With the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, some people have begun pressing those who call themselves pro-life to demonstrate their sincerity in a number of ways. These include things like caring for mothers in crisis, fostering children, offering financial support to low-income parents, etc. In some cases, it is implied or even stated outright that failure to do such things proves pro-lifers are not really pro-life, but are merely “pro-birth.” How should we respond to such challenges?
What is pro-life?
I won’t presume to offer a definition that will be universally accepted, but I think it is necessary for us to think about some foundational issues in order to understand what it means to value life the way the pro-life movement claims. We must begin with an understanding of where life itself originates.
If life is a cosmic accident whereby randomly appearing elements came together through an as-yet undiscovered process, defying all known laws of biological science (especially the law of biogenesis, which states that life always comes from life, or, put negatively, that life cannot arise from non-life), giving rise to complex organisms with diverse chemical and physiological structures capable of movement, growth, consumption, excretion, and reproduction, governed by an extremely detailed, self-copying and self-correcting information system (DNA), and owing nothing to an intelligent and powerful moral agent (otherwise known as “God”), then the entire idea of being pro-life is irrational nonsense. In such a world, life just is with no greater significance or meaning than the life of a volunteer dandelion on the front lawn. No one questions the morality of uprooting the weed, or spraying it with pesticide, so long as it does not pollute the surrounding environment. In short, if it is your position that life just is and we are not accountable to God as the source of our moral intuition and life purpose, then you cannot express sincere outrage at the plight of suffering creatures without either abandoning your position on the origin of life.
In such a world, life just is with no greater significance or meaning than the life of a volunteer dandelion on the front lawn.
If life is a direct consequence of the intelligent choice of a free, all-powerful moral agent (again, we usually call this person “God”), then it is possible to coherently speak of the value of life, its purpose, and of a motive to preserve and propagate life. This is precisely where we who are followers of Jesus find ourselves. God’s word reveals that life came about at the command of the eternal God. This is evident throughout the first chapter of Genesis where, in each successive day of the creation week, “God said,” and whatever he said came to be. For instance, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (v.3), “Then God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so” (v.9), and “Then God said, ‘Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.’ And it was so” (v.11). This could be repeated for each class of created thing, including living creatures which inhabit the sky, seas, and land, culminating in the creation of mankind.
Though the account of Genesis 1-2 has been much disputed over the years, the Bible speaks with singular clarity on this point, leaving no room for an undirected (i.e. purposeless) material universe, let alone life and living creatures. For example, Exodus 20, in a very different context (the giving of God’s law to Israel), Moses says, “You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God….For the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day” (v.9-11). And also in Psalm 33 the children of Israel were called to rejoice in the LORD and praise him in part because, “The heavens were made by the word of the LORD, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the water of the sea into a heap; he puts the depths into storehouses. Let the whole earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded and it came into existence” (v.6-9). And it is not merely the lifeless elements and planetary and geological structures, but the lives of every human person which owe their existence to the divine will. The psalmist continues: “The LORD looks down from heaven; he observes everyone. He gazes on all the inhabitants of the earth from his dwelling place. He forms the hearts of them all; he considers all their works” (v.13-15). Each person’s heart, his or her inner being, has been formed directly by God who watches over us from his throne on high. The prophet Isaiah concurs when he writes in chapter 66, “This is what the LORD says: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where could you possibly build a house for me? And where would my resting place be? My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being” (v.1-2a).
The heavens were made by the word of the LORD, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.
Psalm 33:6
The same holds true when we get to the New Testament. In the city of Lystra, Paul and Barnabas were mistaken for two Greek gods and appeal to the people in order to prevent them from offering sacrifices to them, saying, “We are people just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way, although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy” (Acts 14:15-17). The final book of the Bible affirms this, too, when John sees God’s throne in heaven and all kinds of creatures worshiping there, saying, “Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created” (4:11).
The pro-life position is based, not on a sentimental desire to protect and preserve the lives of infants in the womb, but on this view of life as ordained by God. Any other proposed explanation of the origin of life is bound to be inconsistent, incoherent, or both, and will not provide a sufficient moral basis for the preservation of any life, let alone life inside the womb. Scripture’s emphasis on God as the Author of life means that life belongs not to the creature but the Creator. Simply put, we lack the moral authority to be anything other than pro-life.