LifeDate Fall 2023 – How to Use Your Gospel-Motivated Voice For Life
by Diane Albers, President of Lutherans For Life
We’ve just passed the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe and sent the abortion debate back to the states. Dobbs was certainly great news, but we haven’t yet reached our end goal—making abortion unthinkable.
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31: 8-9
Notice in those two verses God asks us twice to open our mouths for those who cannot speak for themselves. But we cannot just open our mouths. We need to be prepared to speak the truth in love, to give facts and fight misinformation and outright lies from the other side. Check the status of abortion in your state. Make sure you aren’t taken in by false narratives. Most prolife politics have shifted to the states. Pro-abortion groups are throwing tons of money at ballot initiatives. Think Michigan and Kansas.
What happens when you do a search for “crisis pregnancy centers”? The first thing that often appears is from American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG), which begins with a good explanation of what the center does. However, the article goes on to warn against CPC facilities. Why? The article reiterates that CPCs claim that they are legitimate health care clinics for “pregnant people,” but in reality they are trying to prevent abortion with their antiabortion agenda, use “misleading” practices by CPC staff, and spread misinformation about “so-called abortion ‘reversal.’”
Many of you work with a CPC. We know what they do to help women who are pregnant, their babies, and their partners as well. Most of these centers operate based on Christian principles. The CPCs, and we in Lutherans For Life, know that these women need the love of Christ. And we know most believe it is wrong to kill their baby.
This spring at the March to the Arch in St. Louis, there were opponents with megaphones trying to disrupt the march. They screamed slogans the entire way, not listening to any counterarguments. My friend observed, “They don’t have anything to back up their beliefs, so they just shout louder.”
We have the grace and truth of the Gospel to share—not only with women and men in crisis pregnancies but with those so adamantly advocating for abortion. Why would we not share Christ with a lost and hurting people? LFL has a lot of information available to you on the website and through brochures and tracts. Check it out!
“Truly at this evil, shameful time, it is not time for loafing, snoring, or sleeping. Use your gift, which has been entrusted to you, and reveal the mystery of Christ.” Martin Luther (Luther’s Works 60: 285)