USA (MNN) — Gallup recently released its annual public opinion poll on abortion, and the results are a mixed bag.
Sixty percent of Americans do not want Roe v. Wade to be overturned by the Supreme Court. Those who do want the infamous abortion ruling overturned account for 33 percent, and seven percent had no opinion.
However, the poll also shows younger generations seem to be getting more pro-life. Generation Z and Millennials were more likely to call for Roe v. Wade’s overturn than older survey respondents.
(Photo courtesy of Life Matters Worldwide)
Additionally, for the first time since 2012, more Americans said they consider themselves pro-life — 49 percent — over the 46 percent who identified as pro-choice.
The percentage of Americans who think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances or legal only in a few circumstances also went up from 53 to 60 percent since last year.
Eric Verstraete, President of Life Matters Worldwide says overall, “I think it’s encouraging because what this poll shows me and shows us is that we really believe that people — especially people within the Church community — are beginning to wake up to the reality of what abortion is. Abortion is taking the life of another human being.”
Verstraete has also observed a shift in people’s understanding of what being pro-life means. It doesn’t just mean being against abortion. More and more people who identify as pro-life see it as being pro-all life.
(Photo courtesy of Life Matters Worldwide via Facebook)
“Someone can be against abortion and the horrendous act that it is, but how is that different than being pro-life? We might be against abortion because we want to save babies, but how do we then treat everybody else? And what does that mean when we’re saying we’re pro-life? What about the older folks and the elderly people? What about the homeless person who’s asking for money on the side of the road? What does it look like to be pro-life in all areas of our life?”
While Verstraete is generally encouraged by the Gallup poll results, on the flip-side, “It’s discouraging because it’s taken so long to get to this point. Why has it taken it so long? Why is the Church still sitting on the sidelines in this issue? Why are we still hearing people in leadership in churches saying, ‘Well, it’s a political issue and we don’t want to get political.’
“Abortion is not a political issue. It is an issue that’s been politicized. Abortion is a moral and spiritual issue.”
Life Matters provides resources and education to support the biblical pro-life message that everyone is created in God’s image from the moment of conception.
As Americans start to wake up to the humanity of life in the womb, Verstraete says, “I believe that Life Matters’ role is to help in that awakening. I also believe that Life Matters’ role is to strengthen those who are in the fight on the frontline — namely, those who are in pregnancy care centers — and hopefully begin to strengthen those who need to be on the frontlines which are folks in our churches.”
There are three questions Life Matters asks pastors and Christian leaders to consider:
- How are we supporting unplanned pregnancies within our families, communities, and churches?
- How are we coming alongside and healing the post-abortive?
- How are we encouraging parents to educate their kids about the biblical concept of sex and relationships within the context of marriage?
As the pro-life conversation comes front-and-center and the stakes get higher, Verstraete says unity in the Church will be critical — from democrats and republicans, women and men, to young and old.
“If the rallying cry can be anything, it’s how do we come together, get out of our silos, stop being so individual, and recognize that life is sacred and life is valuable. When we fight together in this, we can make strides to have everybody recognize just the value of life and how important it is to fight for life.”
Pray for more people in the US and around the world to have their eyes opened to humanity in the womb — and to the God who bestowed His very image on these precious pre-born babies.
“We’re going to see a lot more persecution of pro-life ministries [and] of churches who take that stand to be 100 percent pro-life. We need to realize that it is God who is going to fight those battles for us [and] that we need to be encouraged by Him.”
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Header photo courtesy of Elvert Barnes via Flickr under Creative Commons: https://bit.ly/32E5iab
