God Loves Humans - That’s Why He Keeps Making Them

Some shows are easy to do; they make people feel better and inspire sighs of relief in listeners around the world.  Some are more difficult, though, addressing controversial topics and potentially stirring up painful memories, regrets, and even anger for many listeners.  Today’s show is one of the latter.  If abortion is a part of your story in any way, we know it may be painful for you to engage this topic again.  But this topic matters, and you matter -- humans matter to God.  This includes the unborn, and it includes the people who find themselves in difficult places and who sometimes make devastating choices.  We invite you to listen wrapped in the arms of the God Who knows your past, your present, and your future, the God Who alone forgives sins, the One Who remakes the wounded into compassionate soldiers and fierce healers in a battle that doesn’t stop just because we don’t want to think about it anymore.  

Today Cinthia talks with Emily Osmont whose bio includes being a published author, an international communicator who has thirteen years of experience working with the media, having supported international media strategies in over 100 countries, having been a senior manager and humanitarian with the American Red Cross’s national headquarters, having been deployed as a content creator on the ground providing national and international news, and having been published and/or interviewed by national outlets such as Newsweek, CNN, FOX, USA Today, Real Clear Politics, PBS, and many others.  She grew up in Taiwan and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.  She has an M.A. in International Relations from Regent University.  Now Emily is using all this experience as the VP of Communications at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Emily explains that the battle over abortion has changed in the past few decades and that the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade has not “won the war” for pro-lifers.  In fact, it was just the beginning.  The Dobbs decision gave abortion decisions back to the states, enabling pro-life citizens to have a voice regarding legislation and funding related to abortion, unplanned pregnancies, etc.  In the year and a half, since the decision, 25 states have implemented protections for the preborn, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to assist their mothers.  This is not being publicized by the mainstream media, though Emily reports telling it to major media outlets on a regular basis. 

Emily also explains that those who publicly support abortion have, as a group, changed their objectives.  While in the 90’s the movement called itself “pro-choice” and stated that abortions should be “safe, legal, and rare,” now the emphasis is on achieving a complete lack of restrictions on abortions of any kind.  Phrases like “abortion on demand” and “bodily autonomy” are part of a demand that abortion be available in every single week of pregnancy.  The Biden administration has recoiled at identifying any limits at all, and it is getting ready to propose legislation for the fourth time that it calls the “Women’s Health Protection Act” but that is essentially a bill for abortion on demand.  It would remove all restrictions across all fifty states, along with all waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, parental consent for minors, and conscience laws that protect health care providers from being able to refuse to perform abortions if their beliefs or consciences forbid it.  This would make the United States an outlier among the nations of the world, only 1 of 7 nations to legally allow unrestricted abortion access.  China and North Korea are two of the others; having grown up in Taiwan, Emily recalls watching what it was like to see a society that allowed abortion without any restrictions.  She remembers, for example, that sex-selective abortions became such a problem that ultrasounds were temporarily outlawed to keep people from aborting too many female babies. 

The determination in the United States to remove all restrictions, explains Emily, did not begin when Roe was overturned but has been building for several years.  This is not reflective of the beliefs of American citizens; in fact, Emily cites multiple polls that have shown 7 of 10 Americans oppose abortion in the second and third trimesters, despite the Roe vs. Wade decision having been in place for the past fifty years. 

Abortion tends to be marketed as a simple procedure that will undo or erase a devastating situation, something that will be over within a few days and will fix what has gone wrong in a woman’s.  But Emily points out that for most women, the real problem is a lack of support in their lives, and that is not fixed by abortion.  Cinthia emphasizes that abortion goes with women into the rest of their lives and does not go away when their bodies heal.  Emily emphasizes that the majority of women who have had abortions report that it was not really what they wanted.  Most report having felt they had too little support in their lives, something that is not fixed by the abortion procedure.  In fact, many women may choose abortion because of pressure from partners, parents, and even doctors; many report having received the message that they would have been to blame for having allowed the pregnancy to continue. 

Why the push for abortion on demand when the majority of Americans are “wildly out of step” with it (Emily) and so many women who have chosen it found it anything but empowering?  Why would there not be room for a single boundary?  Why would a country that enforces laws for euthanizing pets in the most humane ways possible place no restrictions on whether, when, and how unborn humans are medically eliminated?  Emily states, “Follow the money.”  The abortion industry is a business, and a very profitable one.  Planned Parenthood recently reported their annual profit to have been 1.79 billion dollars last year.  She states that the loudest and richest voices are currently leading the fight, and the rest of us need to educate ourselves, pay attention to what is happening, and speak up.  Cinthia notes, “Evil is so scary that it shuts everyone down,” and says that the goal for the enemy of our souls is that we fear everything, are afraid to stand up for what is right, and just try to work around it because we do not know what to do when things have already reached this point.  But the abortion industry is relying on pro-lifers to be complacent, to not self-educate, to not know what is happening.  We can pretend it’s not there, but we are going to have to stand up at some point.  We have to be adult enough to say that this is wrong. 

Emily reports particular empathy for women with unplanned pregnancies because she has faced two of her own when young.  She reports that the reason she was able to choose life both times, including one when she chose open adoption for her son, was that she had supportive people around her.  But she remembers how vulnerable she felt in those situations and expresses compassion for those who do not have the kind of support she did.  Studies show most abortive women would have kept their babies if they had had emotional and financial support.  Most women who aborted say it was inconsistent with what they wanted.  Emily says that women often believe no one will be there for them if they choose to have their babies.

But there is help available.  Pregnancy support centers are widespread, available in every state, and typically provide resources and care well after birth and adoption takes place, as well as support for those who have had abortions and are working through the emotional fall-out of those decisions.  Most are doing an amazing job.

Cinthia also encourages remembering that, despite the difficult situations under which some births occur, the babies involved are not the problem. “These are little human babies that God has created and was happy that He did,” she says.  Pregnancy is not an evil to be fixed.  Cinthia and her two brothers were all adopted, and Emily emphasizes that most adoptions now are open, allowing for relationship between the biological mother and the child after birth. 

Now that we are outside Roe, we have an opportunity to create a new culture, a culture of life.  We need to let women know they are heroes for resisting abortion.  We need to educate ourselves on the science of human development in utero.  We need to stop changing language to rename the heartbeat.  We need to empower ourselves to help relieve shame instead of allowing shame to keep people from talking about what is happening.  We need to let people know the Church is a place in which they belong, a place where there is room for them and their situations. 

To educate yourself further and figure out how you might become involved, consider Voyage of Life (https://lozierinstitute.org/voyage/) and sbaprolife.org.

God loves humans.  That is why He keeps making them.