Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Fall 2022 PDF
    • SUMMER 2022 ARTICLES
    • 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

Pastoral Reflections

1 Comment

The Economics of Abortion

06 Jun 2022
W. Ross Blackburn
family, the end of Roe v. Wade
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

In the days following the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft of the Dobbs case, which threatens Roe v Wade, Amazon announced it would contribute up to $4000 to any employee who must travel to get an abortion.  Abortion as economics.  A court decision may not affect overmuch the demand for abortion, at least in the short run.  Prime seeks to ensure the supply.

Much of our effort, particularly political effort, has been directed toward the supply side of abortion: if we restrict or outlaw abortions, fewer women will have them.  If Roe is indeed overturned, some states will limit or outlaw legal abortion.  Which will be a good thing, indeed.

Addressing the demand side of abortion, however, is more important—and more difficult.  Demand-side thinking seeks to head off abortion before it becomes an issue.  Pro-life work from the demand side calls for many things, all of which are personal.  It calls the church to open our homes to pregnant mothers and their children.  It requires us to restore our vision of marriage, with chastity at its place at the height of virtue—not just as an aspiration, but as an expectation.  Accordingly, it will require us to face the destructiveness of contraception, acknowledging that the sex-without-consequences mentality that contraception fosters fuels abortion.  Realizing that we can’t “have it all,” it will require us to order our life around children rather than ordering children around life, thereby revisiting the notion that it is normal for both mother and father to work outside the home, and revisiting how we educate our children—who we permit to educate them, and what we permit them to learn.  It calls men to love their wives and families well, so that young men can see the form of godliness, particularly in relationship to women, and all the privileges and responsibilities marriage entails.  Most of all, it will require God.  For doing justice and loving mercy always requires walking humbly with God, and that happens when we are surrendered to Him and His purposes.  And that is always costly.  Are we prepared for life without abortion?

In what must be one of the most compelling life mission statements ever penned, William Wilberforce wrote “God Almighty has set before me two Great Objects: the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners.”  While he did not use the language, Wilberforce saw his mission in supply and demand terms.  He addressed the supply side, leading the effort to abolish the slave trade.  And he addressed the demand side, the cultural renewal that would abolish the demand for such evil.  And that work, as Wilberforce understood, is the work of the church, the city on a hill who by her faithful example shows the world who God is, who we were created to be, and what life can look like when people are convinced that God is good.  It is always easier to tell someone what to do than it is to say “Come and see.”

 

 

161 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
W. Ross Blackburn

Dr. Ross Blackburn has been ordained for 20 years and has served as Rector for Christ the King for the past 10. He earned a Master of Divinity at Trinity School for Ministry, and a PhD in biblical studies at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. He and his wife Lauren have been married for 23 years and have five children.
As a member of Anglicans for Life's Board of Directors, Dr. Blackburn is a regular contributor to AFL's Lectionary Life App series, and writes for the Human Life Review as well as  Christian Publications.

Social Share

  • google-share

One Comment

  1. Jeri Klobutcher, MD June 17, 2022 at 10:34 am Reply

    To all and Dr. Blackburn,
    There are many who will never see this article, and some, maybe even many, who come across it will immediately throw it off because it honors God.
    Many because of strict upbringing and maybe even abuse by supposed believers and religious have thrown away “God” and have sought spirituality in a different form. The thing is, the form they have sought it in believes in many, if not all, the same things as many of the major religions or philosophies! They just don’t mention the word or entity “God.”
    Perhaps, still respecting our beliefs, we should phrase our language as to not invoke a repulsive feeling in those who have been damaged by certain believers and religious.

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

Abortion activist attempts to expose crisis pregnancy centers—and fails

17 Jan 2023

An Abortion Clinic in Your Neighborhood

09 Jan 2023

“Benedict XVI, 95, Who Defended Doctrine, Dies.”                                                         — The New York Times, January 1, 202

04 Jan 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 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 Doino Jr. 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.