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Every election year feels like an unwinnable battle for the pro-life people of America. Typically, the candidates don’t quite fit the model we’d like to see in a pro-life leader who isn’t afraid to stand firm in their protection of every unborn life at every stage from conception. Voting begins to feel more like a burden because we are left spinning from the rhetoric. 

What then, are we to do when this happens? Who do we vote for? Should we even bother voting? These are the questions on the minds of so many of us. We’ve heard the blurred positions and the vague policies from campaigns that leave us to speculate more than offering us a confident trust in one who will represent our values in office. 

REMOVING ABORTION FROM POLITICS

What if we remove abortion from the political landscape? Your vote should consider national safety, borders, the economy, and education. These issues are better suited for humankind. But the issue of human life? Taking God-like power away from the candidates means we don’t rely on flawed humans to lead the charge for who lives and who doesn’t. Not to say the abortion issue won’t remain a central focus of the ballot for most Americans, but where does the issue of abortion really matter? It matters in the moment when a woman feels like there’s a decision to be made. 

The man or woman sitting in the White House at the moment a woman needs clarity means nothing to her. Whether the issue of abortion has been returned to the Federal level or remains with the State has no bearing on her reality. Roe v. Wade created the narrative that carrying a baby to term was a choice to be made. When a woman learns she’s pregnant, the most common worldly response is: "What are you going to do?" The loving, human response would be "how can I help?"

REMOVE THE DECISION 

As pro-life people, we can change the narrative. The choice involved should be parenting or adoption. Abortion should never be one of the most common options a woman is faced with in such a highly emotional situation. The fact that the narrative has so strongly included a right to end the life of another human being should make everyone pause and ask why that is. Why would we want to put that burden on a woman in her most vulnerable state? It’s time to change the narrative. As citizens in this country, we have the ability to make the most impact on a personal level. We don’t need a law or government to dictate to us what is right or wrong. The issue is a moral one. The issue is a human one. 

VALUE HUMAN BEINGS 

Overall, we’ve become a country that values the lives of pets more than the lives of humans. While we love those cuddly members of our families, the hierarchy is skewed. The same people who shame others for rehoming a pet or cry out in the name of animal abuse often don’t give the same consideration to human life. 

As a nation under God, we have a calling to love our neighbors, not necessarily our neighbor’s pets. Human life should be seen as the most valuable. When we know a woman in a not-so-ideal situation facing an unplanned pregnancy, what she needs most is someone to acknowledge her, listen to her, and give her life-filled encouragement. Rather than directing her to the nearest Planned Parenthood, we should accompany her to the nearest pregnancy help center or church. 

When we show women that their life matters, it’s easier for her to see that the life of her baby matters, too. 

MAKE UNPLANNED PREGNANCY A PERSONAL ISSUE

For decades, we have made unplanned pregnancy a government issue, a political issue, an issue that is so far-removed from that of a human life that we forgot we can actually do something about it. Bring the issue of abortion into your community, into your home, into your family. Stop asking what the president is going to do about it and start asking what can I do about it. 

Well, what can you do about it? 

Action 

Become a sidewalk counselor near your city’s abortion clinics, create a mentor group for unplanned pregnancy support through your church, call your local pregnancy help center and ask them how you can help. 

Influence 

Be willing to talk about abortion. Start with your family, open the conversation with friends, and engage others to provide them with ways they, too, can speak on the issue without alienating those who oppose your views. The best way to influence others for life is sharing the truth in a calm, sensible way. Praying with your family and church is a way to lead other believers to recognize that this, too, is an issue that God steps into. 

Finances

If action and influence aren’t your forte, donating to pro-life non-profits like ICU Mobile is a great way to impact women for life. Our mobile ministry gets units into the neighborhoods where women are pursuing answers and, very likely, abortion. When we are present and accessible, we fulfill both the action and the influence directly to the woman seeking a solution. With your finances, we become unstoppable partners that don’t need to rely on politicians and empty promises to save innocent babies from a death sentence. 

LAWS ARE NOT THE ANSWER

The political landscape is no place for life and death decisions involving an unborn child. If we, as pro-life people, live according to our pro-life and Christian values, we don’t need to rely on government intervention. We can enact change through our conversations, our lifestyle, and how we spend our money. 

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8, NASB

The Lord has asked, “whom shall I send?” The answer is always us. It is our time to stand tall and say to the Lord, “Here I am. Send me.” The answer to saving the lives of babies is found in a grassroots movement to return our focus to humanity. The value of human life has been diminished and now is the time we as God’s people must step into a revival of preserving the fullness of life for every human being from conception to natural death. It’s not someone else’s problem. We’ve left it to be someone else’s problem for too long. Every year, 1 Million babies die while waiting for some politician to save their lives. 

We can no longer allow the enemy access to our children. It has to be us, it can only be us, and we can save babies with the help of God. 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. - John 10:10