Politics with Peyton: Pro-Life and Proud

October is Respect Life Month. This is a month dedicated to celebrating life from conception to natural death within the Catholic church. As a protestant, I recognize the beauty behind every life; therefore, in honor of Respect Life Month, we should discuss the topic of abortion. 

Before we were ever conceived, the Lord knew us. He loved us. However, the modern narrative has changed that biblical truth. The idea within society that a conceived child could be unwanted or a mistake undermines what we read in God’s word. 

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be,” Psalm 139 says.

I first announced my position as a “pro-lifer” in 2017, when I attended a March for Life event in my home state of Texas. I was not prepared for the responses that I received after making my attendance public. Message after message piled up from my friends justifying their pro-abortion stance and ridiculing me for taking a pro-life position. 

The most popular pro-abortion argument I hear is “my body, my choice.” I am a huge supporter of limited government control. I believe the government does not have the right to tell me what to do with my own body. However, the abortion argument does not apply here. 

When a woman is pregnant, do we claim she has four legs? Do we claim pregnant women grow a second heart? What about a second brain? Of course not. This is because there is a separate being growing inside of her. This being has its own heart, its own brain and its own set of DNA separate from its mother and father. 

It is not your body. Therefore, it is not your choice. 

Friends have justified their pro-abortion arguments by bringing up the foster care system. They discuss how the child could have a hard life, especially if he or she was entered into the foster care system. However, the potential for a “hard life” is not a reason to abort a child. Every child conceived deserves the right to thrive, a chance at living. God should control their destiny, not us. 

Another popular argument is that abortion should be legal because the foster care system is overpopulated. This comes from a misunderstanding of the foster care system. First, foster care is not a result of women who gave up their babies, but a result of mothers and/or fathers who have been deemed unfit as parents. Subsequently, their children are taken away. 

Foster care is not about adoption but reunification. Katherine Ranck with Human Defense outlines how, of the 442,995 children in foster care, only 123,437 are eligible to be adopted. This is because foster care’s end goal is for the child to be “reunified” with their birth parents, not given to a new home.  

A common response to the foster care argument is that pro-lifers, Christian pro-lifers specifically, are only pro-birth. This too is not true. The Barna Group outlines that pro-lifers are more than twice as likely to adopt than the majority of Americans. 

Furthermore, the same study shows that 5% of Christians have adopted in comparison to 2% of all Americans. Plus, 3% of Christians have fostered in comparison to 2% of all Americans. Finally, data shows that 51% of children who are adopted out of foster care are adopted by a foster family. The Dave Thomas Foundation For Adoption shows that there are more families interested in adopting than there are children available for adoption through the United States foster care system. 

The most heartbreaking circumstance a pro-abortion supporter will bring up is that although they would never seek an abortion themselves, we need abortion for others, especially for cases involving rape and incest. 

First, I cannot wrap my head around the idea of having a moral problem with abortion while simultaneously be unwilling to speak out against it.  If you saw a two-year-old being murdered at the park, would you step in and save the child, or would you keep walking and justify yourself, saying, “I personally have a problem with that, but if they feel the need to then they have the right”?

No. If you see injustice, you would step in. The same applies to abortion. 

Second, in cases of rape and incest, we approach the argument a little differently. We understand that there is extreme pain and trauma from that experience. This is why I believe rapists should see the highest form of punishment. However, babies should not. Much like the victim, the child is innocent in this scenario.

Though undoubtedly a difficult topic to approach, the issue of abortion is a deeply important discussion that we must have. Every individual has inherent worth, because our Heavenly Father claims us. 

Abortion literally ruins lives. It is a form of murder. As Christians, we must stand against this act of evil that has its grip on society. 

MacKenzie is the opinion editor. Follow her on Twitter at @PeytMacK.