Is the Church Ready for a Post-Roe America?
We have all heard by now of the apparent upcoming Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. While this pending decision would undoubtedly be a major victory in the pro-life cause, we must recognize that abortion will likely continue as an easily-accessible option for a high percentage of Americans.
This is because a Supreme Court rejection of Roe will simply return the abortion question to individual States to decide. And wherever there are pro-choice juggernauts in major population areas, that decision will likely favor abortion. In this light, ultimate victory is by no means guaranteed. Furthermore, we must realize that victory will almost assuredly come—if it comes at all—with significant cost. It is to that cost that I direct our thinking here.
A Victory for Human Rights
First of all, let me say that as a decades-long pro-life advocate, I rejoice in what appears to be a long overdue and life-saving victory for many precious human lives. While abortion will still be readily available for most Americans, we must celebrate those countless human souls that will be both spared to live another day and given a meaningful and purposeful life.
For almost fifty years Roe has robbed the unborn of the so-called inalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Even more fundamentally, it has reached into the womb with violent intent to strip away every divinely-bestowed right God intends us to have. In this light I cannot conceive of any greater injustice in our time than that which Roe has perpetrated against humanity—humanity of every color, class, culture, and condition.
Despite what science, Scripture, and the imago dei declare in unison—that human life from conception is stamped with sacred worth and wonder—Roe has denied 60,000,000 God-made and God-dignified human beings the right to life, breath, freedom, happiness, speech of any kind, due process, and yes, even their very next meal. While arguably there may be other injustices equal to this, I do not know of any that surpass it.
Moreover, when we note that the very same logic used to terminate the unborn is already being used to terminate the long-born, we see more clearly what’s at stake. One problem with a flawed moral logic that discounts the value of a human being is that what goes around comes around. If the unborn can be deemed expendable for arbitrary reasons, then you and I can be deemed expendable too, all at the discretion of those in power. For this reason, it is good for Roe to be overturned. This human rights victory reminds us that human life counts dearly.
But Are We Ready for What’s Next?
It may surprise you that the recent Roe v. Wade news has left me ambivalent. As pro-lifers have begun celebrating, I cannot help wondering (doubting?) whether the church is ready for the very thing for which it has so long fought. Let me pose my concerns as three questions—among the innumerable questions that could be asked—that we need to face as we enter a potential post-Roe America.
First, are we prepared for increased hatred and a ferocious backlash? Despite ongoing easy access to abortion for most Americans, I expect furious media-fueled pushback over the Supreme Court decision, which very well could lead to violence and extreme counter-measures by abortion advocates. We dare not underestimate the venom of the abortion culture.
Let me be clear: By the “abortion culture” I do not mean the many pregnant moms who, when choosing abortion, did not know what they were doing. Who can tell how many really did think they were removing no more than what they were told was a blob of tissue? How many have been falsely informed or coerced into abortions by irresponsible men, misguided family and friends, radical ideologues, and the vast and lucrative abortion industry? As I will argue, such moms need our love and care, not our judgment.
What I mean by the “abortion culture” includes those who understand what science and Scripture say about life in the womb and know full well that they are killing human life. It involves the morally-bankrupt powers that be—and their thousands of willing accomplices—who are hell-bent on defying God, advancing their agendas, manipulating their power, and accruing all the political and financial capital they can in the process.
The loss of Roe means a potential loss of money and power. And much like the Ephesian citizens and merchants of old, these are losses the abortion culture will not tolerate (Acts 19:23–29). Already there are headlines informing us of heated politicians spewing rage against pro-lifers, and of pro-abortion militants planning to target churches in the coming days. Now comes the scorched earth cultural reaction, compared to which everything else to this point has been a mere skirmish.
I wonder if we are ready to encounter a collective cultural fury akin to a momma grizzly that has just had her cub snatched away. Such readiness can only be achieved through a prayer-filled resolve to speak the truth in patient and gentle love and a prayer-fortified courage to speak that truth, no matter the cost. Let us watch and pray, lest we, like the disciples, flee when the beast draws near to roar, claw, and devour (Matt. 26:41–56).
Second, are we ready to stand alongside women experiencing an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy in difficult circumstances? Even if pregnant and abortion-minded women have made their own bed, the church cannot callously leave them to lie in it. We cannot ignore the realities of a post-Roe America in which increased numbers of poor and male-abandoned women will be left to carry the pregnancy burden alone.
Given how single-focused on Roe many (thankfully not all) pro-life people have been, are we prepared in love to provide the support women in crisis are going to need? It will not do to quip that “they got themselves into this mess, they’ll have to deal with it.” The example of Jesus for how to respond to morally compromised and male-mistreated women denies that option to believers (e.g., John 4:7–26).
I wouldn’t pretend to know the real reasons why women choose abortion. No doubt, some are egregiously selfish and sinful, and their decision is nothing less than a calloused excuse to remove the unwanted consequences of reckless behavior. But even if the reason for most abortions is to terminate an unwanted pregnancy caused by wilful immorality, there are many women whose plight involves poverty, hardship, and irresponsible men who very often abandon them when the pregnancy test turns positive. If Roe is overturned, we will need to embrace these women as ours for which to care.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers have sought to do this well, and they ought to be applauded loudly and long. But efforts will need to increase. The end of Roe will need to mark the beginning of expanded, expensive, and tireless efforts to care for these women who are now required to carry their baby to term and then either single-mom their way through life or give their child up for adoption.
The overturning of Roe—while a needed victory—will leave countless women carrying nearly the full burden of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. The church needs to see this coming and redouble efforts to provide care for the ones who will bear the brunt of a post-Roe society.
As Christians, we are called to be pro-life, not merely pro-birth. This requires that whatever our politics, we embrace a whole-life approach and join hands on behalf of life, justice, and mercy from the womb to the tomb. I am grateful for my many pro-life friends who understand this, even if, for philosophical or pragmatic reasons, they wouldn’t choose to express it in whole-life terms.
But do enough of us get it? I ask myself that question. Do I get it? And do all those who are seeing the overturning of Roe as a crowning climactic victory get it, too? The fact is that we are consistently pro-life only when the unborn baby and its mother matter to us. We are truly pro-life only when we are pro-the abandoned, and pro-the poor, the hungry, and the naked, too. This is not to say that every pro-life person must devote equal time to all these pro-life issues. It is simply to say that if we advocate for pro-life for the unborn but fail to do so for the moms who’ve been left to carry and raise the little ones, then our moral inconsistency and blindness will be known to all.
Third, are we prepared to advocate by whatever means possible to hold men accountable for the pregnancies they help to create? Every woman who has had an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy had male help in getting into that crisis. And these men must be encouraged toward meaningful support and fatherhood rather than abdication of their role. Too often men have manipulated women into abortions rather than commit to responsible manhood. Tragically, such cowardly irresponsibility has left women to face excruciating decisions virtually alone.
Men who do this should feel very real social—if not legal—costs for their cowardly neglect. In a world in which boyfriends bail and fathers fail, we must figure out a way to create sufficient social pressure and, if possible, legal consequences to compel men to do the right thing. I realize the complicated legal and moral questions involved in this. Nevertheless, we need to redirect our voices to call out irresponsible men.
To consider the end of Roe the end-all of the abortion matter would be a grievous violation of love and justice toward women. In truth, this is one reason why so many pro-abortion advocates consider pro-lifers to be anti-women. It is because our anti-Roe rhetoric has been virtually silent about the disproportionate burden the overturning of Roe will place on women. For this reason, as I have decried abortion in recent years I have also decried male irresponsibility and have called for our churches, communities, society, and laws to compel men to share the burdens of a post-Roe world, should it ever happen. I believe more of our voices need to join that call.
A Victory, but Not without Losses
If we do not answer these questions rightly, the defeat of Roe, while a stunning triumph on behalf of life, will bring with it severe losses. We may win the anti-Roe battle in the moment—and that matters wonderfully for millions of little lives—but then lose our true moral high ground in the process. For what shall become of our ethical credibility if we defend the unborn against a woman’s abortion but not defend the woman against the man who “widows” her through his irresponsible neglect and abandonment?
These are the hard questions before us. We must pause, count the cost, and be ready. Let us watch and pray, lest the ferocity of the opposition strikes us with fear and flight. Let us redouble our loving efforts toward women who, for whatever reasons, will find themselves carrying a vastly disproportionate burden in a Roe-less world. And let us advocate for justice and love that applies social and legal consequences to men who use, abuse, and abandon. Church, let us rise up, let us care, and let us not leave women to bear the post-Roe burden alone.
Tim Shorey is married to Gayline, his wife of 44 years, and has six grown children and 13 grandchildren. In his 41st year of pastoral ministry, he helps lead Risen Hope Church, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Among his books are Respect the Image: Reflecting Human Worth in How We Listen and Talk; 30/30 Hindsight: 30 Reflections on a 30-Year Headache; and his recently released, award-winning An ABC Prayer to Jesus: Praise for Hearts Both Young and Old. To find out more, visit timothyshorey.com.