He calls abortion the “spiritual battle of our lives.” And he firmly believes that abortion will end when men make it so. Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but this former football star says the fight for life has only reached halftime.
He is Benjamin Watson, author of The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race, and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice, published by Tyndale Momentum. You may already know quite a bit about abortion. But you may have never seen the subject explored from this angle.
Watson argues, “Ignorance of or disregard for racial justice— especially by some white pro-life evangelicals—has been a hurdle to unifying and expanding the movement.” He’s not content to pass legal restrictions or even ban abortion. He describes a “higher, more complete calling” to “to address the factors that drive abortion decisions.”
And he comes prepared with an array of statistics that may surprise you. Surveys show that 76 percent of abortive mothers would prefer to parent the child under different circumstances. Forty percent of the women who abort their children attend church regularly. Watson describes a “crucible of susceptibility” that helps explain why 40 percent of women seeking abortion are Black. Compared to White women, Black women in the United States are four-times more likely to have an abortion. Black women are also three-times more likely than White women to die from pregnancy-related causes. He explains that Black women have been warned that if abortion is restricted or banned, more of them will die in childbirth.
Watson isn’t afraid to step on toes or tell Christians they need to step up in the fight for life. He sees hope in the gospel and in the church. He writes, “As a church, we need to become a safe haven, a refuge, a place where the most vulnerable can turn—not just for spiritual help, but for emotional, material, and financial support too.”
Watson joined me on Gospelbound to discuss the role of men in the pro-life cause, the relationship between history and agency, and the responsibility of parents to talk to their kids about sex, among other subjects.