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 came 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 a child.

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 his 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 ten 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, and with a man, who are facing overwhelming challenges while pregnant, than those standing many feet away from the abortionists' doors who have to shout to be heard hoping their voices will carry to rescue those being dragged to slaughter.

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 become widows and orphans without a man. 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 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 stripped away all the protections - marriage, church, and law. 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 is.

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's not as difficult if you're married and don't have to keep a job. It's after the pregnancy that requires the real effort. 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 when they inevitably do become pregnant, both parents are there to help, and the child has both parents to raise them. And if there's not, 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, they don't have a uterus; they don't 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 they have lost a child, they are not forgotten. God hears them. God feels their pain. He is close to the brokenhearted. It is okay for men to grieve. A child was stolen.

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, too. I'm sorry they didn't get to raise those stolen from them.

“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)