Making the Case for Life

Audio By Carbonatix

According to data analyst David Shor, the number of people who favor allowing abortion “for any reason” increased from 42% in 2012 to 57% in 2022. This, and the repeated failures of pro-life legislation since the Dobbs decision, reflect the growing number of Americans who oppose legal restrictions on abortion more than it does acceptance of the practice. 

At the same time, we now know more about the science of fetal development, the reality of abortion, and the harms of the abortion pill for women than any previous generation. The pro-life case has only gotten stronger, but many Christians are still unwilling to make it. My friend Scott Klusendorf has spent a lifetime training pro-lifers that they can (and should!) make the case for life to friends, family members, and neighbors. At the Colson Center National Conference in May, he summarized how to make the case for life to hypothetical “Aunt Betty”: 

I’m pro-life because it’s wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. And the science of embryology is clear that from the earliest stages of development, you were a distinct living and whole human being. 

You weren’t part of another human being, like skin cells on the back of my hand. You were already a whole living member of the human family, even though you had yet to grow and develop. And you know what else, Aunt Betty? There’s no essential difference between you, the embryo, and you, the adult that would justify killing you back then. 

Klusendorf then repeated his call for all Christians to defend innocent, pre-born life: 

Men and women, all of us as Christians, have to confront our fears. And I’ll leave you with this. That’s my last point. We have to confront the fear of somehow offending people. This has been talked about a lot here. But you know what I have found in pro-life apologetics? When I present a careful case for the pro-life view, persuasively and graciously, it draws people in to take a closer look at the total biblical worldview we’re espousing. And I’ll end with this story. 

My colleague, who’s a pastor, was set to preach on abortion not long ago. And he was approached just before the service by a couple in the church who said, “Hey, pastor, don’t blow it today. We have a Spanish professor friend of ours here from Madrid. He’s an atheist, but he agreed to come to church, so you better not mess it up today.”

And my buddy is thinking, “Oh no, do I call an audible and change my sermon here and not talk about abortion?” No. He talked about it, laid out a biblical case, a philosophic case, a scientific case. And when the sermon was over, that Spanish atheist made a beeline for him and said this: “You, sir, have defied every expectation I had today coming to church. I’ve never met a smart Christian. You just blew out all my stuff. What world did you come from? I haven’t seen people like you.”  

What was interesting is instead of abortion driving him away from the Gospel, that man stayed with that family as he was scheduled to do for a week, and they had dozens of Gospel talks. 

What opened the door to that? The fact that the Christian had an intelligent case to make on the pro-life view. Believers, let’s not be afraid to stand up and make our case persuasively. We should worship the Prince of Peace, not peace. Let’s go out there and give them heaven. 

Scott Klusendorf’s book The Case for Life (the second edition) remains the best training resource on the topic, and it is appropriate for parents, students, educators, pro-life pregnancy center staff, or anyone who understands the moral crisis of abortion and will join the cause. Christians must know that the truth about who we are as human beings is objective, absolute and knowable. We must also know that there are false ideas about who we are, and that the victims of those bad ideas continue to increase. In this cultural moment, in which so many lives are at stake, every Christian must be prepared to make the case for life.

Image credit: ©Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker/Staff

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.