The Abortion Crisis: When Will Our Outrage Bring Action?

Written by Cynthia Yanof
Published on January 25, 2019

Like all of you, I’ve been brokenhearted this week with the passing of New York’s legislation on abortion. It has rightfully reignited our outrage toward the abortion crisis in our country. The issue is so heartbreaking it’s almost easier left in the shadows than brought to light.

Like yours, my social media pages are flooded with articles, memes, and stories upon stories of people voicing their outrage with these latest developments: condemning New York’s policy, questioning the morality of our culture, and voicing the sincerest devastation at the impact these laws will have.

I can feel the passion behind each comment I’ve read saying these babies have rights, they deserve to be born, questioning why adoption wasn’t considered, and even suggesting that women, at a minimum, could take their baby to a fire station.

That last one got me, and I knew I had to write this before I could sleep. With all due respect, I would ask us to really consider this for a moment.

Action, not outrage

You see, for every child taken to a fire station, there must be a home ready to accept him. For every child saved from abortion, there must be a safe alternative to bring him up.

As Jim Denison has so articulately said, as believers, we have pro-birth down pretty well. It’s just pro-life where we struggle.

I applaud all of the speaking out, and, by no means, do I think we should be silent.

But I do wonder when our outrage will turn into action?

For example,

  • When will the comfortable become convicted?
  • When will the statistics become a name?
  • When will “What a pity” become “What’s my part”?
  • When will the sad become a safe haven?
  • When will lawyers become legislators?
  • When will moms become mentors?
  • When will the frustrated become fosterers?
  • When will the mad become motivated?

I believe we are well intentioned. We love the Lord and rightfully mourn for the massive amount of lives at stake. However, all the outrage and disgust we can muster on social media and around the water coolers has little impact on the lives of children who are at risk if we aren’t willing to take next steps.

Our fire-station baby

This issue hits particularly close to home for my family.

Right now, there’s a precious little boy asleep upstairs in my house. He was, in fact, left at a fire station. He has a really, really brave teenage biological mom who made a lifesaving decision for him.

With tears in my eyes, I write this holding her in the highest esteem. I’m so eternally grateful to her for allowing our son to have life. I’m equally overwhelmed and grateful to the Lord for allowing my family to be the next right step after a really brave fire-station decision.

What can we do?

Like many, I’ve found myself outraged at social injustice and have tried to shine light in the dark places by verbally taking a stance on hard issues over the years. But only when our family took that next right step and prayed for God’s wisdom and conviction did God show us our role in the abortion issue.

Solomon was known as a man of unmatched wisdom. The Lord blessed him with wisdom (and much more) when Solomon humbly confessed his insufficiencies and acknowledged he didn’t have all the answers and couldn’t lead without the Lord (1 Kings 3).

We are not capable of solving the problem alone. My role is not necessarily yours. But with God’s wisdom and direction, each of us has the opportunity to play our God-given part in the solution.

God, we pray for your wisdom to transform our online outrage into a righteous outrage that can’t help but lead us to action.

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Cynthia Yanof

Cynthia is a wife, mother, podcaster, blogger, and everyday girl who is committed to not taking herself too seriously. She hosts the popular MESSmerized podcast, and spends her days laughing, parenting, and praying for her family to chase after their God-sized dreams. Her first book, Life is Messy, God is Good, is available for pre-order now on Amazon! 

Read more about Cynthia

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