Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Winter 2023
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
    • LIBERTY TO DO WHAT? Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno join George McKenna June 1, 2022 in New York
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2022
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2022
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 STUDENT or PREGNANCY CENTER STAFF Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2022
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

A Pastor's Reflections

0 Comment

The Lame, the Blind . . . and the Pregnant?

10 Dec 2015
W. Ross Blackburn
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. (Jeremiah 31:8)

In considering this magnificent passage, where the Lord speaks of the return of his people from exile, I want to make one simple observation—that the pregnant and those in labor were to return to the land along with the blind and the lame. The association is interesting. Why does the Lord speak of the pregnant woman alongside the blind and the lame? What do they all have in common?

There is a picture pushed in pro-abortion circles of independent and empowered women making informed choices concerning abortion without need of help, particularly from men. (Never mind that these empowered women include the 13-year-old they insist should be able to procure an abortion without the knowledge of her parents.) The notion of the empowered woman is central to their position—that there is no one who can better understand a woman’s needs than she herself can, and to suggest otherwise is to demean her. This notion, however, overlooks an important matter. Pregnant women are vulnerable.

I remember the jumble of emotional highs and lows that characterized my wife during the early stages of her pregnancies. And the pervasive feeling of sickness and tiredness that, in her case, didn’t lift until the end of the fourth month. I don’t assume that all women are just like my wife, but I do know that such is common. If there was ever a time when my wife wasn’t empowered to make wise decisions independently (sometimes planning a meal was a trial), it was in those months, a time when she leaned on me in a peculiar way. God designed pregnancy for marriage, and pregnant mothers for husbands.

Women in pregnancy are vulnerable. This is not a comment on their competency or ability or anything like that. It is part of the character of pregnancy for many, if not most, women. And why should it not be that way? In a short nine months a mother will carry, nurture and sustain, and finally bring forth a human baby in all his wonderful complexity. To call it hard work is to sound trite—the baby draws on all his mother’s resources as he grows. A mother is vulnerable, precisely because she gives of her strength. And for those with an unexpected or unwanted child, often without the support of the father or anyone else, the vulnerability is even greater, for she goes it alone in a way she was never meant to. Where is the power? Where are the choices? Frederica Mathewes-Green’s graphic picture says it starkly: “No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice-cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg.”

The blind, the lame, and … the pregnant woman. In other words, the vulnerable. In recognizing the vulnerability of a pregnant mother, we do well to recognize two things. First, we live in a world that gladly, even sometimes aggressively, takes advantage of that vulnerability. It is a great temptation to hear that “the problem” can be easily fixed, that abortion is a morally respectable decision that strong women make because they—and they only—have the ability to make the best decisions concerning themselves. What vulnerable women need are real choices—not easy outs that are never finally easy—that help her make her life work as it is, rather than as she may wish it was. Secondly, acknowledging that pregnant mothers are vulnerable does not demean women. The vulnerability is no shame. God does his most magnificent work within the womb of a pregnant woman. No wonder she is in need. She gives her strength. Her vulnerability simply testifies to the magnificent work that she, and only she, can do.

Feature Main Page
A Pastor’s Reflections

 

176 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.

Social Share

  • google-share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Legal Issues on Chemical Abortions

13 Mar 2023

HHS weighs declaring access to abortion a "public health emergency’

08 Mar 2023

Rihanna’s Super Bowl pregnancy announcement is an unexpected pro-life moment

15 Feb 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kathryn Jean Lopez Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Meaghan Bond Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • TOPICS
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.