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Three Church Messages that can Prevent Abortions
Does your pastor address abortion❓ Or is he silent❓ 
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Three Church Messages
that can Prevent Abortions
Does your pastor address abortion?
Or is he silent?
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Education: The fact that abortion is now illegal in Texas does not mean that the temptation has gone away. Abortion pills are available online and some employers will pay transportation costs to other states. Surveys have confirmed that church-going women are not immune to the temptation of abortion, and the majority indicated that no one at church knew about the abortion. (1) Even |
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women who had been pro-life can still be sorely tempted to abort when the consequences of giving birth seem too difficult to face. Being pregnant outside of marriage is at best an embarrassment in a church community, and there is often a perceived, if not real, risk of being ostracized and condemned. Some may presume on God’s forgiveness after the fact. Parents of pregnant teens may feel extremely threatened by the embarrassment at church as well as the burden of helping the young mother, and push for abortion.
Churches must communicate first of all that while sexual sin is not condoned, it is not ours to judge but to welcome every child as a gift from God, and help mom to care for her child. We are all sinners; only God knows all the circumstances that led to her pregnancy. Secondly we must counter the world’s view that abortion is a right, with the truth that it is wrong. One woman expressed “…if I had heard at church that abortion was wrong…I might have chosen to keep my baby rather than kill my baby.”(2) Third, we must communicate our compassion for women who have aborted, recognizing the strong pressures or coercion they may have experienced, assuring them of God’s forgiveness, and offering them healing. (2)
- https://www.christianpost.com/news/70-of-women-who-get-abortions-identify-as-christians-survey-finds-150937/
- “A Clergyman Answers the Fears Pastors Face as They Address the Issue of Abortion”,
http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/facefearsecumenical.html
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Prayer: Dear Father God, please help all pastors to overcome whatever hesitations they may have about preaching about abortion. Let them have the courage to proclaim the message of the sanctity of life as well as compassion for women. Help them resist the pressures they may feel to avoid the subject. Help them to understand that post-abortive women will not be helped by silence. Silence may on one hand encourage their denial that abortion was wrong, delaying their reconciliation and healing. Or it may lead them to believe that abortion is the unforgivable sin, or that the church does not care about the pain she is experiencing after abortion. |
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Action: If your pastor doesn’t talk about abortion, ask him why. Bring him a copy of a letter written to area pastors, which is available here. Think about how your church could minister to pregnant women in difficult situations, making it clear that they will be accepted and loved in that circumstance. Learn about the pregnancy help center nearest to you, and be aware that you can |
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refer both women considering abortion and those suffering after abortion to OptionLine.org or 800-712-HELP for help. She can speak or chat online with someone immediately (Eng/Sp) and then be referred to local help. |
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