A Christian college group faces backlash this week after one of its conference speakers criticized pro-lifers for not doing enough.
Michelle Higgins, an activist with Black Lives Matter and Urbana 15, told about 16,000 people at an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship mission conference that pro-lifers focus too much on banning abortion and not enough on adoption, according to the Christian Post. Higgins addressed the crowd during the Dec. 28 event in St. Louis Missouri, the report states.
“ … We can wipe out the adoption crisis tomorrow,” Higgins told the crowd. “We could wipe it out this week. But we’re too busy arguing to have abortion banned. We’re too busy arguing to defund Planned Parenthood. We are too busy withholding mercy from the living so that we might display a big spectacle of how much we want mercy to be shown to the unborn. Where is your mercy? Where? What is your goal?”
The report continues:
Higgins claimed that advocates for the unborn take the easier route than those of born children within the foster system, describing anti-abortion protests as ” … activism that makes you comfortable …,” suggesting that pro-lifers show selective mercy.
The comment outraged pro-life groups, provoking an angry Facebook post from Students For Life of America President Kristan Hawkins who questioned InterVarsity’s decision to allow Higgins to speak against pro-lifers while InterVarsity denied the exhibitor application of Hawkins’ own pro-life organization — a group that is seemingly aligned with the objectives of the conference.
“So Intervaristy allowed this young woman to represent the Black Lives Matter movement and disparage the pro-life movement from the main stage,” wrote Hawkins, “but then denied Students for Life of America’s exhibitor application? So sad to see a leading Evangelical organization do this. I think a speaking invitation to the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization is due for their next event.”
After the Christian Post published its article, InterVarsity interim President Jim Lundgren responded with a statement to re-affirm the group’s belief that all lives are sacred – born and unborn.
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“That is why I’m both pro-life and committed to the dignity of my Black brothers and sisters,” Lundgren said, explaining why they invited Higgins to speak.
Sadly, Higgins’ speech misrepresented the pro-life movement and the U.S. adoption situation to a large crowd of people.
Many pro-life families do adopt through domestic programs or foster care. LifeNews has documented numerous families’ stories here and here and here.
Recently, Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation shared the story of the Watts Family who adopted 13 children. The pro-life advocate himself is one of 10 children whom his parents adopted. As an adult, he also adopted a child.
“Today, as an adoptive father, I have the awesome gift of being able to do what my birthmom and parents did for me—prove to the world there is no such thing as an unwanted child,” Bomberger wrote.
Many more families actually are waiting to adopt than there are children available for adoption in the U.S. Despite the wonderful work of pregnancy resource centers and adoption agencies, some women still choose abortion over adoption.
Pro-lifers work in many different ways to protect unborn babies and their mothers from the pain of abortion. Some work to pass pro-life legislation, others provide sidewalk counseling or post-abortion programs, some strive to educate the public about abortion, and many offer pregnancy resources to pregnant and parenting moms. And, together, these strategies are proving effective in reducing abortions to historic lows all across the nation.
