Proponents of infanticide claim that pro-life Christians care only about babies being born but do nothing to support the life once they are outside the mother’s womb, but recent events in the life of Texas resident Tamara Nelson tell another story.
Nelson, a struggling single mother of three children already, had considered aborting her fourth, but was prevented from doing so by the Texas Heartbeat Act, according to LifeNews.
Nelson described feeling overwhelmed and unsupported when she first became aware of her fourth pregnancy but was unable to obtain the procedure and instead gave birth to Cason, who is now 6 months old and healthy.
Nelson found support through a recently founded Christian maternity home called Blue Haven Ranch, founded by Christian couple Bryan and Aubrey Schlackman in 2020 with the mission of helping struggling single mothers like Nelson.
“Our clients are mothers who are caring for their children alone because of difficult or abusive situations, and who now find themselves pregnant again,” the group says on its website. “Confronted with this enormous new challenge when they’re already overwhelmed, many women feel the pressure to make poor decisions.”
Trending:
“The organization provides up to two years of living expenses, counseling and job training for poor, pregnant women with children,” according to The New York Times. However, of the thousands of babies born since the passing of the Heartbeat Act in 2021 who might otherwise have been aborted, Blue Haven Ranch can support only a small handful.
“It really does take a community to help you with your kids and to raise your kids,” Nelson said in a video shown to attendees of a fundraiser for the organization, The Times reported. “God was watching over me and my family, and he brought me here.”
Nelson also highlighted the exceptionally warm community that Blue Haven Ranch has created after volunteers helped her move into her new apartment outside of Dallas in July and said that she was glad she hadn’t aborted Cason after all.
At the same time, she has a long road ahead of her.
Would you help a single mother in your community like this?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
“But at the same time, reality is reality — there’s still that extra mouth to feed,” Ms. Nelson said. “I’m so happy he’s here. But it’s a lifelong decision that I have to maintain.”
National Review estimated that Texas’ new abortion restriction was “preventing approximately 75 abortions from taking place in Texas every day.” That would be over 27,000 lives saved annually — except, of course, for the fact that at least some of those mothers have undoubtedly sought to abort their babies in other states.
And whereas The Times lamented the fact the state government didn’t put into place any new means to care for those new babies, the truth is that it’s not the government’s job to do so.
The responsibility, of course, falls on the parents — both parents. (The Times never even mentioned the fact that Cason had one; it didn’t use the word “father” at all.)
And parents should be able to turn to Christ’s body when they need help with that, as we all do from time to time.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world,” James tells us — but how many of us listen?
Or, if you prefer it from the Old Testament, we have the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The government of Texas has done its job — lives are being saved because of the abortion ban it put in place.
Now it’s time for God’s people to do ours, and care better for those lives.
