The following is a transcribed Video Q&A, so the text may not read like an edited article would. Scroll to the bottom to view this video in its entirety.
"I think some of the things that are really important to think about before you get into a doctor's office, is think about what is your biblical world view? What is your pro-life world view? The fertility industry is a big money making industry. When you're talking to a doctor I'm not saying they don't have your best interest at heart but they're also in a business and they're also coming from a different perspective view where they're trying to really increase your odds, which might in direct conflict with your pro-life world view.
I remember sitting in an office and a doctor saying, 'Well, we could do this testing to make sure the baby doesn't have Downs and we can do this testing for this, and this, and this,' just like it was a given that we would do that or we would want that, or if we found out this, or that that we would terminate the pregnancy. I just remember sitting there and I said to the doctor, I said, 'Well, we're Christians and so even if we found that out we would want to continue the pregnancy.' She immediately stood up in her chair, "Oh, okay." Just so many people are skipping over that because they're wanting the perfect child, or the perfect family unit, or what they're thinking about.
Then, also when it comes to IVF, in our pro-life world view that life beings at fertilization, increasing your odds means they're wanting to fertilize a lot of eggs and so unless you're willing to parent all of those, if they come to fruition, you're going to be eliminating lives that are made in the image of God. Sometimes your desires and your emotions to have a family and be a mother will butt up against these biblical world views and these truths that we have and so you so desperately want to increase your odds but you also know that this is an ethical and moral issue that I've really got to struggle and deal with.
I'll also just encourage you there are many ways to build your family and that God can bring together a family and make you a mother. That can be biologically and it also can just be through the beauty of adoption. When we talk about foster care, there's 100,000 children in the US right now that have no parents, they have nowhere to call home, they belong to the state. We have 300,000 churches in the US so if we do the math that's one family from every third church in the US that brings in a child and builds their family through the gift of adoption. That's a beautiful way to build your family and it's rewarding. It's hard, but so is going through fertility treatments. That's the medicine, the procedures can really mess you up, and parenting itself will mess you up. I think that there are many alternative ways that are edifying and that fit in with our Christian pro-life world view and that can really speak to a watching world in ways that we can grow our family and be mothers."
Originally published Thursday, 25 July 2019.
