Abortion: How Can Pastors Engage Women – and their Congregations as a Whole?
This Viewpoint is a companion piece to the Theologically Speaking podcast episode posted January 26 with hosts Sam Horn and Stuart Scott and guest Michelle Benson, Director, Student Health Services, Bob Jones University, and member, board of directors, Piedmont Women’s Center, Greenville, SC.
Takeaways
- Abortion is a hidden issue in the church, not generally talked about although a surprising percentage of women experiencing them are regular church attenders.
- Most pastors and even Biblical counselors have not been trained on how to deal with congregants’ issues relating to abortion, whether past or prospective.
- A wide range of resources, especially crisis pregnancy centers, is available to support both pastors and counselors in dealing with the challenge.
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A 2015 Lifeway survey sponsored by Care Net, a nonprofit organization supporting more than 1,100 pregnancy centers across North America, found:
- 36 percent of women choosing abortion reported attending church monthly or more at the time of the procedure
- 64 percent believed church members are more likely to gossip about a woman considering abortion than to help her understand her options
- When weighing an abortion decision, women say they expected or experienced judgment (33 percent) or condemnation (26 percent) from a church far more than caring (16 percent) or helpfulness (14 percent) – although those numbers were more balanced for regular church attenders.
Excerpts from the podcast on the challenge of responding to abortion in the church and counseling contexts:
Today’s Self-Centered Culture and the Power of Satan:
Dr. Scott: Our culture has gotten to be much more … the culture of death and the culture of extreme selfishness. You know, it’s all about my body… God is a God of life. And when we look at his enemy, our enemy Satan, who is the author of death… anything that God has ordained for good, Satan is going to come and try to dismantle it. The whole gender issues…Light and darkness are more polarized today than in years past,
Dr. Horn: Jesus warned us: Satan is not just the father of lies. He is a murderer. He comes to destroy, … he is going to kill anything that God has given life to. It shouldn’t be surprising that evangelical Christians, we’re in a battle that is not just about human rights for what I do with my body. This is a life or death battle. And the outcome of this battle is actually going to mean life or death for the unborn infant.
Mrs. Benson: In my experience of 15 years in pregnancy resources, most people do not have an abortion for the reasons most people think. Most women will say, this is just a bad time right now. I’m not ready to have a baby right now. Selfishness and the world telling you that you should have what you want if you’re in your career, if you’re in school. It is about you … and that is the bottom line of most of those choices.
Unprepared Pastors and Counselors:
Mrs. Benson: I feel like a lot of pastors … haven’t had a lot of experience with it. They’re just unsure what to say. We have people sitting in the pews … those women have had abortions. But it’s not something I’m going to tell anyone unless I trust them deeply. Because even though I chose it at that time, it may be something that I’m very ashamed of it. I have a lot of guilt. I don’t, I don’t want anyone to know. It’s kind of like the deep, dark secret that I really am not going to share with my pastor, because I’m afraid what he’s going to think about me.
Dr. Horn: So here’s, here’s a surprising thing…I’m actually ashamed of it. I went through, from start to finish, all the theological training that you’re supposed to have to be a pastor. I was an undergrad Bible major. I got an MA in New Testament, Biblical Studies. I got a PhD in New Testament. I went and got a DMin in expository preaching from another institution. Not one time in all of that was I ever confronted with the need to prepare as a pastor to help people with this issue, and so I don’t think I’m alone.
Dr. Scott:Most of the problems that (women) come in (to biblical counselors) with, the presenting problems, are not going to be abortion, correct? Typically, that is going to be other symptomatic byproducts … Do I think the average (counselor) knows how to deal specifically with that? I would probably lean, “No.”
Practical and Biblical Responses:
Mrs. Benson: It’s different from if you’re in a biblical counseling situation …and how we would counsel it at a pregnancy resource center. Education: we have a list 50 agencies long of support. We always teach … you basically have three options when you’re pregnant: you’re either going to parent, you’re going to have an abortion, or you’re going to do an adoption plan. And so we really teach through and talk to them about all those options, because this is a huge this is a life changing decision, obviously, for your baby, but it’s also … you’re never (going to forget) that you were a mother. You’re never going to forget your due date. You’re never going to forget this child. And so pause, and really think about this.
A lot of them will come to me after they’ve been to an abortion clinic, and we’ll do an ultrasound, and they’re just shocked. They said, what they said, this was a clump of cells… that doesn’t look like a clump of cells. That’s a baby. But no one has told them that truth, and a lot of times it is a decision made out of lack of knowledge.
… A lot of the verbiage from the abortion industry is, “If it can’t live outside the womb, then it’s not a person.” That’s why we call ultrasounds a window of the womb. Because I’ve shown women at six weeks the baby’s heartbeat…. If something’s in there with a heartbeat of 110 beats per minute, that’s a person.
Dr. Horn: I developed a set of … questions:
- Does God give me the ultimate right to choose to do whatever I want to do with my body? Does God give me the right to make that choice?
- Does God give me the individual right to intentionally harm the life or the wellbeing of another person?
If it’s my body, and it doesn’t hurt somebody else, then really, I have the right to do what I want to do with my body. And I think it comes as a big surprise when you take an honest look at scripture that you don’t have that right. We are not our own. We are bought with a price… and the purpose for which we are to use our body is to glorify, is to serve and glorify God…
Dr. Scott: … which is in the context of sexual immorality, which most of this happens to begin with… it’s sexual immorality that typically will lead to this…
Mrs. Benson: … that’s really where you have a choice. Once you’re pregnant, according to God’s word, that’s not your choice. Your choice was a few steps before that.
Resources Are Available:
Mrs. Benson: In most communities, if there’s a pregnancy resource center, they offer child loss support groups. It’s just all women that have all lost a child, and it can be through miscarriage, it could be post abortive, it could be infant loss. And they have a set Bible study…and they go through it, and at the end, they have a memorial service for all their babies. And it is powerful and very healing.
Pastors, this would be, if someone came to you, this would be where I would recommend, and also couselors, because you’re with a group of other women who have all walked the same journey that you have walked, and it’s hard to understand in your mind unless you’ve gone through it.
Crisis Pregnancy Center Websites:
Piedmont Women’s Center, Greenville, SC https://piedmontwomenscenter.org
Care Net: https://care-net.org
Resources from the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors:
Topic: Abortion (Blogs, Podcasts, Videos)
- https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/topic-index/abortion-typical-issues/?srsltid=AfmBOoo_eGCsYZFkZIBZxlnWPPx_3SFHcXzP5nrzUH6s3z7MI_khRn–
- Camille Cates, Dispelling the Darkness of Abortion with the Light of Christ, video from 2022 ACBC Conference (nominal fee)
- Julie Ganshow, Counseling the Post-Abortive Woman, Conference Message (nominal fee)
- Sue Liljenberg, Post-Abortion Trauma and the Local Church, Conference Message
- John Lehman, My Wife Had an Abortion Before We Were Married…How Do I Help Her? Conference Message
In His Image, 2022 ACBC Conference, complete audio (fee)
Other Resources:
Sam Horn, Viewpoint, “‘Choose Life!’ The Theology of the Sanctity of Life” (Answering 5 Questions)
Sandy Day and Carolyn McGuire, Living in His Forgiveness (Endorsement by Dr. Scott)
