By Amber Roseboom, President of Right to Life of Michigan
Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, and love is in the air, so they say.
Americans may spend as much as 26 billion dollars on Valentine’s gifts this year, according to the National Retail Federation. That includes an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards, 250 million roses, and 36 million boxes of chocolates! Rom Coms, cards, candlelit dinners and chocolates, admittedly, are welcome treats. But it begs the question, what is love? We use the term loosely these days. I love pizza. I love traveling. I love…
St. Thomas Aquinas said, “To love is to will the good of the other.” Love isn’t about satisfying a need for ourselves. It is about seeking the good for the other person.
There is a reason 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is often read at weddings. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Self-sacrificing love brings true happiness.
Yet abortion advocates continue to peddle a lie that perverts truth and twists love into something destructive. Consider a few recent examples:
- According to a blog by the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, DC, “Abortion actually is love. Abortion actually is compassion. Abortion actually is healing. Abortion actually is selfless.”
- Or you could listen to a podcast “Dedicated to reclaiming the way we talk about abortion,” entitled, “Abortion, with love.”
- You could even order a T-shirt “Abortion is love,” from the Avow Foundation for Abortion Access. They proudly proclaim that “abortion is an act of love for our communities, our families, and ourselves.”
Of course, there is no question that abortion is ending the life of the unborn child.
Comedian Bill Maher said on his show, about abortion and prolifers, “I can respect the absolutist position. I really can. I scold the Left when they say, ‘Oh, you know what, they just hate women, people who aren’t pro-choice.’ They don’t hate women. They just made that up…They think it’s murder and it kind of is. I’m just OK with that… That’s my position on it…is that not your position if you’re prochoice? (discussion continues) You said you’re prochoice…that’s your position too.” The crowd and his guests were largely silent.
In the prolife movement, we know love looks different.
Love is doing everything we can as a society to help women make a choice for life. This includes expanding prenatal and postnatal care, reaching deep into our communities with the truth about abortion, showing compassion to women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant in each and every instance, and connecting them to a local Pregnancy Resource Center to help provide the myriad of support they may need, including free medical care, clothing, food, confidential counseling and more. Love is welcoming into our arms the post-abortive women seeking healing, mercy, and forgiveness and helping them find a future filled with new hope.
Our movement is woven together by countless stories of self-sacrificing love, stories which I’ll save for another time. For now, I want to tell you what practical love looks like from our vantage point at Right to Life of Michigan moving forward. We are:
- Expanding our reach in communities across the state, reaching people with the truth about abortion and the dangers they face in abortion clinics in Michigan today. Let’s not forget that serious complications from abortion increased by 38% in one year alone, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
- Growing our MiGen Leads student outreach program and creating new, compelling educational materials that reach young people.
- Expanding our reach in the digital space with more videos and content, reaching people exactly where they are — online.
- Relaunching our “Life. The Other Choice” ad campaign to reach women and invite a choice for life now or in the future. Check out two of these ads, “Test” and “Presence,” at rtl.org/videos. Many of the ads end with a hotline, 1-800-712-HELP, to connect women to their local Pregnancy Resource Center.
- Protecting pro-life laws still on the books, like parental consent for abortion.
- Continuing to lead the fight against the growing threat of physician assisted suicide.
- And so much more!
The present and future must be met with new strategies and tactics on behalf of the cause for life, and that’s exactly what we’re committed to doing!
Together, we can show Americans what true love is all about!