The Forgotten Men

One of the most tragic scenes I've seen - outside a child screaming on an ultrasound as their life was being taken away and photos of an aborted baby - was a father begging his girlfriend not to kill their baby and she did it anyway.

When you put the entire decision for whether a child lives or dies onto that child's mother, you also put the entire weight of the responsibility for that decision onto her. Yet, for every pregnancy, there is a man. For every pregnancy, there is a child. And for every child, there is a father.

We even exclude men in how we speak about the newly forming infant. Abortionists call a new living human being a "fertilized egg", completely missing the point that half of that child's DNA comes from the father. The ovum from the mother is only half of the equation. That child is no longer just the mother's ovum, nor is that child an egg. Immediately, when those two half-cell gametes from each parent are woven together to form new DNA, you have the very first, complete cell of a new living human being. You have a child growing rapidly, doubling in size until their hundreds of organized cells implant into his or her mother's womb where the child will continue to grow, their little face and arms appearing, their little heart beating, where they suck their thumb, smile and grimace, learn to swallow, and practice breathing in their safe, warm, watery world.

By calling the killing of children a "woman's issue" the serpent from the garden has convinced men they don't have to be a part of that decision. Whether she takes the temptation of devouring the fruit in the garden or the fruit of her womb, where God has said, "Thou shalt not", he leaves entirely on her. Yet, it is the father's child, too. It is his son or daughter who needs his protection.

Even though an appointment may have already been set with the abortionist, and most women know within six seconds of a positive pregnancy test if they will abort or carry, it is still much easier to speak within the calm and quiet setting of a relaxed pregnancy care center listening and having a conversation with a woman (preferably before she takes the pregnancy test), and with a man, concerned about pregnancy, than those standing many feet from the abortionists' doors who have to shout to be heard hoping their voices will carry to rescue those being dragged to slaughter. The whole point of the pregnancy center is to calm her, to help her out of a feeling of crisis. She doesn't have to decide today, and she can decide to let her child continue living. On days sidewalk prayer warriors show up outside death facilities, by the abortionists' own numbers, abortions drop by seventy-five percent (75%). When an entire church shows up praying and singing outside a death facility, many babies are saved from slaughter. The church must be armed in prayer with fasting, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit to disarm the demonic.

Compared to that, my part now is easy, simple even. To convince men that they should lead. To tell God's people they should repent and act. To put forward a law upon which Christians should vote. It's not like it is new information. Just new action.

That we are talking about living human beings is a scientific fact. That we are talking about our offspring is not in question. These children are not the enemy of women. Neither are men the enemy. It takes two to make a baby. And both parents are responsible for their child.

In all the layers of protections God put in place to protect preborn children - mothers, fathers, marriage, family, church, community, and law - men are the next defense. Fathers are responsible for taking care of the women and children in their lives. When they do not, those women and children without a man become widows and orphans. So then, the church becomes responsible for the widows and orphans who've been abandoned. And when the family and the church fail, God gives the law, "Thou shalt not murder". No exceptions to the size or developmental abilities of the innocent one being murdered. Or how long that child may or may not live naturally, if they are allowed to continue living.

A pregnancy cannot be undone. Abortion is not an eraser. It is more like a permanent black marker trying to blot out the image on the page without staying in the lines. When the blood of Jesus washes that stain away, the image of the child remains.

We have allowed all the natural protections for children - marriage, church, and law - to be stripped away. And we do our best to cry out to the mother to have pity on her child. But it should never even get to that point where a child's life hangs in the balance on whether or not the mother wants them. She may not. She may give birth and fall in love with her baby, or she may place her child with other parents. Her wanting - or lack of wanting - is not the point of whether that child's life is worth living.

Love means saving that child's life. Love means doing what is best for someone else. A mother's love can be beautiful and sacrificial. Pregnancy is actually the easy part. All you have to do is eat and sleep, try not to puke, and wait nine months. Of course, it is not as difficult if you are married and do not have to keep a job. After the pregnancy, the real effort begins. That's when love comes in. The love that stays up all night with a crying infant and teething toddler.

The love that conceived the child with a man is the love that is meant to raise the child with a man. When men and women wait to have sex in marriage, so that when they inevitably do become pregnant, both parents are there to help and the child has both parents to raise them. If there's not both parents, love says, "I may not be able to raise this child, but I'm going to love this child enough to let them be in a family who can."

We can put the layers of protection back in place. It begins not with the mothers, but with the men. With the fathers and the grandfathers, the pastors and the priests, the lawmakers and the churchgoers. It begins with men taking responsibility for the children they are creating. Abortion is every bit a man's issue. No, men do not have a uterus; they do not need one to be a parent. It takes a man to create a baby. And it takes a real man to raise one.

And for those men hurting because you have lost a child to abortion, you are not forgotten. God hears you. God feels your pain. He is close to the brokenhearted. It is okay for men to grieve. God gave His only begotten Son. His Son came alive again. And because we serve a just and merciful God, I believe that fathers will see their children again. I'm sorry you didn't get to raise them. I'm sorry they were stolen from you.

Having children is a part of pursuing happiness for men and women. The opportunity to live is the right of every living human being. God gave men in marriage, families, churches, communities, and government to protect those sacred rights.

“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations,

and raise My banner to the peoples.

They will bring your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their shoulders."

(See Isaiah 49)

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men...." (Declaration of Independence)