{"id":1547789,"date":"2022-07-11T05:49:12","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T09:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1547789"},"modified":"2022-07-11T05:49:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T09:49:19","slug":"do-pro-life-christians-have-a-special-obligation-to-women-and-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/do-pro-life-christians-have-a-special-obligation-to-women-and-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Pro-Life Christians Have A Special Obligation To Women And Babies?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdo-pro-life-christians-have-a-special-obligation-to-women-and-babies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1547789&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/bible-e1657135133121.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>In the wake of the reversal of <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>, a popular message from the embittered left is this: \u201cIf you support this, you are obligated to foster or adopt a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Is there truth to this message? Do pro-life Americans have a greater responsibility than pro-choice Americans to support women with unplanned pregnancies or the children who result from these pregnancies?<\/p>\n<p>No. But pro-life views are often derived from the Christian faith, which also teaches a commandment to love one\u2019s neighbor and treat marginalized people as Christ himself. In this case, Christianity is a confounding variable that motivates both political support for the pro-life cause and personal support for women and children.<\/p>\n<h2>Pro-Life Views Do Not Compel Any Special Responsibility<\/h2>\n<p>One can believe that life \u2014 starting at conception \u2014 deserves legal protection, and this belief doesn\u2019t compel any additional responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, one can support animal rights without being a pet owner. One can oppose wrongful imprisonment and torture or support immigration without offering room and board to those affected. One can oppose domestic violence without taking a battered woman into one\u2019s guest room. Of course, offering resources, shelter, and kindness is admirable and good, but one\u2019s position on the legality or illegality of particular practices doesn\u2019t compel these actions or place a greater burden on anyone who advocates for a specific viewpoint.<\/p>\n<p>The position that pro-life people have a special responsibility to foster children implies that pro-life people \u2014 justices, politicians, and voters \u2014 are responsible for any increase in foster care rolls after<em> Roe<\/em>. But this logic fails: Not one child is added to foster care because of the <em>absence <\/em>of abortion. Children are added to foster care due to the <em>presence <\/em>of some other problem, whether it is a parent\u2019s illness, incarceration, abuse, neglect, or drugs. We can address these problems without legal abortion.<\/p>\n<h2>Christians Are More Likely to Identify as Pro-Life<\/h2>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2022\/05\/06\/americas-abortion-quandary\/\">Pew Research<\/a>, white evangelical protestants are the most pro-life religious group: 74 percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Other groups of Christians range in their support, but all Christian subgroups have higher levels of support for abortion restrictions than non-religious people: Only 15 percent of people with no religious affiliation say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.<\/p>\n<p>The Christian faith teaches that each person is made in God\u2019s image and that every human life has immeasurable value. The Bible also says that life begins in the womb, and that God has a plan for each person even before birth: \u201cYour eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.\u201d The story of Mary\u2019s pregnancy with Jesus includes a visit to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, and Elizabeth\u2019s baby, John the Baptist, \u201cleapt for joy\u201d inside Elizabeth\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, some people come to their pro-life political views without embracing Christianity. The conviction that children who are not yet born deserve legal protection doesn\u2019t require following the Christian faith \u2014 no more that it requires becoming a foster or adoptive parent.<\/p>\n<h2>Christianity Compels a Special Responsibility<\/h2>\n<p>Some earnest pro-life Christians have responded defensively to the message of \u201cyou better provide foster care!\u201d by pointing out that many people who share their views are already actively supporting pregnant women, babies, and children.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true, and in recent years many Christian churches have made foster care a focus. In the last decade, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegospelcoalition.org\/article\/how-foster-care-became-christian-priority-just-time\/\">explosion of Christian \u201cbridge organizations\u201d<\/a> has dramatically increased foster care in the Christian community, using churches to recruit, train, and support Christian foster parents. Project 1:27 is one of these organizations. It started in Arizona and now operates in eight states. Other organizations include 4KIDS, Promise686, the 111 Project, Orphan Care Alliance, Focus on the Family\u2019s Adoption and Foster Care Initiative, and the CALL \u2014 a group in Arkansas that is responsible for signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/thecallinarkansas.org\/about\">more than one half<\/a> of the state\u2019s foster families.<\/p>\n<p>Christians and churches support marginalized children with their wallets as well. From 2010 to 2015, giving to Christian orphan care <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegospelcoalition.org\/article\/how-foster-care-became-christian-priority-just-time\/\">rose more than 87 percent<\/a>, and giving to adoption rose more than 73 percent.<\/p>\n<p>But the motivating factor behind all of this giving and volunteering isn\u2019t a pro-life political view. It\u2019s Christianity itself. In fact, all Christians, regardless of their views on abortion, are called to care for \u201cthe least of these,\u201d which can mean marginalized people of all kinds, including the homeless, refugees, prisoners, orphans, widows, and others.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s right: Even Christians who consider themselves to be pro-choice receive <em>the same teaching and face the same mandate <\/em>to support expectant moms and their children (as well as other people in need). And frankly, it\u2019s not a kind or generous thing for anyone to offer to sponsor someone\u2019s abortion travel). Using your personal resources to sponsor someone\u2019s out-of-state travel for abortion means you are not even \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/prolifereplies.liveaction.org\/personally-pro-life\/\">personally pro-life<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the term many liberals use for the \u201cI would never do it, but\u2026\u201d position.<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s another difficult truth: Christians cannot outsource their responsibility for the poor to the government. Some progressives seem to believe that supporting women in need only requires marking a ballot a particular way (a way that would increase government programs that purport to address social problems). Conservatives are more likely to personally feel the weight of their social responsibility and in response, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Who-Really-Cares-Compassionate-Conservatism\/dp\/B0044COO5C\">to volunteer or donate to charities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Christianity is a Confounding Variable<\/h2>\n<p>However, the well-known data suggesting that conservatives volunteer, donate, and even give blood more often than liberals deserves a caveat. It\u2019s actually religion that is the motivating factor here. Religious liberals give as much as their conservative counterparts, and secular conservatives aren\u2019t very generous. It\u2019s just that more religious people identify as conservative.<\/p>\n<p>The same issue is at work in the specific realm of support for pregnant women, babies, and foster children. Christianity is the confounding variable that drives politically pro-life views as well as personal support for related charities and foster care.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, Christians are called to support expectant women and children in our personal capacities, regardless of our views on abortion or the government\u2019s role in welfare policy. May we pray for God\u2019s help to do this in ever more effective ways.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Hadley Heath Manning is vice president for policy at Independent Women\u2019s Forum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, a popular message from the embittered left is this: \u201cIf you support this, you are obligated to foster or adopt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1111,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1547789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1547789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1547789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1547789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1547789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}