Despair & Hope

A few months ago, I came across an article from Marie Claire that stopped me in my tracks. It’s titled “We Need to See More Parents Having Abortions in Film and Television.” And while most of the points in this article were ones I’d heard before, there was one particularly blunt quote that blew me away.  

Merritt Tierce, a television writer and showrunner, is quoted as saying this: 

“I think the most radical reconception that needs to happen with respect to abortion, especially parenting people who have abortions, is for people to realize that it can be a serious act of love to have an abortion,” she [Tierce] says. “And for people who have kids, that is the number one decision-making factor. If they feel like they can’t handle another child, what’s driving that decision is the desire to give the children they already have the best possible life.”

“It can be a serious act of love to have an abortion.”

When I read that sentence, my heart grew heavy and this overwhelming despair settled over me. To hear someone say that abortion can be a serious act of love is confounding—especially from a factual and scientific point of view. All of us digest things in different ways. Me? I often digest things by putting pen to paper and writing my thoughts out. And so this is what this post is. Me trying to find hope in the midst of despair. 

I won’t dive into the gruesome details of what happens during an abortion—a chemical one or a surgical one. But an organization called Live Action does. And if you weren’t quite sure what exactly happens during an abortion, Live Action’s videos make it impossible to deny that an abortion is the furthest thing from an act of love.  

True love—selfless love, Christ-like love—is exactly what is needed to combat these dangerous falsehoods that are spreading like wildfire in our communities, our nation, and around the world. And if this article from Marie Claire is any indication of how far we’ve strayed from what love really is, then we know have our work cut out for us. 

One of my favorite pro-life slogans is Live Action’s “Love them both.” I won’t speak for the organization, but to me, this is a call for us to provide emotional, physical, and spiritual support to the woman facing motherhood for the first or fifth time. For us to to encourage her and help her advocate for the life of her pre-born child. For us to continue the fight for the right to life of the most innocent and defenseless humans among us. For us to not just say, “I am pro-life,” but to be pro-life. 

The beautiful truth contrasting the darkness of abortion is the pro-life work being done to love to both mother and baby. The pregnancy centers offering free ultrasounds and prenatal care; the maternity homes offering shelter and job training for single mothers; apologists equipping everyday pro-lifers to be voices for life; churches holding baby showers for local pregnancy centers; friends and strangers coming together on social media to shower an expectant mom in need; and the list goes on. But there is much work to be done. Because Planned Parenthood, on their website, states that one in four women in the United States will have an abortion before they turn 45. 

Millions of women have had one or more abortions, and millions more will have abortions. 

But.

There will be a day when abortion is no more. 

There will be a day when our country and the world wake up from this false reality in which we’re living that promotes and celebrates and normalizes the intentional killing of an innocent human being. 

But in the meantime, we cannot let this false idea of love overcome real love. 

The love we are called to share in our pro-life work is not conditional on whether a woman is considering an abortion or has already had one or two or three or four or more. The call to love both mother and child—whether pre-born or born—is one that I know millions of people will continue to answer. 

So while it can be infuriating and discouraging to read an article that suggests we need to see more fictional mothers on television and in movies have abortions because it will help normalize this atrocity that has already claimed more than 60 million lives, we can take heart that love does win in the end. It’s just a different kind of love than the love of self our culture has fallen prey to. 

It’s a Jesus love. 

And that kind of love says this: “I know you. All of you. And I love you with a kind of love that is unconditional and perhaps even a bit hard to understand—because much of the love you know is conditional. But believe in me. My name is Jesus, and I love you with an everlasting love. A kind of love that gives you life. Take heart, though, because believing in me won’t always keep you from pain or hardship or sorrow. But I promise to walk with you through every step of life if you will let me. I will walk with you through pain, fear, sadness, and hardship. And you will emerge even more beautiful than you were before.” 

Now, that is love.