Why Pro-Life #4 Emotion

Being pro-life is something that is very important to me, and it is also a very relevant issue today. This post is the final in a series of four installments explaining why I am pro-life. Each installment has given a different reason as to why I am pro-life. These reasons have been rooted in areas of life that I believe shape each and every one of us. These areas of life are religion, science, law, and emotion. In this installment, I will give my emotional argument for being pro-life. This post is one that is near to my heart, not only for what God has brought me through in my life but also for those He has put in my life.

One of the loudest arguments against being pro-life is the statement, “a fetus is just a lump of cells.” This statement is not factually correct even though it is used an awful lot. In this post, I am going to argue that we know an unborn baby is not merely a lump of cells, not just from our textbooks, but from our inner being. We can see how the Bible proclaims the unborn as living humans made in the image of God. We can read scientific facts about the unborn child and know that he or she is a person. We can see how legally our society actually does recognize the right to life for those who are unborn. However, there is another facet of our life that we cannot ignore, our emotion. I am convinced that deep down, even the most ardent proponent of the woman’s right to murder her child, knows that abortion is murder.

I first would like to present my personal experience as to why I am pro-life from an emotional argument. My wife and I have had four miscarriages. From the first moment I found out about the miscarriage I knew that my wife was not losing a bunch of cells rather, I knew we were losing a child. The feelings that ensued are ones that will always be etched upon my mind. The pit that sunk into my stomach seemed to be bottomless, the weight that came over my spirit felt crushing, and the thoughts in my head of wanting to know what God was doing were spinning like an amusement ride. This was one of the most painful things that I have endured, and though God has used it for His glory, this has been one of the most difficult things to go through. Through trials, we learn to trust God more and often see more of what He is doing. This has been true for the miscarriages in my life and has helped me to find contentment in Christ. It does not take away the emotion or pain of each miscarriage. It is not just me who felt these emotions though, my wife also felt these emotions. Recently, I was talking to my wife and she could tell me exactly where she was for each miscarriage, she recalled of the first, “I collapsed on the bed and wept uncontrollably”. If my own emotions didn’t make it clear to me that this was not just a lump of cells, holding my wife while she wept for hours, made it clear that this was a child we were losing.

It is not just my personal experience I want to highlight, it is also the many my wife and I have counseled after having a miscarriage. My wife and I have had the privilege to talk to many who have had miscarriages. Through this we see the same emotion in others that we have had ourselves; the great pit in their stomach, their spirit crushed, and thoughts spinning wildly in their head. We have had many women weep while telling us what they have gone through and what they are feeling. It is not just the women that struggle, though, as I have had the great privilege to minister to many men who have also been hurt deeply by a miscarriage. I have seen rugged men shed tears, I have heard confident men barely stay afloat in the thoughts of their mind. It is not a comfortable experience to hear the brokenness in dear friends voices as they tell us that they lost their baby. Not one has received comfort or brushed off what was happening by believing it was “just a lump of cells”. The heart of man knows that an unborn child is a person who has the right to life and that abortion is murder.

I will also speak to this thought, “how do you know that this response is not just the natural response to losing a bunch of cells?” Being a pastor I not only have had the privilege of ministering to those who have lost a child, I also have had the honor to minister to those who have lost a lump of cells. I can recall sitting next to the hospital bed of two men who had lost a lump of cells, their gallbladders. Though both men were in pain at the time, neither one was weeping. Though neither man wanted to lose their gallbladder, there was no crushed spirit, there was a relief to their spirit. Though neither one knew why they were going through this trial, their head was only spinning from the pain medicine, not deep wounding thoughts. If an unborn child is just a lump of cells people would respond in a similar way to these men, but an unborn child is not just a bunch of cells and so the response is totally different.

The Bible is the foundation of why I am pro-life. Once again, I would like to point out that God made man in His image (Genesis 1:27) and that God states in Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.” God has a value on life and He doesn’t believe that an unborn child is “just a bunch of cells”, rather He knows they are individual humans with a distinct genetic code. God values life so greatly He came down and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin in order that we might have a way of salvation. Deep down each person knows that an unborn child is not “just a bunch of cells” and knows that it isn’t “the mother’s body”. This knowledge is highlighted by our natural emotion to the loss of an unborn baby. The Bible is my foundation for why I am pro-life, it is supported by scientific fact, it is confirmed by human law, and it is recognized by natural emotion. I hope this series has challenged and encouraged you to be pro-life.