What is ProGrace?

I don’t describe myself as either pro-life or pro-choice. Those words are used by two political platforms to describe where they stand, and they have become so polarizing and limiting. Neither platform can express where I see God’s heart intersecting in this debate. That’s why I’m ProGrace.

ProGrace is based on two theological pillars: God’s Design and a Grace Response.

God’s Design

If you think about it, God could have decided to bring people into the world any way he wanted, but he chose pregnancy. He decided to have a child grow inside a woman for nine months, so that anything that happens to one impacts the other. He intertwined the well-being of the two during that time, making it impossible for us to bypass one to help the other.

This is where the political platforms have broken down. One side focuses mainly on the needs of the woman, the other focuses mainly on the needs of the child. Neither can provide a completely accurate representation of God’s heart, because He is equally concerned with the needs of both. And He calls us to work for the dignity and welfare of both.

Grace Response

As we talked about meeting the needs of the woman, we found Christians sometimes had hesitations about supporting women for fear they would condone the pregnancy outside of marriage. But is the pregnancy the sin? No. Christians believe sex outside of marriage is the sin.

So how did Jesus deal with a similar situation? When we look at his encounter with the woman caught in adultery, we see that he first addressed the sin of the angry mob and waited until they left to talk to the woman, protecting her from shame and even death (John 8:3-11). When he then talked to the woman, he first extended her no condemnation (based on what he knew he would do to forgive her), and then offered her a path to live a different life.

Isn’t this what we’ve all received through the cross and grace of Jesus? He says that if we lust, it’s the same as adultery and if we hate it’s the same as murder. We’ve all received his grace because we all need it – no more or no less than any woman facing an unplanned pregnancy.

Being ProGrace means we extend acceptance and support (grace) so that both the woman and the child can thrive – during and after unplanned pregnancy. It’s a response that transcends the political debate in an attempt to better represent God’s heart.