My atheist aunt once told me: “If you Christians are going to be against abortion you better be willing to adopt those children!”
She’s absolutely right.
It is far easier to speak against something than to labor for something. We have shared stuff on Facebook about Planned Parenthood. We have talked about how awful the videos are. We have prayed for the lives of the unborn.
However, people who believe in the sanctity of life should be just as concerned about the children who are six-years-old, and sixteen-years-old, as those who are six-weeks in the womb.
We cannot be against abortion and Planned Parenthood without being for adoption and foster care. If abortion is further limited or even ended, as I pray it will be, the church will have a big opportunity to put our love where our lips are. (And our money where our mouth is, too. Adoption costs a lot of money.)
If Christians argue that all children have a right to life, then Christians have a duty
to give them a good life after birth. In homes, where they are loved.
Thankfully, millions of believers have adopted. A 2013 Barna survey found that 5% of practicing Christians have adopted a child, compared to only 2% of other Americans.
Still, that means 95% of Christians have not adopted a child, though we were adopted by God’s grace (Gal 4:5). If abortion ended today, at least 250,000 additional children would be born between now and Christmas. Are we ready to adopt those children?
Perhaps not you specifically—but together, the Body of Christ must fight for the lives of children inside and outside of the womb.
We don’t have to wait for abortion to end for us to act. Today there are 102,000 American children in foster care waiting to be adopted. The fate of those who are never adopted is painful to read about.
Imagine an 8- or 10-year-old girl in foster care, who has seen many other children adopted by families. (Especially the younger ones.) But she gets passed over, so many times. It’s like never being picked for a kickball team, for years. Most of us would think, “Maybe something is wrong with me. I must not be worth anything or someone would choose me.”
Every year, 20,000 children age out of the foster care system without ever being adopted. By age 26, less than half will be employed. Just 8% will finish a two- or four-year college degree. Two-thirds of the young men will get someone pregnant, and 71% of young women will be pregnant by age 21. Never feeling loved or wanted has tragic results.
Are we as the Body of Christ going to do more to help these children, even before a wave of additional children rescued from abortion becomes available for adoption?
Who might God be calling to adopt a child? Perhaps some who struggle to conceive? In 2012, 68,000 babies were born through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). One IVF treatment costs more than $12,000, and more than 170,000 attempts are made each year.
According to some quick math, that’s over $2 billion dollars spent, at an average cost per live birth of $30,000. Instead of IVF, perhaps more couples should consider adopting the children God has already brought into the world?
This will include more children with Down’s Syndrome and other illnesses, if abortion ends. Are we ready to adopt them?
I’m not trying to twist any individual arms into pursuing adoption. But if we believe abortion is not a legitimate “reproductive choice,” then Christians should choose to adopt many of those children. The Body of Christ must be pro-life before and after birth.
Our Father in heaven adopted us by His mercy and grace. His love for us motivates us to love orphans with the same love we received. Please join me in praying for a deeper appreciation of His radical love for us, and what He might call us to do in response.
More Info:
- See the Children—Even if you don’t plan to adopt yourself, you should visit http://adoptuskids.org and click on Meet the Children at the top right. Enter a little information, and see the faces of children waiting right now for God’s people to show the kind of love we ourselves have received from our Father.
- Here is a sermon I delivered about adoption, on Galatians 3:23-4:7.
- Read this challenging blog post about all the church will need to do if abortion is curtailed or ended.
- Read Galatians 3:23-4:7. Notice that God is saying:
- You did not choose me but I chose you.
- Not because you are better than other people, but because of My proactive love.
- Now that you are My child, adopted irrevocably and entitled to all My blessings and resources, I want you to live like a child of God!
- That includes loving radically and generously, knowing you are an heir of all I possess.
- You can find abortion Statistics from CDC are here. Note that California is not included in this data, so total annual abortions is closer to 1 million.
How Pro-Life Are You?
Love it.
What about the children who were removed based on false grounds?
What about families who desperately want their baby but feel unable to provide adequately for them because they themselves are in need? They can hardly bear bring the baby forth and then give him/her away because they did not receive the help and support they needed in order to keep the baby and provide the care themselves? This would increase their suffering knowing they have a child somewhere being provided for rather than them being provided for in order to care for their own children.
Encouraging statistic my husband who is a social worker told me: If 1 family from each church in the USA adopted 1 child from foster care, then every child would be adopted. There IS strength in numbers! Check out http://www.safefamilies.org for more encouragement of the church led movement towards this end.