Championing the Pro-Life Cause After ‘Dobbs’
This article features remarks from the National Religious Broadcasters Conference (NRB) held February 24-27, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.
This year, a particularly important NRB panel focused on the pro-life cause in a session titled, “Pro-Family, Pro-Science, Pro-Life America.” Prudence de Bernardo, former host of EWTN’s Pro-Life Weekly, moderated the panel which featured several important speakers:
- Dr. Susan Bane, Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Board Chair of AAPLOG Action
- Dr. Abby Johnson, CEO & Founder at Pro-Love Ministries
- Dr. Alveda King, Prominent Conservative Pro-Life Voice at Speak for Life
- Rev. Tony Suarez, Vice President at NHCLC
- Jep Robertson, Adoption Advocate and member of the Robertson family.
The speakers focused on three ways the pro-life movement can continue to promote life in the years ahead.
Pregnancy Resource Centers
Dr. Bane repeatedly thanked everyone who supports pregnancy resource centers, which empower women to choose life for their preborn children. She advised that women facing unplanned pregnancies need four things:
- Information to make a decision for life.
- Exceptional healthcare.
- Strengthened families.
- Unconditional love.
Additionally, Dr. Bane said, “Women need concrete responses to the barriers of why they can’t choose life in that crisis, real things like transportation, affordable childcare and housing,” adding,
Abortion and False Compassion
Abby Johnson encouraged individuals and pregnancy resource centers to do their best to address the personal and unique needs each woman faces in an unplanned pregnancy – whether that’s assistance with utility bills, transportation or housing costs.
“Over 60% of women who are having abortions already have children at home,” Dr. Johnson said. “They do not feel that they have the resources at home to take care of and provide for a child.”
Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood employee, was trained by the abortion giant back in 2007 to tell women consideration abortion, “Women have abortions because they care about themselves, their current families and their future families.”
“And just like that,” Johnson said, “abortion became an act of compassion. And ever since then, the media has been telling us that abortion is an act of compassion. That we kill, that we murder out of compassion.”
With this psychological framing, Planned Parenthood convinces religious women to have abortions. Indeed, “over 60% of women that have abortions regularly attend church services,” Johnson said.
“Unfortunately, the church has not stood up against this evil. They have not stood up against this propaganda,” Johnson said. “We in the pro-life movement have got to step up.”
Telling the Truth
Dr. Alveda King spoke about the importance of teaching each new generation about the importance of life.
“It is true that we have to care from the womb to the tomb, and beyond that we have to say to the ladies and the dads, ‘You are wanted, you are needed, you are loved,’” Dr. King said.
She encouraged the church and the pro-life movement to address the fathers of preborn children. “Talk to the dads, ask them to have some responsibility,” she advised.
Dr. King added that the pro-life movement needs new urgency to press forward after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
She said, “Too many people are saying, ‘Oh, we overturned Roe v. Wade, it’s done, we can go do something else.’”
“No. No. No,” she added, “Every generation, every platform, every decade you have to tell the truth. It’s not that it’s new, but it’s new to each generation. It’s new in every decade.”
Dr. King closed by echoing her uncle, Martin Luther King Jr.:
At Focus on the Family, we have defended the rights of preborn children for decades, and we won’t rest until every preborn baby is loved and welcomed into the world. Through our Option Ultrasound program, we’ve helped save over half a million preborn babies since 2004.
You can learn more about Option Ultrasound and partner with us to help save lives.
If you are experiencing an unexpected pregnancy and want to learn more about your options, visit My Choice Network.
Related articles and resources:
Counseling Consultation Request Form
Support Your Local, Pro-life Pregnancy Medical Clinic
Alternatives to Abortion: Pregnancy Resource Centers
Hopeful Choice: What is a Pregnancy Help Center?
Melissa Ohden: An Abortion Survivor Inspires Compassionate Pro-Life Engagement
Overcoming Abortion and Becoming a Force for Life
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