The Pro-Life Movement Is the Real Pro-Woman Movement

Pro-life activists demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 47th annual March for Life in Washington on Jan. 24, 2020. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

​When the Texas Heartbeat Act took effect in September 2021, pro-abortion activists predictably reacted with cries of hysteria.

Critics falsely painted the legislation as an “anti-choice” enormity, intentionally and maliciously designed by lawmakers to deprive innocent women of their right to health care. The abortion industry went so far as to describe this life-saving measure as a “diabolical scheme” designed with “an extra dose of cruelty.”

But these charges ring hollow because they’re not grounded in truth. “The truth will set you free,” says the Lord, and the truth is that the Texas legislation was approved to protect unborn babies from abortion once an ultrasound detects their heartbeat.

In light of Women’s History Month this March, we should celebrate the people and organizations who serve the true needs of women: the pro-life community and pregnancy resource centers.

Pro-life and pro-woman pregnancy resource centers support pregnant women across the nation by supplying them with genuine options to choose from, rather than simply presenting abortion as the only path forward. Typically, these centers offer both the mother and father free counseling, mentoring, parenting classes, financial assistance programs, and further resources and support following the child’s birth.

In fact, there are far more pregnancy resource centers serving women throughout U.S. communities than there are abortion clinics. Lately, these centers have thrown their efforts into overdrive. Nationwide estimates suggest that the United States has about 2,500 pregnancy resource centers that are committed to supporting the women in their communities, compared to only 800 clinics that focus on abortion alone. In some states, pregnancy resource centers outnumber abortion providers by ratios as high as 15 to 1.

Through volunteer efforts in 2022, our America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Values staff has worked to highlight the stories of women whose lives have been transformed following their first interaction with a center. In one example, the local center changed the heart of a pregnant woman who was resorting to what her estranged husband insisted was her only option: abortion. After seeing and hearing her child’s heartbeat for the first time on her free ultrasound, the woman decided to choose life and gave birth to a happy, healthy child, thanks to the resources and support of her local pregnancy resource center.

The pro-abortion movement gives women only one choice: abortion. In fact, abortions account for more than 96 percent of the pregnancy resolution services that Planned Parenthood provides. And the abortion industry itself is a very lucrative business: Planned Parenthood reported $1.6 billion in income and more than $2 billion in total assets in its 2019–20 annual report (pdf). Planned Parenthood also received taxpayer funding through grants, contracts, and reimbursements to the tune of more than $618 million, amounting to nearly $1.7 million of American taxpayers’ money every day.

The simple fact is that the pro-life movement offers women and their families real choices and provides loving, holistic care in a way that the pro-abortion movement doesn’t—all at no expense to the women being served or to the taxpayers. The pro-life community is driven by committed volunteers who provide women with genuine options at no cost—including adoption, financial assistance, health care, and mentorship, proven by pregnancy resource centers across the nation.

At its core, the pro-life movement is most fundamentally a movement of love. As pro-lifers, we don’t see children as a burden to womanhood. We don’t see motherhood as an impediment to feminine glory. Instead, we see the beauty of children and motherhood manifested in our work as a blessing from God each day.

As pro-lifers, we’re the true pro-woman movement, because we strive to abide by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

We’re in the trenches with these vulnerable families, offering care, counsel, support, advice, and unconditional love. By caring for all of God’s children, be they vulnerable mothers or innocent babes, from womb to tomb, we always do our best to answer King’s challenge.

The book of Psalms tells us that “the Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host.” Let’s all draw on this message of hope for inspiration and pray for the courage and wisdom to be the Lord’s great host to vulnerable women everywhere.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.