For many years, the issue of the sanctity of human life wasn’t on the forefront of my heart. As a millennial, I had grown up thinking Abortion is the law of the land. I thought that at best, we could try to chip away at it and establish some protections at the state level. Also, many friends of mine had had abortions, and I was trying to be sensitive to them. So, for a long time, I didn’t feel like this was an arena for my voice, and I sat silent on the sidelines.
But I’ll never forget watching the third presidential debate in 2016 as I held my 2-month-old baby boy, Austin. I couldn’t believe it when I saw Hillary Clinton, one of the most powerful women in the world, advocating for and defending late-term and partial-birth abortion. And that, as a country the rest of the world looks to, the United States had paved the way and set a shameful example, becoming one of the seven worst countries in the world for allowing late-term abortions.
That’s when my heart began to change. I had struggled during my pregnancy with extreme depression and anxiety, and by the world’s standards it would have been easy to justify terminating my baby just because of my mental health.
In 2020, I attended the March for Life for the first time, and it was the younger generation that inspired me. I felt ashamed that I had sat silent on the sidelines for so long while this young generation was standing for truth and marching to change history.
Then, with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022, there was so much to celebrate. What a huge victory for life, for families, for women and for children! But I was extremely disappointed that much of the church was silent when the decision was announced. Like myself, the church has largely chosen to avoid the issue.
I remember one pastor saying, “This is not a time to celebrate and beat our chests; we need to remember those for whom this is a very difficult situation.”
Beat our chests? I thought, Nobody’s beating their chest. But we were celebrating and giving God the glory for a victory in this generational battle.
The fight for life is nothing new. History has shown us evil in its purest form when we murder innocent children. Pharaoh attempted to kill Hebrew babies. Children were sacrificed to Molech, a manmade idol. Herod ordered the baby boys in Bethlehem to be killed. The Nazis used children for horrific human experimentation. We see it throughout history. And now we see people celebrating on the steps of the Supreme Court or in the streets, bragging about their abortions. We ourselves have become the idols—we’re sacrificing children to the idol of self, for the sake of convenience.
But history has also shown us what happens when people are willing to stand for truth and face adversity. When Pharaoh ordered that the Hebrew baby boys be killed, Moses’ mother found a way to save him. She chose life, and God used Moses to save thousands of other lives.
God can use each of us, too, as we stand for the truth about the sanctity of human life. None of us can afford to sit quietly while genocide is taking place. In this post-Roe era, you may wonder, How can I help now? What can I do? You can start one-on-one, changing the hearts of the community around you. Remember God’s response when Moses asked, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11). God’s words were so simple: “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). If we simply make ourselves available, He will be with each of us as we find our place in the pro-life movement.
Last year, I was honored to pray at the March for Life that 2022 would be the year the U.S. Supreme Court would have the courage to overturn a 50-year injustice. And then, my dad was able to pray at this year’s march and thank God for the men and women He had put in place for that day last June.
It was special to be there with my dad and both of my daughters, and to look at my girls and think, This is why I march—and why I will continue to march. The school systems, our nation and the culture have lied to girls and women for so long. I want my daughters to know and proclaim truth, even when the world will tell them differently.
On Nov. 29, our family welcomed a new baby, Georgia. Throughout my pregnancy, my children loved to feel the baby kick, and then to watch her grow these last two months. So when they asked me why we were going to march, my son was so angered when I had to tell him what an abortion was and explain that some people think that I as the mother would have had the right to kill Georgia before she was born.
A kid can’t comprehend that evil, and that’s how we all should be. We want people in the future to look back at us and ask, “Why? How?” because abortion will be unthinkable to them.
As a nation, we’ve gotten over a major hurdle, but we’ve got a long road ahead of us in legislation. And the greatest work ahead is not in legislatures and courtrooms but in changing the hearts of the nation, to save the most precious lives from the most horrific thing anyone can do—destroy a human life. It’s going to take all of us.
At the March for Life, I watched my dad push Georgia in her stroller, and I was so thankful to have a father who proclaims the Gospel and the truth of God’s Word. I pray that even in the darkness of a culture that still allows abortion, one day my two daughters will not sit silent but will have courage always to stand for truth.
