Is “Pro-Life” the same as “Anti-Abortion”?

We have allowed the press to define this debate, to the point where it is no longer a debate with an honest exchange of respected ideas, but a contentious verbal battle with no progress.

Many who pompously title themselves “pro-life” are actually “anti-abortion.” My pro-choice friends have made some very good points on that. The idea that talking a woman out of having an abortion and then sending her off to deal with it ignores the fact that the baby’s life isn’t the only life that hangs in the balance. Callously reminding the mother that she has already made one “choice” and now she has to live with it is NOT being “pro-life.” What IS “pro-life?”

• Reverence for the very gift of life—an understanding that everything that has life is a gift. I believe in a God who has blessed us with an earthly existence, which is only part of our existence. I believe He gave us dominion over the earth, but that dominion is a responsibility to care for the earth, to nurture it and use it carefully. We haven’t done that, and we will have to answer for that. Each of us individually will have to answer for how we chose, day by day, to care for our own lives, the lives entrusted to our care, and the living things that are within our sphere of influence.
• Reverence for the procreative potential within us—an understanding that humans, unlike the rest of nature, have the ability to choose to bring forth life. Having that ability carries with it a responsibility to choose carefully. The plants and the rest of the animal kingdom care only about the continuation of the species. Our procreative potential extends to the potential for the improvement of not only the species, but all of the units that our lives touch, and are touched by.
• Reverence for the opportunity to make mistakes—sometimes huge mistakes, life-changing mistakes—and learn from them. These are the experiences that grow us as human beings, and if we allow them to, that improve us as individuals.
• Reverence for the ability to care for and lift those in need. This includes an understanding that the Savior instructed us to bear one another’s burdens, to minister to those in need; not just in financial need, but spiritual need, emotional need. We have, as humans, a singular gift in this area, and we are wasting it. We have become so polarized in our opinions on what the government should or should not be doing that we have neglected to do it ourselves. Regardless of what programs are in place, it is OUR place, as humans, as friends and neighbors, to minister to the needs of others.
• Reverence for the responsibility to teach our children to respect one another. We should be able to see this within our homes well in advance of the need to bail a child out of jail. When my children treat each other with disrespect, I have the option of stepping in and settling it, or finding a teaching moment. When children grow up with a genuine respect for other people, men and women will be much more to each other than sex objects. Young women will attract, and be attracted to, young men who admire them for the poise and confidence that radiates from self-respect. Young men will attract, and be attracted to, young women who admire them for their ability to pay a genuine compliment and carry on a conversation with a face rather than with a pair of breasts.

Roe v. Wade is here to stay. It’s not the problem. It was the symptom that finally emerged from the problem.

I am ashamed of the number of times in my relationships that I display a lack of reverence for God’s gifts. I have recently begun seeing every human—and all of nature—as gifts to be cared for. How can we, day to day, where we are now, begin to demonstrate our reverence for life? Can your reverence for life change the number of non-therapeutic abortions? Does it matter?