LOCALLY SOURCED It’s Too Political

Kara Beth Vance

Abortion has been a controversial topic my whole life, and for many decades before that. I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, in the context of a Christian culture though not in a church until my teenage years. Current events and politics were typical topics of conversation at our weekly Sunday dinner with extended family that included a selfproclaimed “card-carrying Libertarian,” some that hosted fundraisers for the local Democratic party & candidates, and some that made arguments aligning with the Republican party of the time on many issues, though, interestingly, not about abortion).

I CAN’T TALK ABOUT ABORTION. IT’S TOO POLITICAL. It wasn’t until I moved here to go to Wheaton College and was surrounded by other believers that I first heard this common response to the beginnings of conversation about abortion: “I don’t want to get into that. It’s too political.” This is a refrain that’s been spoken to me over and over since then, not only among college students but every generation in our church community.

While I wasn’t particularly well-informed or politically inclined as a teenager and didn’t come to know Christ until high school, I have always been pro-life (meaning, I oppose legalized abortion since it takes an innocent human life).

I assumed that at Wheaton College most people around me would both share my pro-life convictions and be interested in talking about how we could partner to defend innocent human life in the womb. Instead, my friends and classmates were weary of political disagreements, identified being pro-life with a political party, and did not see why a Christian ought to involve herself with something in the political realm of laws and policies.

On the one hand, I want to respond that standing for the value of every human life has nothing to do with politics! Abortion has been around much longer in human history than the Roe v Wade decision of 1973 and longer than the current political parties in the U.S. So much of the work to do to defend the lives of unborn humans is done in our conversations with friends, family and coworkers, in praying, in sidewalk counseling without doing anything that even looks like it would be “political”.

On the other hand, there is definitely a sense in which this is political. If the unborn are human lives (and they are), then we cannot stand idly by while these lives are taken legally through abortion. Your conscience will compel you to act, and your actions may be in public. Your defense of innocent human life may come up in conversation, or impact how you vote and what you communicate to those that have been elected to political office (regardless of party affiliations).

Focusing on politics is a distraction from the actual issue. What is the unborn?

Science Reveals Humans In The Womb

I learned through my public school science classes that human life begins at fertilization . Humans have basic rights including the right to life. Since abortion is one human making the choice to end the life of another human, this is an infringement on human rights and ought to be illegal.

You don’t have to be a Christian to come to this conclusion. If you are a Christian, you need to know that you don’t need the Bible to make a pro-life argument. Science has firmly established that a new human life begins at fertilization. A diverse group of people (and some with no religious affiliations at all) have sought to legally protect the human rights of the unborn because of this represented in part by organizations including Secular Pro-Life, Feminists for Life, and Pro-Life Humanists.

We don’t have to frame pro-life views as religious or exclusively for religious people or those who have some sort of faith. God has revealed the truth about human life in the womb and the value of each one in his word, but we can also observe it in the world that he has created through science.

When you’re talking with an abortion advocate or even someone who is wrestling through whether abortion is right or wrong and whether the unborn or abortion should be legally protected, we need to ask questions that help them think through the key issue: what is the unborn?

If you agree with the scientific consensus, then you understand that the unborn is a human life. If the unborn is a human life, then abortion takes an innocent human life. If it is wrong (and otherwise illegal) to take an innocent human life, then it is also wrong to take an innocent human life through abortion and this also ought to be illegal.

If you engage in this conversation with people, you are going to hear objections. You may even be the one with objections. We plan to address some of these common objections in future Connections and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

TAKE COURAGE. SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE.

It is tempting to stay silent when abortion is being discussed rather than say something that may make others uncomfortable, defensive, or think differently about you. But we cannot remain silent. We need to learn how to winsomely engage in conversations with people who disagree or even oppose us. We need to learn how to stand up for truth and against injustice against innocent people in the womb.

Our consistent witness that the unborn is a human life may help a mom facing an unplanned pregnancy choose life for her unborn child. Your courage to winsomely, respectfully engage in a conversation on this topic may be the open door to a conversation about Jesus and hope found in him. Remember that the people you are talking to are also human beings, made in the image of God, and precious. People have stories and experiences (some of them traumatic) that have shaped their thinking about abortion. We can have genuine love and compassion while speaking the truth with clarity.

It’s been about 20 years now since I came to know Christ and surrendered my life to him. Growing in knowledge of God and his word has given deeper roots to the convictions that were formed in my jr high science class. Every human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and has inherent worth that has nothing to do with her size, dependency, contributions to society, or anything else! Not only that, but the transforming love of Christ calls us to compassionately care for the most vulnerable in our community, “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-40), just as the Good Samaritan did for the man on the road to Jericho even though it cost him something.

Let us be like midwives of Egypt who did not follow Pharaoh’s command to kill male children at birth but, at great risk to themselves, let the children live because they feared God.

1 “Although life is a continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed….” [O’Rahilly, Ronan and Muller, Fabiola. Human Embryology & Teratology. 2nd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996, pp. 8, 29.]

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