A society is founded on that which it honors. Today is the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in providing access to abortion. Sunday will be the 27th anniversary of celebrating the Sanctity of Human Life. While the issue of abortion is labeled “divisive”, “inflammatory”, “polarizing”, it is an issue that has generated a response by activists in the early 70’s who wanted abortion to be viewed as a Constitutional right. In other words, it was not the “rabid right” that brought this issue into the arena of politics and government.

The majority of Americans view a life in the womb as a “child”, rather than a fetus, and new technologies such as 3-D ultrasound demonstrate the science that validates this reality. However, I encourage each of us to be mindful that being “pro-life” is not simply being “anti-abortion.” In advocating and supporting adoption, by standing against human trafficking and working with organizations to minister along side young mothers, we can truly be a society that honors life.

Please join me in a time of prayer and reflection today and throughout the weekend on the decision to celebrate and honor life in our society with more than words, but also deeds.

Robin Smith

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Except most Americans aren't "anti-abortion." Most Americans believe
it should be legal and rare, but the only place where the majority is
against it is in the case of partial birth or extreme late term
abortion. And you know what? I'm totally with most of the country
there.

But the problem is the "pro-life" movement is just an "anti-abortion" movement, because once the kids are born, they're on their own. With rare exceptions (my fantastic parents for example) almost everyone I meet who is "pro-life" is also against things like free school lunch, WIC, public housing, or pretty much any other form
of protections against children the government may provide, because
the government's role in protecting kids stops at making sure the kids
get out of the womb. After that they can fend for themselves.

So how about this. If you are truly pro-life, and this doesn't just go
for the original poster but for everyone, adopt. A minister I once
knew had eight plus children, all of them his own seed. He was also
viciously "pro-life", at one point referring to anyone who ever got an
abortion a "slut looking for a way out." What an amazing ministry it
could have been if he had stopped at maybe four biological kids and
then adopted four children in need. And not just the cute healthy new
born white babies. But the kids who've been in the system for a bit,
or the meth/crack children who are going to need constant and
expensive care for the rest of their lives. You know the lives
"pro-life" advocates scream are so precious?

How about the kids in foster systems who are between the ages of 2 and 17 who don't know the joys of a loving caring foster home (you are truly the best people on earth if you provided this) and instead have been through people who just looked at them like a pay check? Why not adopt those kids?

You want to affect abortion? Live like you love those children. When
abortion is illegal people will still get abortions, they'll just do
it at home without proper medical supervision. They'll use bleach,
coat hangers, sewing needles, or anything handy. Because the problem
is still there. They don't know how they will care for the child. They
don't know how they're going to pay for expensive medical problems.
They don't know if they can provide for the child, and don't trust the
societal safety net to catch their kid if they put it up for adoption.

We live in a country where you can vote against SCHIP and still be
considered "pro-life." If you want to end abortion don't spend
millions of dollars a year calling people murderers or lobbying
government. Spend millions of dollars a year creating a program of
love. A program that says, "If you cannot care for your child, we will.
We will respect your background and faith and raise your child
accordingly; we will make sure your child receives all the medical
care it will need, and we will prepare it for life as an adult. We are pro-choice, but we're now giving you a third choice." And ask nothing
of the parent.

My right wing friends like to tell me we're a christian nation, so if
this is true and we're a nation of true Christians this should fund
itself. Sadly this is a delusion. We're a nation of people who read
the Bible for the parts we agree with and ignore the parts we don't
like. That whole take care of the poor, the widows, and the children
thing. Or how it is easier for a rich man to walk through the eye of a
needle than to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Focus on the Family spent millions fighting Prop 8. How many lives could they have saved if they had focused on providing a safe place for unborn children to be raised instead of making it harder for two people who love each other to make funeral arrangements for their partner? If we're a christian nation we need to act like it. When we've lived up to all of the things Christ asked of us then maybe you guys can go back to the old testament and fight gay rights again, though if I ever see anyone fighting against gay marriage and eating a lobster I'm gonna smack them for not reading the rest of the old testament.

If you want to lower the amount of abortions in this country make it
so anyone who would ever want one for any reason beyond medical, rape,
or incest has no reason. Heck if you fund it right you could eliminate
most of the medically caused one's too. Leave the law alone. You are
wasting money fighting to make something more dangerous as opposed to
spending money to make it mostly obsolete. Seriously, what would Jesus
have done?

John-Michael Bond