KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–The pro-life cause requires much more than merely arguing against abortion, said World magazine editor Marvin Olasky, who addressed the subject in the second of two C.W. Scudder Lectures at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary March 27.
Although a strong proponent of a constitutional amendment to prohibit abortion, Olasky said it would not stop all women from having abortions. Christians need to take a more systemic, long-range approach to reduce the number of abortions performed annually in America.
“We have to think about the conditions of women who have abortions and their reasons for choosing it,” Olasky said. Women who become pregnant outside marriage know they are likely to be single parents if they choose to keep their babies, he acknowledged. With the vast majority of these women headed for a life of poverty, abortion seems preferable to them, he said, noting such women are seen as having a choice of killing a life or suffering the imprisonment of single parenting.
“Poor teens are less likely to choose abortion than those who are middle class or affluent because they have more to loose,” Olasky said.
“Many inner-city teens already view themselves as being in prison. Teenage pregnancy has meant a roomier cell and better rations,” he said, because of the nature of the welfare system of enabling single parenting.
Olasky rejected the idea of increasing welfare benefits to improve the living conditions of single moms. Describing the deeper problem as spiritually based, Olasky said the lack of positive images of fathers is missing in most inner-city neighborhoods.
“No one has even seen a dad living at home, showing his love, providing for his family by that combination of discipline and love. It seems like a mythical creation and it’s very, very hard for a child in that situation to understand what our Father in heaven is like.”
Not only are the children in a single mother’s home affected, but “a woman who’s been seduced, abandoned and taken advantage of by every man who’s hit on her” is unable to recognize Christ as “the faithful husband.”
While evidence indicates a slight decline in the number of unborn children being aborted, Olasky said 1.4 million abortions still being reported annually. The growth of intrawomb photography and ultrasound has caused many more women to reconsider their decisions to abort, he said. “When a woman can actually see her unborn child moving around with identifiable hands, sucking his thumb and giving evidence of a beating heart, that is enormously effective in creating a bond between the woman and her unborn child.”
Testimony regarding partial-birth abortion and medical gains allowing premature babies to be sustained have also helped the pro-life cause, Olasky said.
Although laws which address such issues as partial-birth abortion and parental notification are helpful, he said, “If we really want to put a big dent in the abortion system, we have to find an alternative to the choice of single parenting or abortion.”
With 49 percent of unmarried pregnant women choosing abortion and another 49 percent choosing to raise their babies as single parents, Olasky noted very few women in such circumstances marry the baby’s father. About 2 percent choose adoption — the alternative Olasky finds most favorable.
School programs giving special attention to pregnant teenagers indirectly encourage teenagers to try single parenting, Olasky said. While students “ooh and aah” over a cuddly baby, he asked, “What happens when that baby gets older and is harder to control, and the mother in an apartment by herself reaches out in anger and hurts that child? We’ve seen an enormous growth in child abuse as children are seen as disposable.”
Olasky proposed Christians “try to save as many as we can” from abortion by cutting back on its permissible spheres and emphasizing compassionate alternatives of marriage, adoption and abstinence. “We’re not going to find one program that will immediately change the lives of millions of kids that will be aborted or grow up in single-parent situation.”
Still, Olasky maintained, all Christians are charged individually with doing something to change the welfare system. “Our goal is to be always faithful and think about ways to be not only pro-life, but pro-family.”
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