This is a very controversial perspective of the abortion crisis in America today, but let me get a few things straight first:

I am a Christian.

I am pro-life.

I believe abortion is murder.

If you believe the law is equal to morality then just click away. This will only make you angry.

Over the years in debate class, in church, and on the internet have I heard that we need to "stop abortion". The methods I've seen in doing that are primarily voting people into power who believe in banning abortion. Other methods are standing in front of Planned Parenthood, holding up signs that say cheesy one-liners that are supposed to magically change everybody's minds. Now, I know they have helped SOME people, but it mostly pisses people off. Sorry, but I got more fingers than redemptions last time I did that.

When I was 14 or so, I thought that just meant I was being a good Christian and standing up for my beliefs. I thought that the middle fingers and the "**** you!"s were just religious persecution and I was the victim. That's what everyone told me, anyways. And I believed them.

Here's a picture of 14 year old me at a silent anti-abortion march. Can you guess which one is me?

(I tripped over my shoelace as this was being taken.)

Even though I agree with all of these signs, I now see that I could have done a better job of talking to people online about abortion or giving money to pregnancy assisting centers. I once heard a saying that was like "If everyone hates you because you love Jesus, then you must be doing something right!". Usually, when that's said, people actually mean "If people who don't believe in God are pissed at you, then you must be doing something right!".

But, if we look back at the context surrounding the "the world will hate you because they hated me first" verse in John 15, it's actually mostly about the religious leaders of the time who hated Jesus and literally wanted the Roman government to kill him (and they did) so they didn't have to deal with him anymore. They even chose to execute Jesus instead of a notorious criminal. This verse still applies today and is meant to encourage us to not fear our enemies, but it is important to know the true context of this verse. Having a hierarchy literally out to kill you is way different then a 30-year-old woman flipping you the bird because she feels like you don't really care about her.

Over the past year or so, I've been debating with myself, thinking maybe abortion should be legal. But then the other side of me was like "But if abortion is murder, and murder is illegal, then abortion should also be illegal!" Now while I agree they are the same thing, I still think they need to be handled differently.

So if you've made it this far in the article, we can all agree that the law is not equal to morality.

So making the law equate to morality does not stop there from being immorality. (example: divorce is legal, adultery is legal, pornography is legal, etc.)

Let's take the basics of supply and demand: if you take away the supply, the demand doesn't automatically disappear. It just gets placed somewhere else. It's like when they recalled Blue Bell. Yeah, we still ate ice-cream, but it wasn't as good.

Let's take the example of gun restriction. Banning guns does not stop criminals from getting guns, right? In this case, illegalizing abortions does not stop all abortions. "It's a heart problem, not a gun problem" is what we always say. It's the same way for abortions. Most of the 500,000 women at the Women's March on Washington believe in abortion. Do you think illegalizing abortions is going to make those women disappear? We're kidding ourselves if we do.

"Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s range from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. Prior to Roe v. Wade, as many as 5,000 American women died annually as a direct result of unsafe abortions. " (x)

"Unsafe abortion is common in places where abortion is illegal. Nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, and nearly all unsafe abortions (98 percent) occur in developing countries. In countries where abortion remains unsafe, it is a leading cause of maternal mortality."

Before Roe vs. Wade, abortions still existed. The reason why it was legalized was because there was a demand for it. I have a personal connection with this because my own grandmother considered having an illegal abortion when she became pregnant out of wedlock in the 60s. Luckily, she decided against it. I wouldn't be here today if she hadn't.

Today, the death rate for abortions is extremely low (0.6 per 100,000). A lot of you will make the argument "abortion is never safe because someone always dies" and you're correct, but without legal clinics, abortions are dangerous for both the baby and the mother.

By now, you must think I'm a pro-choice, lukewarm, flimsy Christian. I thought so at first when I began to have these thoughts. But as I said before, I believe abortion is murder. I just believe that banning abortions is not the first step to stopping abortions. Would I like for it to eventually be illegal? Of course. But it's not the answer right now.

I once heard the argument "Hitler killed millions of Jews and that was legal, so after all that, how can you say abortion should be legal?"

My simple argument for that is: Hitler wanted supremacy. The only way to satisfy to supremacist is to give him supremacy. There was no way we could let him have that. That's why we had to fight. The root of women wanting abortions is not the fact it is legal or because they want power or any other reason you can think of other than fear. That's the difference between them. There's a way to get rid of fear without killing someone.

So what should be our first steps? This may be personal for everyone, but for me, it's starting locally. It's providing for women with unplanned pregnancies. It's about educating men and women about sex and how it really works. It's about helping people develop a real relationship with Christ. If your first steps are starting with legality, then be my guest. Just know that the entire pro-life movement cannot put all of its energy into that because that's how we end up with an even bigger problem.

Like I said before, the real root of abortions is fear; fear that they are not ready or strong enough to get through this. Fear they will be judged. Fear that no one will help them. Fear that they will be called names. Fear that they will be alone. Fear of putting their kids into an awful adoption system.

Christians: We have somehow forgotten a huge detail when it comes to this crisis.

Mothers.

If we keep letting them fear, if we keep letting them be alone, if we keep forgetting they are scared, then we will continue to see bitterness grow in our country. If we put our entire focus on illegalizing abortion rather than actually stopping it, we will see more hate. We will see more suicides. We will see more depression. We will see more unfaithfulness. We will see more death.

So if we're really pro-life, we need to be pro-every-life. Because if we're not, then we're not pro-life. We're just pro-birth.