In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the talk of a federal abortion law has lessened. It is an issue that has now led to new trends in the evangelical adoption arena.
Before the historic court action, statistics showed Christians already more likely to adopt than other Americans. Now they are stepping up at an even bigger rate to grow their families and help children in need.
“Since the Dobbs decision last June, we’ve definitely seen the church raise up and say, ‘We want to be available for adoption and foster care,”‘ Herbie Newell, president and executive director of Lifeline Children’s Services in Birmingham, AL, told CBN News.
“I think for sure we’ve seen the pro-life community really embrace the idea of adoption in ways that really we haven’t in the last 49 years,” Newell said. “I feel like we were so targeted in ending abortion that we kind of failed at times to look at what are the options a woman has on the life side?”
Newell said this comes at a time that the battle over adoption has never been greater.
“Adoption has become a lot tougher both domestically and internationally,” Newell explained. “Organizations have either compromised or exited child welfare altogether because of how difficult it is to stand firm to a biblical ethic of marriage and family in the world of child welfare today.”
When the pandemic hit in 2020, border closings and lockdowns forced many countries to shut down their foreign adoption programs – an impact Newell points out is still being felt today.
“China has just now allowed families to travel again for kids that are matched to them in 2019 before the pandemic began and so certainly we need to call our state representatives, our senators. We need to advocate for these kids to come home.”
Newell also said pro-life pregnancy centers must adjust to the changing face of abortion.
“We need to make sure we’re not just reaching the woman who’s going to come into our clinic who’s looking for a medical abortion but that we’re able to get in almost real time connection with women who are seeking chemical abortion,” said Newell. “And we need women to know there is a reversal pill. This is really the face of crisis pregnancy and it means that we’re having to revolutionize the way that we look at reaching young women who are in that crisis.”
That includes reaching out to single women who are faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
“What that woman needs is not an abortion,” Newell commented. “That woman needs a community that is going to mentally and spiritually support her, wrap around her and help her be able to accomplish her goals and her dreams while also bringing life to a child.”
Meanwhile, Lifeline is recruiting kids to help make a difference through an initiative called Stand for Orphans. It is an idea started by kids for kids who need families.
“My son who was about eight or nine at the time said, ‘You know what Dad? If we can get a thousand kids to do lemonade stands the $20, we made yesterday would turn into $20,000.’ The next thing you knew that summer, that first summer they had raised over $100,000 for orphans and vulnerable.”
Since that first summer, nearly $400,000 has been raised through the program and it is expanding as churches across the country include it in their vacation Bible schools.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN
