I have a few ideas on this topic. First off, as much as I think that it is unlikely to see and end to legal abortion anytime soon I think that it is still worth doing what we can to see that change. Slavery ended in England through the dedicated work of William Wilberforce. It took 30 years of dedicated political work to see this change. In order to see the laws change in Canada the US or anywhere else the majority of people need to come to the realization that the unborn are precious. Even if I could convince a number of politicians to actively do something as they way things currently are they wouldn't get voted into power.
In order to change the hearts and minds of the people they need to learn the truth. My husband Joel and are regularly part of street demonstrations that display pictures of aborted children. This sound grim and cold but it is surprising how many people will stop and have calm discussions with us. I recently had someone say "I had no idea that that was what a fetus looked like. That should not be legal". I think that is necessary to get the word out about the humanity of the unborn. People are deceived and the truth is what will set them free. We need to take every appropriate opportunity to defend the unborn. If we can change one heart here and another heart there then slowly society as a whole can change. Also, if we change one persons heart then maybe they will think twice if they have an unplanned pregnancy or maybe they will encourage someone else to think twice.
Anther thing that we can do to decrease the current rate of abortion is to support support services for pregnant women. Crisis pregnancy centres and Birth Rights offer women counseling through the decision of what to do with their child and practical support if they decide to carry their child to term and raise it. I've gone through their training and have volunteered for them (not in a counseling role). They emphasize educating the women that come in on what abortion really involves and on their support services. The centres in my area offer free baby clothing or food to anyone that calls them up and asks for it. Supporting pregnancy homes is another support service for women that carry to term. These homes offer a place for women to stay when their home environments are hostile. Unfortunately many of these are closing as more women choose to abort. I suppose though that if Christians were more willing to be hospitable these homes wouldn't be necessary. I guess that that could be another way that Christians could support pregnant women through their pregnancies.
For those in Canada we should lobby our government to quit funding abortion as a medically necessary procedure. Our tax dollars go towards making it very easy for women to kill their children. We can also lobby for more laws to protect women from rape, incest, and other abuse.
I don' think that this list of things that can be done is extensive. Does anybody else have any idea?
Posted by rose at July 27, 2004 02:07 PM | TrackBackThe centres in my area offer free baby clothing or food to anyone that calls them up and asks for it.
Very good!
These homes offer a place for women to stay when their home environments are hostile.
Excellent!
We can also lobby for more laws to protect women from rape, incest, and other abuse.
Absolutely!
One big difference between America and Canada... we don't have socialized health care down here. I'm sure having a child can be a very expensive proposition for a single mother in America, even with support from charitable groups. I think introducing socialized health care in some form in America would go a long way to reducing the number of abortions.
I also think adoption laws should be loosened up a bit. Yes we do have to place children in safe environments but from what I understand the screening process is a nightmare. I think many women would be willing to carry their children to term if they knew the child would be adopted into a good home instead of going to an orphanage or a foster home.
I think we need to do more to support marriage in America. A bigger emphasis needs to be put on marriage counseling and anger management in particular.
And employers need to provide more time off for parents to be with their families. We need a shorter work week and longer vacations. The more time a family has to spend together the more stable it will be.
I think we need to raise the minimum wage considerably. It is difficult to provide for any size of a family in America on a minimum wage (or near minimum wage) job.
And employers need to provide more time off for parents to be with their families. We need a shorter work week and longer vacations. The more time a family has to spend together the more stable it will be.
Not sure how feasable any of those ideas really are and I'm sure I haven't touched on all of the possibilites. Not by a long shot.
Posted by: Michael Bowen at July 29, 2004 03:51 AMThe best way to reduce abortion is to reduce unwanted pregnanices in the first place. Support comprehensive sex education and family planning programs, make insurance companies cover birth control, distribute free condoms to anyone who wants them. Look to places like the Netherlands which has the lowest abortion rate in the world. The Dutch government supports all these things and even pays for abortions through the state-funded health care system. We're going about it the wrong way. Suppressing abortion doesn't work. If we're serious about ending abortions, we've got to be realistic about the solutions.
Posted by: stef at July 29, 2004 07:54 AMI agree with Michael and stef, and in addition, I would propose that we provide free child care to women who want to continue their schooling (high school, college, or trade school) or who are not making enough in the workforce to pay for it themselves. Whether this should be done through the government or as a part of the church I don't really know, but I suspect that the church won't be willing to step up to the plate and increase its giving in order to provide the kinds of resources necessary to do this through CPCs or other non governmental organizations.
Rose is right - we're not likely to get this outlawed any time soon, so we need to be working NOW to provide an infrastructure which will make our argument stronger in the future. If we can take away all of the poverty issues, we undercut much of the pro-choice movement's moral argument. All they're left with is the woman's so-called right to "choice" against the very real possibility that they are killing a human being (which we assert is not just a possibility, but a fact).
Posted by: Steve Ross at July 29, 2004 08:17 AMI have a few things that I would like to add. I don't think that we will ever be able to remove all the reasons that might make a woman feel like she needs to have an abortion. We will always have poverty and oppression. Even Jesus says that this will be the case. Imagine if women around our countries were allowed to kill their babies up till their first birthday. Now imagine that for every three babies that made it till their birthday one was killed (for every three live births there is one abortion). The women might choose do this for many reasons. Maybe they are in poverty, being abused, facing postpartum depression, alcoholic, they decided to go back to school, or just felt too overwhelmed. I think that if this were the case it definitely would be the responsibility of the church to see that they did everything that the could to give these women reasons to save their children. It would also be good for the church to lobby the government to change systems that forced these women to feel that they had no other recourse. I also think though that it would be important for the church to lobby to see these murders banned as unlikely as that might be or how it would make these mothers feel. Do you not agree?
Government changes will only help so much. Canada and the US have about the same per capita abortion rate even though Canada has socialized health care and an almost equivalent standard of living. People's hearts need to be changed and that will require work on the part of the church. We can argue for government changes for our social situations but people will still have selfish motivations to kill their children. I doubt that in the church's current state it will make a lick of difference but that's part of why I blog. I'd love to see the church put its back out for the widows, orphans and pregnant women in our midst in order to see lives changed and saved.
Here's a link to an interesting article that goes into this argument in more detail: http://uffl.org/vol10/beckwith10.pdf
Posted by: Rose Mawhorter at July 30, 2004 08:49 AM