On a recent trip, right before takeoff a member of the flight crew gave the same directions I’ve heard hundreds of times before.
The directions go something like, “Please make sure to secure your own oxygen mask before assisting your children or others with their oxygen masks.”
Perhaps because I was thinking about my pro-life work, this time those directions from the flight attendant hit me as an apt metaphor for how we pro-life advocates can massively improve our effectiveness at persuading abortion-minded women to choose life.
Imagine this scenario: a pregnant mother is sitting on the plane in the aisle seat, her preborn child is sitting in the middle seat next to her, and you, in your capacity as a pro-life advocate are sitting in the window seat next to the preborn child.
Now just for the sake of this example, imagine that when the oxygen masks drop the pregnant mother cannot secure her own mask – the only way she can get her oxygen mask on is that you have to secure her mask for her.
However, as soon as you have secured her mask she will then be able to assist others on her own.
Here’s the important part.
The pregnant mother is the ONLY one on the plane who can secure the oxygen mask on her preborn child.
I think this is where we pro-lifers often get off track – we can become so focused on securing the life of the preborn child that we forget, or at least minimize, the fact that the pregnant mother is the ONLY one who can choose life for her preborn child.
Getting back to our airplane metaphor, neither you, me, nor anyone else can secure the oxygen mask on that child.
Yet, that’s often exactly what we try to do.
We get so busy trying to secure the rights of the preborn child – putting the oxygen mask on the child – that we don’t notice that the mother sitting right next to the child does not have her oxygen mask on, and can’t put it on her preborn child without our assistance.
Here’s my suggestion to help us reorient our focus towards first securing the oxygen mask on the pregnant mother.
I suggest it would be helpful to use a popular sales and marketing adage: give the customer what they want, and they will give you what you want – meaning that if you sell a customer a product or service that improves her life, she will then give you money in exchange which helps you get what you need to improve your life.
In the same way, if we pro-lifers place our primary focus on helping the pregnant mother achieve what she wants in life, she in turn is much more likely to give us what we want, which aligns perfectly with what God wants – choosing LIFE for the preborn child.
This article was published in Heroic Media‘s weekly newsletter