It’s taken me some time to process all the thoughts and emotions swirling through my heart with the passage of New York’s recent abortion law. Shock. Horror. Outrage. Nausea. Heartache.

A throbbing, overshadowing heartache.

We cry for civil rights, women’s liberation, and racial equality, yet we kill future civil rights leaders, murder females and males alike, and show no discrimination in the races we destroy. We insist on protecting immigrant children at the border but find no problem killing children next door. Who knows if the world was already gifted with the scientist who would have cured cancer, or the girl who would have been the first female president but their lives were snuffed out before they could draw a breath?

Since 1973, it is estimated there have been 60, 069, 971 abortions in the United States. From the time I’m typing this until the time you read it, this statistic will be outdated. Systematic murder, and all of it based on false premises.

Some women choose to abort out of fear. Fear of the future. Fear of disappointing their loved ones with an unexpected pregnancy. Some are manipulated or guilted into having the procedure from a variety of sources. Others find having a baby an ‘inconvenience’. Two common arguments that continually reappear in media and intellectual dinner conversations rotate around a) the size of the fetus (aka when does life begin) and b) validity before birth or after (location).

To quote Horton from Horton Hears a Who, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” Heartbeat, movement, growth, cell division…all these things determine life. We would never say a man who stands at four feet is less of a human being than a man who is six feet tall. Why would it be any different for a child? Likewise, if I step inside a closet, does that make me less of a human than if I’m inside my kitchen? Of course not, yet some say a baby is not a human if it’s inside the womb but is miraculously transformed into a human being outside the womb. A woman in India is just as human as a grandmother in Little Rock. 

These babies have no voice, save for you and me. We must fight for them. Speak for them. Love them.

“Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” ~Proverbs 24:11-12

In the middle of this horrific firestorm, there is a broken group of people who I fear are being neglected, ignored, and even ostracized. They are the women who chose to have abortions and are still wrestling with the guilt and shame. This law may have drudged up old fears and nightmares, fresh pain and untold misery.

If this describes you, please hear me: God loves you. You may be hurting over scars that feel more like open wounds. You may have fallen for the lie that abortion is a quick fix. You may have been openly rebellious. You may have been scared. None of that changes God’s love for you. Jesus took your sin and nailed it to the cross. He paid the price for your freedom so you could live in joy and hope. If you ask, He forgives.

These babies need you. They need your voice. I believe those who have the biggest impact are those who have walked the road. If you know the horrors of abortion, the pain and suffering it brings, be a spokesperson against it. Let God shine a light in those shadowed places. The enemy will have no more power over you. Light shatters darkness.

Some Christians are really good about calling out sin but shirk when it comes time to be part of the solution. If abortion truly, deeply hurts your heart and shreds your soul, be part of the answer. Adopt. If you can’t adopt, foster. If you can’t foster, help out a foster family by bringing meals, helping them with clothes or other necessities. If you can’t do that, volunteer at a pregnancy crisis center. If that isn’t your cup of tea, donate your finances to organizations like The Call who place kids with loving families. Bring a meal to a local Teen Mops group. Get involved. Encourage. Pray. There is always something you can do.

“Love never fails.” ~1 Corinthians 13:8