I want to address my remarks to the church of Jesus Christ, to those of us who are followers of Christ. We stand here today united in our opposition to abortion, but I want for us to focus for a moment on the brokenness that abortion produces in the life of a young mother, and then ask ourselves if we are willing to apply the grace of God to this brokenness. We must not merely protest against the darkness but be a shaft of light to those who are hurting, those who do not know where to turn.
Listen to the words of a young woman. She writes:
“I agree with you 100% about abortion, but I had one. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. My mom said I had to have an abortion. The counselor in Planned Parenthood talked to me. She said my baby would never be adopted. Who was I to turn to? I was forbidden to see my boyfriend. My mother and my father didn’t want me to have the child….Now…would you mind telling me what you would have done? I didn’t have a place to go, no money. Would you have taken me into your home? Paid my bills and expenses?
My abortion is something I wish I’d never done. I can remember looking at the doctor when it was finished and I saw him putting my baby into a plastic bag and then throwing it away in a garbage bag. Do you know how that feels? Have you ever lost something you loved dearly? I did and I’m not proud of it. If I had a place to go and people who cared about my baby and me, maybe my baby would be alive. It was supposed to be born this month.
You’re hurting girls who want their babies; I didn’t have an alternative to having mine aborted. But I want to say it hurts…you people are against abortion but are you willing to help young girls and women who don’t have the money or a place to live? Some of us women and girls are not killers. We are human too. And I can tell you that having an abortion is killing me slowly.”
Let us as a church agree today that we stand with young women facing an unwanted pregnancy and say, “We are here for you; we are here to help you dream of a new reality; we are ready to accept, to support and to adopt, so that we might extend the grace of God to all the lives of those who need it most.
Like Jesus, we must be willing to accept those who have been caught in shame and confusion and say to them, “In Jesus there is forgiveness…in Jesus there is acceptance and the kind of love that can turn disappointment into hope and darkness into light.” We are here for you.
If a broken world cannot turn to us for help, where else can they go? God has extended His grace to us, and just so, we must extend His Grace to those who are prisoners of shame, fear and utter hopelessness. That is both our calling and our privilege. Let us be eager to bring Jesus to a hurting world.
This message was given by Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer at the Pro Life Rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago, Illinois, on January 18, 2015.