Dear reader,
I want you to imagine something for a moment. Think of an ultrasound. This image is all about hope and innocence. Now imagine a different kind of ultrasound, one that is taken not of a pregnant belly, but of a human heart. Imagine if you could take an ultrasound of someone’s heart or soul and see all of the emotions, values, and motivations inside it. And now finally, I ask you to think what an ultrasound of an abortionist’s heart would look like.
What is the state of the abortionist’s heart? What lies inside it? What is inside it that motivates the person to take preborn lives in exchange for a paycheck? We often say that if there were a window into the womb, more people would care about preborn lives; we can see the evidence of this in how women who see ultrasounds of their babies statistically choose abortion less than women who don’t. However, I’d say it is also true that if we had a window into the heart, the soul of the abortionist, more pro-lifers would care about their lives. We’d see pride, confusion, and evil: a spiritually dead heart in need of salvation. Arguably, the abortionist is in need of rescue more than the unborn child – their rescue is a spiritual, emotional, and mental matter rather than a physical one.
One man that could give us a look into the abortionist’s heart is Dr. Bernard Nathanson. This man was a fierce campaigner for abortion rights. He co-founded the National Abortion Rights Action League, ran the largest abortion clinic in the United States, and confessed to performing or overseeing about 75,000 abortions. Nathanson even confessed to aborting his own children. In his memoir, The Hand of God, the abortionist said, “You ask if perhaps for a fleeting moment or so I experienced a flicker of regret, a microgram of remorse? No and no. And that… is the mentality of the abortionist: another job well done.”
This is an absolutely chilling thing to hear, that this abortionist could take away so many lives, including the lives of his own children, and yet not feel regret, not view his murder in any way other than a job well done. Our first instinct is to be absolutely disgusted with him, to perhaps use his terrible actions as a political talking point, or to use our anger against him as fuel in the fight to end abortion. I understand these responses, but as a young pro-lifer, I beg you to reconsider them. To truly sit on what it means to love your enemy.
What if your enemy – the person who represented the very thing you fight against every day – was the one God called you to love? And what if that sacrificial love could change the world more than a biting rebuttal ever could?
Saving babies in danger of being aborted is certainly an extremely high priority for us pro-lifers. These little preborn babies are aborted before they can live out their God-given purposes, enjoy the love of others, and bask in the sometimes harsh, yet still breathtaking beauty of life. 2,548 unborn children die in America every day, and they largely go forgotten and left behind. We see the ultrasounds and the preemie baby pictures, and we pro-lifers love those babies. We want to protect them. And this is a very, very important calling.
However, what if God has called the pro-lifer to not only love the forgotten baby, not only the lonely mother, not only the weak family, but also the abortionist? The fact is, the preborn are easy to love. Babies are the most innocent, precious creatures we humans have the privilege to enjoy and nurture. They don’t belittle you, call you names, or advocate for the very thing you seek to destroy like abortionists do. And yet, God calls us to love them as well, even though it is so much harder. After all, the hardest part of my life isn’t volunteering at my local pregnancy resource center. It’s driving by the abortion clinic and praying for the people getting another job well done inside it. But that is our task.
In her book about communicating truth in the abortion debate, Love Unleashes Life, Stephanie Gray stresses recognizing the humanity of the person who disagrees with you. She says, “The pro-lifer’s task of being a voice for the preborn also involves ministering compassion, love, and grace to the born.” When we hear the people around us talking about ‘reproductive rights,’ when we see the harsh social media posts against pro-lifers, when we hear interviews of abortionists speaking of each murder like another job well done, what is your first instinct? I know that mine can be to rush to my defense, to speak on behalf of the preborn, which we must do. But do we click on that post and start that conversation out of a real desire for love and truth to win out, or are we just angry? If Jesus, in all of his great love and grace, hadn’t reached into our hearts and transformed them, then our hearts would be just as black as the heart of the abortionist.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Whom you would change you must first love, and they must know that you love them.” If we want to show that the pro-life movement is fighting for sacred things – love and life and God – we must fight back in a way that culture doesn’t. We must fight back in a way outlined by Scripture, a way so countercultural and odd that others won’t understand, but they will certainly notice.
Remember Bernard Nathanson from the beginning of this article? He stepped down from his role as the Abortion King of America and became a devout pro-life Catholic. Later in his memoir, he spoke of how Christians helped pull him out of his hole of shame and lies with their faithful prayers. Nathanson was freed from his sin partly due to the witness of these pro-lifers, who didn’t fight for themselves to be recognized or defended, but instead fought for others, for the preborn, and yes, even for the abortionist. Let us also model this self-sacrificial love. Let us love our enemies. After all, the abortionist’s heart still beats. And while it does, there is still hope.
Cover photo by lil artsy on Pexels
I love history, Middle Earth, writing, cinema, and Jesus. I hope to use the gifts He has given me to spread the Truth about His love and protect those in the womb.
An Open Letter to the Pro-Lifer Who Struggles to Love Their Enemy
Mylee Kann
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Dear reader,
I want you to imagine something for a moment. Think of an ultrasound. This image is all about hope and innocence. Now imagine a different kind of ultrasound, one that is taken not of a pregnant belly, but of a human heart. Imagine if you could take an ultrasound of someone’s heart or soul and see all of the emotions, values, and motivations inside it. And now finally, I ask you to think what an ultrasound of an abortionist’s heart would look like.
What is the state of the abortionist’s heart? What lies inside it? What is inside it that motivates the person to take preborn lives in exchange for a paycheck? We often say that if there were a window into the womb, more people would care about preborn lives; we can see the evidence of this in how women who see ultrasounds of their babies statistically choose abortion less than women who don’t. However, I’d say it is also true that if we had a window into the heart, the soul of the abortionist, more pro-lifers would care about their lives. We’d see pride, confusion, and evil: a spiritually dead heart in need of salvation. Arguably, the abortionist is in need of rescue more than the unborn child – their rescue is a spiritual, emotional, and mental matter rather than a physical one.
One man that could give us a look into the abortionist’s heart is Dr. Bernard Nathanson. This man was a fierce campaigner for abortion rights. He co-founded the National Abortion Rights Action League, ran the largest abortion clinic in the United States, and confessed to performing or overseeing about 75,000 abortions. Nathanson even confessed to aborting his own children. In his memoir, The Hand of God, the abortionist said, “You ask if perhaps for a fleeting moment or so I experienced a flicker of regret, a microgram of remorse? No and no. And that… is the mentality of the abortionist: another job well done.”
This is an absolutely chilling thing to hear, that this abortionist could take away so many lives, including the lives of his own children, and yet not feel regret, not view his murder in any way other than a job well done. Our first instinct is to be absolutely disgusted with him, to perhaps use his terrible actions as a political talking point, or to use our anger against him as fuel in the fight to end abortion. I understand these responses, but as a young pro-lifer, I beg you to reconsider them. To truly sit on what it means to love your enemy.
What if your enemy – the person who represented the very thing you fight against every day – was the one God called you to love? And what if that sacrificial love could change the world more than a biting rebuttal ever could?
Saving babies in danger of being aborted is certainly an extremely high priority for us pro-lifers. These little preborn babies are aborted before they can live out their God-given purposes, enjoy the love of others, and bask in the sometimes harsh, yet still breathtaking beauty of life. 2,548 unborn children die in America every day, and they largely go forgotten and left behind. We see the ultrasounds and the preemie baby pictures, and we pro-lifers love those babies. We want to protect them. And this is a very, very important calling.
However, what if God has called the pro-lifer to not only love the forgotten baby, not only the lonely mother, not only the weak family, but also the abortionist? The fact is, the preborn are easy to love. Babies are the most innocent, precious creatures we humans have the privilege to enjoy and nurture. They don’t belittle you, call you names, or advocate for the very thing you seek to destroy like abortionists do. And yet, God calls us to love them as well, even though it is so much harder. After all, the hardest part of my life isn’t volunteering at my local pregnancy resource center. It’s driving by the abortion clinic and praying for the people getting another job well done inside it. But that is our task.
In her book about communicating truth in the abortion debate, Love Unleashes Life, Stephanie Gray stresses recognizing the humanity of the person who disagrees with you. She says, “The pro-lifer’s task of being a voice for the preborn also involves ministering compassion, love, and grace to the born.” When we hear the people around us talking about ‘reproductive rights,’ when we see the harsh social media posts against pro-lifers, when we hear interviews of abortionists speaking of each murder like another job well done, what is your first instinct? I know that mine can be to rush to my defense, to speak on behalf of the preborn, which we must do. But do we click on that post and start that conversation out of a real desire for love and truth to win out, or are we just angry? If Jesus, in all of his great love and grace, hadn’t reached into our hearts and transformed them, then our hearts would be just as black as the heart of the abortionist.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Whom you would change you must first love, and they must know that you love them.” If we want to show that the pro-life movement is fighting for sacred things – love and life and God – we must fight back in a way that culture doesn’t. We must fight back in a way outlined by Scripture, a way so countercultural and odd that others won’t understand, but they will certainly notice.
Remember Bernard Nathanson from the beginning of this article? He stepped down from his role as the Abortion King of America and became a devout pro-life Catholic. Later in his memoir, he spoke of how Christians helped pull him out of his hole of shame and lies with their faithful prayers. Nathanson was freed from his sin partly due to the witness of these pro-lifers, who didn’t fight for themselves to be recognized or defended, but instead fought for others, for the preborn, and yes, even for the abortionist. Let us also model this self-sacrificial love. Let us love our enemies. After all, the abortionist’s heart still beats. And while it does, there is still hope.
Cover photo by lil artsy on Pexels
Mylee Kann
I love history, Middle Earth, writing, cinema, and Jesus. I hope to use the gifts He has given me to spread the Truth about His love and protect those in the womb.
The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Human Defense Initiative.
Mylee Kann
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