “uniquely and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).  We believe that all people are made in the “Imago Dei,” the image of God. Each human life has value and unique purpose.

When we fail to view humanity through this lens, and instead view some as “less than” or “non-human,”  we start to see the root of sin that leads to the ugliest of humanity’s grievances—slavery, the Holocaust, racism, prejudice, eugenics, genocide. How we view and value human life is the catalyst that determines if our actions will be fueled by love or hate. 

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday 

In 1983, Ronald Reagan wrote in an essay published on the 10th anniversary of Roe v. Wade that, “’We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life—the unborn—without diminishing the value of all human life.”²  

During Reagan’s second term as president, he issued a presidential proclamation designating January 22nd as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The day served to make a statement that as a nation, we should acknowledge the value of all human life. 

The proclamation marked the 11th anniversary of Roe v Wade. In the years that followed, Reagan continued the proclamation annually so that the third Sunday in January would be recognized as Sanctity of Human Life Day. 

This year will mark 47 years since the Roe v. Wade decision, but what Reagan said in 1984 is still true today: “Each year, remarkable advances in prenatal medicine bring ever more dramatic confirmation of what common sense told us all along—that the child in the womb is simply what each of us once was: a very young, very small, dependent, vulnerable member of the human family.”³

Roe V. Wade 

Since the landmark decision in 1973 there have been over 61 million pregnancies aborted in the United States.⁴ Though many supporters of the ruling claim the decision allowed for abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare,” the result has made the practice anything but “rare,” and the emotional and physical trauma affecting many post-abortive women certainly calls “safe” into question. 

There is evidence that abortion is associated with an increased risk for clinical depression and anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, symptoms consistent with PTSD, and suicidal thoughts and behavior. “Scientific evidence indicates that abortion may be more likely to be associated with negative psychological outcomes than either miscarriage or carrying an unintended pregnancy to term.” ⁵  Induced abortion also increases a woman’s risk for placenta previa and premature birth for future pregnancies. ⁶ (Greensboro Pregnancy Care Center offers post-abortive women Abortion Recovery programs to help them heal from their experience. Read more here.) 

Today, the abortion movement has gone well beyond advocating for “safe, legal, and rare” abortion to pushing for “abortion on demand.” We’ve seen this in the political arena, from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s controversial comments publicly advocating for infanticide, to the Shout Your Abortion movement. 

Norma McCorvey, “Jane Roe” of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, became pro-life in 1995. She became a Christian and started an outreach group called Roe No More; “I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name,” McCorvey said. ⁷

Steps you can take during Sanctity of Human Life Month

Last year there were 3,341 abortions performed in the Triad. That’s 3,431 unborn children, fearfully and wonderfully made, who never had the chance to be born. 

And that’s 3,431 women who have been impacted by the physical and emotional trauma of abortion. 

Women are hurting. Families are crumbling. The need is great. 

Our goal is to empower you, the Church, to carry out the Great Commission in your city. You can do that by praying, serving, and giving. 

Pray

Pray that abortion would become unnecessary. Pray that the women who feel that abortion is their only choice would be connected with the resources and encouragement they need to make healthy choices for their future and to choose life for their children. Pray for the volunteers and staff meeting women and families in their time of need. 

GPCC has a volunteer prayer team that prays together over the phone each week. Please email us at info@gsocarecenter.org if you’d like to join. 

Serve

In 2019, Greensboro Pregnancy Care Center served nearly 1200 women. Our staff and volunteers were able to share the gospel with almost 1000 of those women. Our volunteers are crucial to GPCC’s ability to provide tangible support to women in our community. If you’d like to find out more about the wide array of ways you can get involved and serve, we’d like to invite you to our Open House. You can sign up here, we’d love to help you get connected!

Give

GPCC is funded through the generosity of our community. Through your support, we are able to offer excellent free services to women in Greensboro and also expand our services further into the Triad in 2020. If you’d like to support GPCC through your giving, you can find more information here. 

You can also sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media to find out what donations are needed for our Care Cottage and for the graduates of our Parenting Class. 

Together, we can empower women to face their unplanned pregnancies without fear. When we work together to care for one woman at a time, we believe we will make abortion unnecessary in the Triad.

You can read more about Sanctity of Human Life Month here.

Kacey Minor is the Communications Assistant at Greensboro Pregnancy Care Center.