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Christianity Today, October, 2009

The Village Green

Volunteer at a Center

The pro-life movement's next move is to foster an explosion of people who do support women facing unplanned pregnancies.

Melinda Delahoyde, president of Care Net | posted 10/14/2009 09:17AM

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Political change is giving the abortion lobby an upper hand. What's the best action for pro-life Christians to take next? Melinda Delahoyde, president of Care Net, Clenard H. Childress Jr., founder of BlackGenocide.org., and Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, suggest the next steps for the pro-life movement.

Can you imagine what our nation might look like if every pro-life individual applied the full weight of his or her passion to reaching out with support and care to women facing crisis pregnancies?

Not only would this radically reduce the number of abortions, it would also powerfully communicate the God-given value of human life. While we have limited opportunities to promote a "culture of life" on legal and political fronts, there is no limit to what you and I can do to inspire life, one person at a time.

Every day, from the moment we get out of bed, we have opportunities to speak words of life, hope, and compassion in order to encourage someone to take a positive, life-giving step. On a yearly basis, 30,000 individuals do this by quietly volunteering in their communities in one of our nation's 2,000-plus pregnancy resource centers. Through love, encouragement, and practical help, women (and men) are inspired against all odds to take the difficult step of choosing to carry a pregnancy to term.

As a result of volunteers' efforts, the hearts and lives of hundreds of thousands of women and children are saved, touched, and healed. The ripple effect is eternal.

What makes volunteering at a pregnancy center so profound and rewarding is developing a loving relationship with a woman in need. One young woman named Rachael visited a pregnancy center when she was five months pregnant, addicted to heroin, and wondering whether partial-birth abortion might still be an option.

Not only did the pregnancy center provide the practical help of getting her connected to a nonprofit physician who provided care during her at-risk pregnancy (which resulted in the birth of a healthy girl), her peer counselor also shared the love and story of Jesus Christ with her. Rachael said of her volunteer counselor, "I think that was the first time in a really long time that I felt like someone actually cared about me."

You may think, I want to help, but I don't know that I am able. But everyone can do something. There is no talent or skill a pregnancy center cannot utilize and translate into the hands and feet of Jesus reaching out to women like Rachael. In volunteering, you will join a legacy of Christians who for centuries have provided compassionate outreach to pregnant women in crisis.

It's easy to feel powerless to effect change in the political arena. Yet each of us has the power to inspire life every day by simply offering grace and support to women facing unplanned pregnancies—whether at a pregnancy center or maybe even in your own family. What the pro-life movement must do next is foster an explosion of people who do just this.

To find a pregnancy center, visit www.InspireLifeNow.org, which provides specific information about how to get involved.

Related Elsewhere:

Melinda Delahoyde is president of Care Net, North America's largest Christian network of pregnancy centers. Clenard H. Childress Jr. and Charmaine Yoest also suggested the pro-life movement's next moves.

Christianity Today's previous articles on abortion include:

Reducing Abortion for Real The current proposals to lower the abortion rate will only make things worse. A Christianity Today editorial (March 16, 2009)

We're Not Finished | Abortion is not simply one item on our social agenda. (March 20, 2008)

Saving Black Babies | Abortion has cost 13 million African American lives. (February 1, 2003)

You Say Choice, I Say Murder | Before prolife arguments can reach the undecided American, we have got to look at the language we use. (June 24, 1991)

CT Classic: The Abortion Wars | What most Christians don't know about the history of prolife struggles. (October 6, 1989)

Reversing Roe v. Wade | It may take more than a single court decision to counter abortion on demand. (September 20, 1985)

Abortion and the Court | The Roe v. Wade decision runs counter to the moral sense of the American people. (February 16, 1973)

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October 2009, Vol. 53, No. 10

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Displaying 1–5 of 9 comments

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Marann

October 19, 2009 7:28pm

Amber P., good heavens, you are bitter & you apparently never heard of pregnancy crisis centers that help moms with counseling, clothes, housing, education & all the support they need if they ask & are willing to work the program. Some offer a place to live, adoption services or opportunities for a woman to move on with or without her baby. The losers are the ones who irresponsibly hang onto trashy boyfriends and trashy lifestyles & think it's the norm. Blame the mom, not the baby for what happens. I know a girl, 19, who is having her 2nd baby with a 2nd loser. She wanted abortions but neither boyfriend could pay & she refused adoption. Kept the first baby, lost her to foster care, and doesn't want #2 but won't consider adoption. She said, "I'd rather the baby be dead than adopted. I could never give up my baby once I had it." Go figure.

mamaratliff

October 17, 2009 11:39am

They are the "abortion lobby", they are the CHOICE lobby. One of the two choices is wrong, but it is still a choice. Volunteer. Adopt. Donate. Mentor. Lead by example. Follow Christ, not the media.

Sandor Balogh

October 17, 2009 12:19am

We must mount a PR campaign based on important health information. In the 1970's, just when our Supreme Court gave us Roe v. Wade, in Communist Hungary they prohibited aborting the first pregnancy, due to increased health risk. While surfing the internet, I found a study in Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Fall 2007, http://www.jpands.org/vol12no3/carroll.pdf) on "Brest Cancer Epidemic. They studied 7 possible factors: greatest correlation was when first pregnancy was aborted, followed by childnessness, hormonal contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. Benegficial features were low age at first birth, larger number of children, and breastfeeding. This was published two years ago, yet, the RTL movement did not publicize this sufficiently.

Amanda

October 16, 2009 12:06pm

Amber, a person isn't predestined to a life of bank-robbing because they are born under less than ideal circumstances. How can you screen for which babies are "worth" bringing into the world? Life happens, and it's messy, but we are called to have hope. I was born unplanned to a teen mother, and there were a lot of hardships, but I'm a healthy, happy adult who contributes to society and is starting family of my own. My cousin went on to a college education, a happy marriage and a fulfilling career as a social worker despite growing up with a mother who wrestled with substance abuse. Life is valuable and every life makes a difference.

Dorcas Elise

October 15, 2009 9:33am

Amber, I wish you could spend a few months at the Center where I volunteer. You would begin to see that this ministry is making every effort to meet the needs of each client that walks through our doors. We do this as God's servants, asking Him to work through us and speak through us. We seek to be Jesus to them and to never be judgmental. No, we were not there when they got into the mess they now find themselves in, but where were you? I feel called to this ministry and others are surely called to other ministries that seek to point souls to Christ. A good example of that is Campus Life. I have witnessed individuals from that ministry work with teens, being led of the Lord to love them and lead them to the Savior. I am so thankful for that ministry and for others that work with youth to point them to Christ. Maybe if Rachel had had someone like that in her life, she would have avoided the pitfalls of addiction. We work with clients ongoing and have endless referals for special needs.

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