Solving a Problem: One Woman Finds a Solution for Her Community

When I think about people who are following their concerns for the culture and finding their place in our movement, I think of my friend Teresa Strack. She knew that people were struggling to answer simple questions about when life begins and the cost of abortion, so she stepped up to help.

Here is the problem she was attempting to solve several years ago.

Answering the Hard Questions

Has anyone ever asked why you believe in the value of human life at every stage of development, but you didn’t know what to say? If so, you’re not alone.

We desperately need to equip pro-life believers to respond to the challenges we face in our everyday conversations with family, friends, and others. While we care about the pro-life policies of our nation, we also need help to have better conversations with those near us, because cultures change one conversation at a time.

Teresa Strack, the executive director of LifeFirst, a pro-life advocacy group in Magnolia, Texas, answered the call to fill that void. In an effort to equip pro-life believers with clear, concise answers about the sanctity of life that pro-lifers can share with others, she created Pro-Life Answers 101.

I would encourage you to save it as a favorite on your phone. That way, if you are in a conversation about this anywhere, anytime, with anyone, and you don’t know what to say, you can simply open the page and you will have a concise, respectful answer at your fingertips. The next time you’re asked a pro-life question, just hit the link!

Here are two examples of things people say to get you to stop talking about the life issue and how you can respond.

They say, “If you don’t like an abortion, don’t get one.”

Answer: The business of protecting innocent human beings’ lives is everyone’s business. Injustice survives when people stay silently on the sidelines. At conception, a new, unique human being begins life. We all began that way. From that point, nothing genetically will be added — only time and nourishment is needed. So scientifically, that unborn human is as fully human as you and me, and has the right to life which is guaranteed in our Constitution.

They say — “When life begins is subjective.”

Answer: Actually, there is almost universal consensus among biologists that human life begins at conception. In a landmark study in 2019, Steve Jacobs “emailed surveys to professors in the biology departments of over 1,000 institutions around the world.” Jacobs wrote, “I found that 5,337 biologists (96%) affirmed that a human’s life begins at fertilization…”

Please also consider this quote from Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University Medical School: “It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception … Our laws, one function of which is to help preserve the lives of our people, should be based on accurate scientific data.”

The responses that LifeFirst lays out are respectful, accurate, and concise — perfect for quickly sharing your discussions with others.

Other key issues LifeFirst addresses include fetal anomalies and the idea that “a fetus is not a person.” It also answers the question “What about rape?” and debunks the myths that “the right to life doesn’t include the unborn,” “pro-life laws oppress women,” and perhaps the most atrocious of all, “abortion is healthcare.”

How One Person Can Shift Hearts and Minds

What Strack and LifeFirst have done is a perfect example of what a local outreach focused on the grassroots work of impacting individual hearts and minds can produce. We want to see attitudes shift back toward respecting the sanctity of human life. This work is essential because attitudes drive individual decisions, and those stories undergird our laws and judicial rulings.

Then we have the next step. To continue supporting pro-life policies at the state and national levels, we all have the privilege and responsibility of participating in our elections.

Our nation has had much good news to celebrate in recent years. The 2022 Supreme Court decision returning abortion laws to the state level has led to many states limiting abortion in ways that have saved thousands of lives. By 2023, 14 states had implemented near-total abortion bans.

However, other states expanded abortion access, with some becoming “abortion sanctuary” states. Voters in 10 states have now approved pro-abortion constitutional amendments, including in states previously believed to be pro-life. There are now only 12 states with near-total bans. Imagine what would have happened if more Christians had voted in those referendums. Unfortunately, some surveys show that only one in three Christians regularly votes.

Chemical abortions (mainly involving mifepristone), now account for over half of the nation’s abortions. Yet many Christians know little about this horrific practice, while some politicians who claim to be pro-life refuse to push back to stop the use of abortion pills.

The Battle Is Far from Over

Every prayer, every conversation, and every vote matters, so Christians Engaged set out to solve that problem. We saw a need and filled it — tracking every election in the nation and pushing Christians to vote, teaching them the Bible as they go.

We are committed to mobilizing Christians to take the pledge to pray, vote, and engage, and through our parent organization, the Family Policy Alliance, we mobilize Christians to impact policy protecting human life, families and children, and religious liberty.

If Christians retreat from the call to be involved in our culture, our nation will continue to stray from God’s timeless truths and principles. “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep…” (Romans 13:11).

What if every Christian found their place in this movement, using their talents for the glory of God and solving problems like Teresa Strack has? By creating LifeFirst’s Pro-life Answers 101, she is making an impact on her community and her state. She is an example for us all to emulate as we seek to do our part.

What if every Christian voted for pro-life candidates at every level of government in every election every time? We would see more policies affected by the right personnel.

We see the problems all around us in the culture. Let’s start asking God for wisdom as we attempt to solve them.

Bunni Pounds is the president and founder of Christians Engaged, a ministry activating the Body of Christ to pray, vote, and engage regularly. She is the host of Conversations With Christians Engaged and Jesus for America and is the author of Jesus and Politics: One Woman’s Walk with God in a Mudslinging Profession as well as a senior vice president for the Family Policy Alliance and the Family Policy Alliance Foundation.