Articles

Referring to women who face an unexpected pregnancy as desperate, confused, and lost is so commonplace in the pro-life movement. They are not meant to be disparaging but to convey an understanding of the feelings they must be facing in their situation.

Those words don’t define the woman, they describe a moment in time that we hope to alleviate through our work. Beyond feeling desperate or confused, every woman deserves to be seen as valued and treated with love and respect. 

Haven’t we all experienced moments in our lives when things didn’t go as planned or we felt weak and confused? Those moments don’t make us any less worthy of love. In fact, that’s when we all need the most outpouring of support so that we know we aren’t alone. Anytime we receive unexpected news that has the power to change the course of our lives we turn to those who love us. 

Reality is that there are so many women who don’t have people they can turn to with news of an unplanned pregnancy. Somehow along the way, shame has become associated with it. If not married, if not trying to conceive, if too young, if too career-oriented, if she’s still in school, if too old, if she has “too many kids” already, if Christian, if strong-willed, if irresponsible, if too responsible to let this happen...there are so many reasons we justify our judgment of a pregnant woman.  

No one else has to face such scrutiny as that of the pregnant, unwed woman. Because we can all see that telling bump and then we see no ring on her finger to accompany it. We can’t see the impending divorce of the man who coaches the track team, we can’t see the alcoholic tendencies of the mom in the pickup line as school, and we can’t see the pornography addiction of the teen in the church choir. So we can’t judge them because what they’ve done isn’t carried in or on their bodies. But the pregnant woman can’t hide her “mistake” unless she aborts it. As we would with all those other people in seemingly desperate and lost situations, let’s reach out to the pregnant woman with love and a true spirit of support. 

On an ICU Mobile unit, judgment is not welcome. We see that look in a woman’s eyes that we’ve seen so many times before and we think of two things. First, to show her love and second, to introduce her to the love of God. When we do these two things, we know that whatever fear or confusion she came to us with, she will leave with hope. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. 13:13

Feeling led to support the mission of mobile ultrasound? We invite you to visit our secure donation page at https://www.icumobile.org/donate. Your financial support is an answered prayer to our team and encouragement to the women we serve.