By Tina Wilson
The landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision from 1973 was overturned on Friday. For many, this is an answer to decades of prayer. For some, this is a repeal of freedom. For all, this should be a call to action. Proper response, though, demands proper understanding of what has happened.
Prior to 1973, abortion was a felony in most states, except in a few that had relaxed abortion restrictions in the years shortly preceding the ruling. “Jane Roe”—a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey—challenged Texas state on abortion. McCorvey lied about having been raped to expedite the case’s hearing in the Supreme Court. (She later recanted.) McCorvey didn’t actually have an abortion, but the case resulted in the striking down of all state laws that had previously made abortion illegal.
A companion case that challenged Georgia state law—Doe v. Bolton—was upheld that same year by the same seven U.S. Supreme Court justices; it broadened the definition of women’s health to make abortion on demand legal through all nine months of pregnancy. Like McCorvey, “Mary Doe” (Sandra Cano) later said she had been lied to and pressured by her attorney and abortion advocates. She didn’t have an abortion either.
Though the cases were built on deception and coercion of vulnerable women, they transformed our culture. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research and policy organization, reported 744,000 abortions in the United States in 1973, the year of the Roe decision; the number of abortions rose sharply from there, peaking in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Guttmacher reported 1.6 million abortions in 1991; after that year, abortions saw a fairly steady decline. In 2020, an estimated 930,160 abortions occurred.
For perspective, if the U.S. observed one minute of silence for each of the 64 million babies who have been legally aborted in this nation, the silence would last more than 100 years. Aside from the hole in the population (equal almost to the combined populations of Texas and California), Roe has sharply split our nation on questions of personhood, women’s rights, social issues, and health and safety for nearly 50 years. With the nation divided and the decision reversed, where do we go from here?
State-Level Decisions
Moving forward, the legality of abortion will be decided by individual states. According to Guttmacher, 26 states are expected to move quickly to ban abortions, and 13 already have “trigger laws” in place (so named because they are “triggered” by the overturning of Roe). Nine states still have abortion bans that predate Roe.
With the fight coming home to every state, the church has a lot to consider. How will we love people with whom we disagree? How can we say we love babies and we love women? How can we share Jesus? How can we best serve our communities?
Response of the Church
What we cannot do is nothing. When such a major shift occurs in our culture, the church must be a voice of truth. We need to talk about the sanctity of human life from conception till natural death. We need to remember that God chose Jacob to father a nation before he was born. God knit David together fearfully and wonderfully. God appointed the prophet Jeremiah before he formed him in the womb. God filled Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit, and the preborn John leapt at Mary’s greeting. God first revealed his Messiah to a young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy.
This is a promising season for the church. When we are called to stand on hard truth, we also are commissioned to do hard things. It won’t be easy to meet the needs that follow this decision, but it is necessary . . . and we can do it all in the name of Jesus. Here are some responses churches ought to consider:
• Special Abilities Ministry — Babies often are aborted when disabilities are discovered in utero. The church needs to serve families facing these challenges. Ability Ministry is a great resource for U.S. churches. Consider offering worship services specially designed for students and adults with special needs. Consider offering sensory rooms and buddies in kids ministry, specialized training for staff and volunteers, better accessibility, and accommodations (like an adult changing table), and respite nights for parents and caretakers of kids and adults with special needs.
Learn more and start the process at abilityministry.com and disabilityisbeautiful.com.
Support Foster and Adoptive Families — The answer to “unwanted pregnancy” is adoption, not termination. Contact the local agency in charge of licensing for foster and adoptive parents in your area and ask how your church can help. Provide your congregation with the steps and connections to begin fostering. Find out if you can host monthly required classes for families to obtain or maintain licensing. (Parents who are already fostering children have a tough time making these meetings because they often are without childcare. The hosting church can welcome these parents and families to their campus and provide care and dinner for kids while their parents complete classes.) Consider keeping a freezer filled with meals available for pick-up by foster and adoptive families.
Provide Support for Struggling New Moms and Moms-to-Be — According to Guttmacher, some of the top reasons women give for having abortions are concern that a baby will interfere with education, work, or her ability to care for her dependents; other reasons include apprehension about being a single mother and being in a troubled relationship. These are issues and concerns that can be overcome with the right support system.
Are there licensed counselors in your church who would be willing to volunteer their time? Is there a local crisis pregnancy center your church can partner with? Do you have space on your campus that you could offer for these resources? Most importantly, can your church really love these women?
The time to start warning a young or unmarried woman against premarital sex is not after she’s already expecting. Mentor her before that happens. Once she’s pregnant, there’s no need to restate the obvious consequence. At that point, it’s time to love her and love her child.
Offer Childcare — Guttmacher has found that 75 percent of women who have abortions fall into the categories of “poor” or “low income.” Most states offer some form of voucher program for childcare for such families. Churches have facilities that need to be used for kingdom work throughout the week (not just on weekends). It might require some updates or modifications to your building to meet state licensing requirements, but those costs can be recouped in state funding if you are willing to provide care for families in need.
Aside from the many ministry opportunities before the church right now, we also can have real, honest conversations. It’s crucial that Christians are informed. The abortion debate is a highly emotional one, and the most passionate ire often is based on bad information. Most women are not having abortions because of rape, incest, or ectopic pregnancies. Pro-life means pro-woman too, and physicians agree.
Overturning Roe does not mean that women will have to die in childbirth. The quality of women’s healthcare hasn’t changed. The sweeping legalization of abortion is what has changed. A move toward protecting the most vulnerable lives, created, known, and loved by God, is a great victory for our country. Let’s make it a great victory for our churches as well.
Tina Wilson serves as social media director at Ekklesia Christian Church in Conway, South Carolina.
Excellent article that focuses on real ministry opportunities. I wholeheartedly agree that our churches could have a big impact on reducing abortions if we put the plans into action. This is something that we should have been doing a long time ago and this article focuses on what churches are called to do in light of the court’s decision.
The Church should ALREADY be doing these things, in most cases it is not. Why? Could it be because we really don’t care about women in this situation but just want to feel self righteous in our condemnation of others who do not fit our perceptions of “moral?”
This article is making me think! I have never thought about these circumstances before! For the women expecting an unwanted baby, we, the body of Christ need to find ways to enable women to carry that baby to full term. If she does not want to keep that child, we need to continue to help help her to foster, or adoption. If she if fearful of raising the child, we as the church need to rally around her with both physical and emotional help. I am putting this on a list to share with my Pastor, along with the work I do helping women heal after having an abortion.
I love this article and its strong focus on the “response of the church.” Thank you, Tina, for articulating so well the magnitude of this need and opportunity!
Excellent analysis of a most important issue. It is time to take the message of life into every state governing body. It is time we provide the resources to help young girls with unplanned pregnancies. Praying that no more of God’s Babies are killed.
Spot on, excellent response to how we as the Kingdom of Christ can respond in love to those who need it the most.
To respond to Scott Compton. Churches are doing more than you think even when it isn’t an organized effort. We have a very small church yet several families have fostered and there are three adopted children in a congregation of less than 50. The government does a horrible job with addiction recovery, homelessness, elder care, and education. Trying to bolster every societal ill wears us ministers pretty thin. I almost never get a single mom or pregnant mother asking for help but when we do we help. Not every church has the resources to take this on as an official ministry—but some do and should. Rather than blame the church for what we think it hasn’t done—let’s encourage to do more.
I am pro-life and I do believe, based on science, that a new genetically distinct life begins at conception. However, none of the scriptural examples given in this article establish that spiritual life begins at conception. “God appointed the prophet Jeremiah before he formed him in the womb.” Does that mean that Jeremiah’s soul existed before conception? How could God appoint someone who does not yet exist? Is it possible that God formed his soul (spirit) sometime after his physical conception? We need to be careful about applying “proof texts” that do not really prove the point in question. That being said, the core of the article is right on. Believers, disciples of Jesus, need to act to love and care for those who are affected by this issue. Statistics show that states with liberal abortion laws that also provide universal healthcare for their residents have fewer abortions per capita than states with strict anti-abortion laws and limited or no healthcare for the poor and disadvantaged. Is it time for believers to start pressing our representatives and senators to move toward providing better healthcare for all, but particularly for poor and disadvantaged women? No cost pre-natal care; no cost childbirth services; paid family leave; no cost infant care; formula assistance; childcare assistance; no cost adoption services, etc. These would all be things done FOR THE CHILDREN as well as for poor and disadvantaged women.