A Christian’s Response to Unplanned Pregnancies.

50% of pregnancies are unplanned. Every single day, new pregnancies are occurring in which women are left to make hard decisions.

Every single Sunday, there is the possibility that an unplanned pregnancy may walk through the church doors.

How should a Christian respond to this?

Statistically, 43% of women who have had an abortion were regular (once a month or more) churchgoers at the time of their abortion, and sadly 54% said they would not recommend discussing an unplanned pregnancy with someone at church. — Save the Storks

Let’s take a look at how Jesus responds to a difficult situation…

John 8 starts by sharing the story of the adulteress woman. She is thrown before Jesus’ feet by the scribes and Pharisees. “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what do you say?” They were tempting Jesus in such a way where they had placed a seemingly tricky situation before His feet: the law.

But Jesus responds in a life-altering way.

Grace.

He stoops to the ground.

He writes in the sand.

They continue to question.

And He responds with, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”

He stoops to the ground and writes in the sand once again.

And then they leave.

Now, it’s just Jesus and the woman.

He begins to question her as to where her accusers are.

She looks up.

“There’s no one, Lord.”

The only one who could condemn her chose to love her and offer grace.

“Go, and sin no more.”

Jesus never came to rid of all the sinners like the adulterers and murderers.

Jesus came and gracefully taught the seemingly righteous what sin looks like, and it’s more than premarital sex. It’s the pride that causes judgement in the heart of “Christians” toward women in unplanned pregnancies. It’s the gossip that causes these women to flee from our church youth groups. Sin is tucked between the layers of every condemning glance, every whispered, demeaning word, every heart posture that says, “I may not be perfect, but as least I didn’t sin like that.”

“If we had to wear our sins on our sleeve the way a pregnant woman wears a belly, none of us would be casting stones. By the time a single or unmarried woman has become pregnant, sex has already happened. What does she or you gain by condemning her when she’s likely feeling fear and shame? This isn’t promoting premarital sex, but rather promoting life for a baby that has already been created. We can be biblical and stand for God’s design of marriage and family while simultaneously standing for life for the pre-born.” – Christine Yeargin

The pregnancy was not the sin.

The sex outside of marriage was the sin.

God created sex for a beautiful reason and purpose.

When it is acted upon outside of His will, it will never be fulfilled in the beautiful, God-honoring way it was created to.

BUT, our God is the God of beauty from ashes.

Even when premarital sex leads to confusion and pain, heartbreak and heartache, anger and temporal satisfaction, God can grace every pain with His peace, purpose and plan.

An unplanned pregnancy is not a sin.

It is a gift.

A baby is not a sin.

A baby is a gift.

The church often views an unplanned pregnancy as the sin because it is the most outward appearance of premarital sex. But, what happens when an unplanned pregnancy occurs?

The world will tell her that it’s okay to kill her baby. It’s her “choice”.

So, what do you think she will do when she turns around and the church is turning their eyes, turning their backs and turning their hearts away from her?

She will turn away, too.

And how does the church respond if she chooses an abortion?

We can’t scream that she had choices, when we didn’t offer her any.

We can’t be Christians that oppose abortion in word, but refuse love and grace in action.

Give her a place.

Help her see her choices.

Show her there is more to this than just a choice.

There’s a better way.

There’s a healing way.

There’s a beautiful, life-giving way that only Jesus can enable us to live out.

We must have His heart towards her.

The woman, as well as the life forming inside her womb.

We must identify the sin: sex outside of the will of God.

We must identify what we can do: support, love and encourage a woman in her unplanned pregnancy. Celebrate the life of her baby.

Help her to see her baby as a blessing.

A life knitted together by God.

Help her to see herself the way God sees her.

His precious child knitted together piece by piece.

Help her see truth.

Show her love.

And show her Jesus.

He is the only one who truly brings change.
He is the only one who can stoop down beside her and in a single moment cleanse her heart.

He is the only one who can lift her chin and say, “Go and sin no more” and enable her to walk in that command.

Help her meet Jesus.

Don’t cast her in the dirt at His feet.

Lead her there gently and patiently.

Walk with her, every step of the journey that you can.

And let Jesus do His work.

Let Him work in you and through you.

It starts with you.

Some may be concerned with enabling unhealthy choices. This is valid, but ‘enabling’ and ‘blessing’ are very different. To enable is to prop up unhealthy behavior, while to bless is to make space for God to come in truth, grief, change, and peace — all of which are wrapped in sacrificial love. Blessing shows people who are hurting that they don’t need to run to solutions this world has to offer (all of the unhealthy behavior they’ve been depending on) because they are supported through community and faith in a miraculous God. — Save the Storks

So, let her come.

Invite her in the doors of your church. And your home. And your life.

Make room for two precious lives in your life: one born and one pre-born.

Let her see that she has a place where she belongs and that her baby is a blessing.

Show her that love is not just kept within the pages of the Bible generations ago.

Show her what love is.

It’s here, for her, right now.

And for the precious babe in her womb.