Opinion: Pro-life and pro-mother
I am pro-life and pro- mother. Here’s how I adopted this viewpoint.
It was 1981. I was sitting in at a major North Carolina university in a political science class titled “Law and Social Change.” We invested a semester to study Supreme Court cases including Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which ultimately served to begin a process by which 62 million children were prevented from continuing their lives begun in the womb of their mother.
I made an “A” in the process and the thoughts engendered by this class catalyzed changes in my life.
I had planned a career in law. As a pre-law major, I was sailing. I ultimately was selected to be part of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society. I was even selected to be president of the local chapter. Yet, when I saw that the clear words of the U. S. Constitution twisted and convoluted to say things that were clearly not there, it was not long before I transferred from that school to Gardner-Webb University.
When another one of my major university professors required on written exams that we write our “university student number” rather than our name “because I don’t want to know who you are,” that sealed my decision to move on.
When I learned from my “Law and Social Change” professor a sentiment shared one day by former Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in oral arguments over a case, I was spun into a spiral of disbelief. He said, “Words. Words! We’re just arguing about words.”
I was in crisis. We’re talking about lives not just words. Law should be about protecting people including the most helpless among us — unborn children. My personal crisis upon taking the aforementioned class led to a year of clinical depression.
Thankfully, I survived and moved on to a school where life was taken even more seriously. It was a place where I was a name rather than a number and a soul rather than just a student. While I was there, I continued my major, won the Political Science Award, and graduated with honors. (I only tell you about the awards I won to give basis to the fact that my intellectual opinions have some thoughtful merit at least through the grading lens’ of my professors from two different universities).
Here’s where I landed. If we allow the misshaping and deformation of clear words of those who wrote our founding document to read: “You can sacrifice the life of your unborn child for your personal preference, convenience, health, and happiness based on the right to privacy and due process,” then no life is safe. Indeed, for 62 million unborn children it has required their lives.
I follow “The Word” who “became a human being and lived here with us who was full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He said, “I have come that may have life and life more abundantly” (John 10:10). His life began as an unwanted pregnancy, although with singular circumstances differing from all other unwanted pregnancies. He cares about the baby and the mother. So do I.
I love the mothers that are faced with an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy. I understand that impulsive sexual decisions have unintended consequences. I understand many are not equipped emotionally, financially, relationally, or spiritually for motherhood. So does the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), born of an unprepared teenaged mother Mary who felt stares and whispers of accusation all of her life.
I serve a church and partner with organizations that are willing to come alongside fearful mothers who need help. We live in a country filled with those who want children, but cannot have them and would commit their lives to helping the mother of unplanned children and give her child a future in partnership with her as the mother.
There should be no “spiking the football” on this issue. Too many are lost already and too much is uncertain. Who am I to share my convictions? Don’t I know that there are reasons to have abortions? Yes. I have a sister who has cerebral palsy and a niece who has “Downs Syndrome.”
I have other extended family situations that make the discussion of unwanted pregnancies personal and not just theoretical. I belong to a body of people who want to help scared mothers with unplanned pregnancies. I implore other houses of faith to step in the gap together to help the babies and the mothers. Let’s do it together.
The Supreme Court has finally, on this issue, returned to truth — “an absolute standard by which reality is measured (Dr. Tony Evans).” A baby is a life at conception and a mother is important to God as much as the baby. Let’s help both.
The Rev. Ray Hardee is lead pastor of The Pointe in Belmont.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Pro-life and pro-mother
