Are you a pro-life traffic cop?
All of us pro-lifers are to some extent, but it’s important to know exactly to what extent.
What do I mean?
If your sole focus in the pro-life world is on how to get laws put in place that outlaw abortion, then you are a full blown pro-life traffic cop.
You lean heavily toward wanting people to know they shouldn’t get abortions, and you want laws in place to try to make sure they can’t get abortions.
Of course, this has its place.
Everyone needs to understand the rules in order to play the game of life well.
However, I would ask you to place yourself in the role of a parent of a young child, and consider how that child would respond to you, and to life, if all you ever did was tell your child what they shouldn’t do.
Isn’t love that leads to a child flourishing as an adult about more than a list of “dont’s”?
What about the “do’s”?
I think when we focus on what another person should do in order to become what God intends them to be, we move to a higher plane of thinking and being whereby we focus on how to amplify the God-given talents of a person.
It takes a lot more work to practice being a “strengths amplifier” toward our fellow human beings, focused primarily on how to empower them, than it does to be a “traffic cop” telling them what they shouldn’t do.
Perhaps because it takes so much more work it the reason why so many pro-lifers default to playing traffic cop.
If you look back on how you invest your time, talent and treasure in pro-life, and you see that your investments have primarily been about playing a traffic cop, I encourage you to elevate your game for two reasons.
First and most importantly, the young women who are vulnerable to abortion are in desperate need of authentic love which you can show them when you embrace ways to empower those women to achieve what they want in life.
Second, and related, the traffic cop method of using laws to restrict access to abortion simply will by and large be ineffective because the abortion industry has transformed itself in order to circumvent those laws.
How so?
The abortion industry has already transformed from a primarily facility based (abortion clinic) surgical procedure product to an internet based (telemedicine) pharmaceutical product, aka the abortion pill.
You are likely already aware that laws intended to restrict the supply of drugs in high demand – recall the failures of the so-called “war on drugs” – aren’t very effective for the most part.
It is too difficult to cost-effectively police the movement of drugs that can fit into a very small package, and can be hidden in all kinds of creative ways.
The abortion pill fits this description, and will find its way into the hands of women who want it, no matter if it is illegal.
I believe a wonderful day is coming in the pro-life world when the “traffic cop” pro-lifers will come to grips with this reality.
I think they will then begin to invest their time, talent and treasure in strategies that are proven to be far more effective than traffic cop strategies at encouraging women to change their minds about abortion and choose life: strategies pursued by pro-woman pregnancy centers that empower women to achieve what they want in life.