Like many of you, I am proud of the brilliant, pro-life women who have stepped up to lead, and be the voice and face of our movement to defend the most vulnerable among us. They proclaim the truth about abortion and its devastating effects with feminine genius. They are the perfect counterpoint to those who claim they are “feminists” and “defenders of women’s issues,” and who proclaim from the rooftops that “it’s my body, my choice.” But men, if we are silent on abortion, we are complicit in the lie that is so often used by abortion proponents that “abortion is a women’s issue and a women’s issue alone.” Men have been subjugated and forced into the shadows of the abortion debate by pro-choice rhetoric all while the women and preborn children in their lives have been destroyed by abortion. This has to stop.
So what can we as men, #brolifers, people who recognize the dignity of human life from conception till natural death, do to come out from the shadows and into the light, and protect preborn children? For starters, we can be pro-life all the time and in everything we do.
This means that we respect women. We live in a relativistic culture where two consenting adults can do whatever they please. This attitude of doing whatever you want without giving much thought to the consequences is not appropriate behavior for those of us who call ourselves “pro-life.” Think about it. What causes so many unplanned pregnancies? Do women choose abortion when the fathers of their children love, revere, support and respect them? Is it really a woman’s choice alone to decide whether or not her preborn child lives or dies? Or is it too often a woman’s choice because she is alone?
How does the single pro-life man relate to women? Well, instead of logging into some trashy dating app, hooking up with random women for a few hours, potentially getting them pregnant and then abandoning them at the local abortion facility because we’re afraid of taking responsibility for our actions, maybe we as men can start seeing our female counterparts as people and not things. Once we begin to change the way we treat the women in our lives, then we are no longer complicit in the culture of death and can begin to defend women and preborn children.
Here are some practical ways we can begin to change the way we act and behave towards women, starting today:
Pray for all preborn children, and expectant mothers and fathers, especially for those looking to get an abortion.
Actually go out and ask a woman on a date – delete all the trashy dating apps from your phone. Seeing women as objects and not as people will most likely lead to regrettable roads; seek out friendship first.
The way you talk around your friends will reflect the way you speak to women. Stop with the dirty talking.
Quit the bar scene. You can enjoy a few drinks with your friends without going to the bars late at night on the weekends only to find yourself in a situation that you didn’t want to be in the first place.
Protect your eyes. Stop fawning over the woman wearing yoga pants on the subway and instead, divert your eyes and pray for her soul.
Obviously, this is not a full list. Feel free to share your own ideas and strategies for how we as men can enter into the counterculture of defending the sanctity of women and preborn children. Hopefully these short and concise steps will begin to change the way we think and act around the women in our lives and help us live a consistent ethic of life 24/7.
