The Christian's Work After Roe

On Friday, June 24, 2022, news broke that the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs and led to the overturning of the long-standing legal precedent of Roe v Wade. This ushered in what many pro-life advocates consider to be the biggest victory in the history of the pro-life movement. With such an announcement pro-life advocates rushed to celebrate what many thought would never come, and they were and are completely right to do so. As we celebrate such a momentous victory it should be done with an eye towards the future.  While the temptation may be for many in the pro-life movement to relax, the simple fact remains that there is much work to do. For Christians the Dobbs decision did not end the work of Christians who understand that God forms life in the womb (Psalm 139:14). Unlike many caricatures seek to show, Christians do not believe that the value of life exists only in the womb but all the way from that womb until natural death. This means that our work is not done simply because Roe has been overturned. In some ways, strangely, our work increases. We believe there are at least four areas for Christians to go to work.

Pray

One of the most overlooked but necessary steps in our continued work is to pray. Often it is easier to respond to rhetoric than to pray. It is easier to get into an argument with an opponent than to pray, but pray we must. First, we must pray for those who do not believe that the unborn life is a life at all. We must pray that they would be able to see that the life of the unborn is a life first, and second that the unborn life is valuable. Second, we must pray for women who find themselves in situations with an unplanned pregnancy or a pregnancy that they would consider unwanted. We must pray that they would know the life that they are carrying is valuable and created in God’s image. Finally, we should be praying for those who are considering adoption or foster care. Neither of these is a decision one should enter into lightly, so Christians should be praying for those considering to adopt or foster as well as for God to raise up more people to adopt.

Adopt/Foster

One of the talking points after the Dobbs decision pointed to the fact that if Christians are so excited with the reversal of Roe then they should be the first ones to adopt. In a recent article, though, the data suggests that practicing Christians are twice as likely to adopt compared to the rest of the United States. Nevertheless, the fact still remains that there is still a great need for Christians to step into the gap and adopt children. This is often a difficult and expensive process but a wonderful calling if the Lord leads you to adopt. In addition to adoption is a call to foster care. One of the beauties of foster care is the goal of family reunification. It comes as no shock to Christians that family units need to be strengthened and one of the ways that this can be done is through fostering children. Again, we must be clear that this is hard work but that should not be a deterrent to those who feel the Lord calling them to foster.

Crossway has an adoption/foster ministry where you can get involved. To learn more you can send an email to adoptionfoster@crosswaybc.org.

Give

One of the realities of the Dobbs decision is that there will be more strain placed on ministries that are already committed to life. Organizations like Pregnancy Care Center, The Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, and Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri are just a few groups locally that will be affected by Dobbs. After giving to your local church, prayerfully consider what it might look like to support one of these organizations with your money or time. In addition to these organizations, adoption is expensive. While the average cost of an abortion was $400-$2,000, the average cost of a domestic adoption in the United States is $60,000-$70,000. Thankfully, agencies often work to get the cost of adoption down but it can still be $20,000-$40,000. This means when a family makes the decision to adopt they make great financial sacrifices to adopt. One thing that helps families to adopt are adoption grant organizations that help to fund adoptions all over the United States. Grant organizations regularly give out all their allotted money to people seeking to adopt with many families still needing assistance due to the high cost of adoption. While requiring sacrifice financially, adoption is still worth every penny.

Advocate

Finally, the need for Christians to continue to advocate for life is still necessary. While the Dobbs case established the fifteen week viability line there is still work to do in speaking for life. Even with this new ruling we should not be naive enough to think that abortions will not take place. Each state will decide how they will handle the issue of abortion, which means that Christians still must advocate. Advocating for unborn children is not the only way that we can speak up. There are two people involved in any pregnancy and the women who are carrying the children need to be advocated for as well. Making sure that we have churches that are ready, willing, and able to step up and support women facing challenging decisions is a must. Caring for a woman’s spiritual, emotion, and health needs should be on the radar of Christians and we seek to care for both women who are pregnant and for children who are yet to be born.

We who care about the sanctity of life should be overjoyed at the news we have received in recent days but we must continue to be steadfast in our work. As Christians, we value what God values and in doing that we continue to work as we long for the day when it is unthinkable to abort any child.

In lieu of a comments section, we accept and encourage letters to the editor. If you would like to write a letter to the editor, you can do so by sending them to impact@crosswaybc.org