Yesterday the ninth video exposé on Planned Parenthood from The Center for Medical Progress was released. You can watch it and read more on Justin Taylor’s blog.
As the video exposés about Planned Parenthood continue, those with children may be wondering how they can talk to them in age-appropriate ways about the value of life and the reality of abortion.
Someone recently wrote our ministry to ask:
I have four children, ages eight to almost two. At what age is it appropriate to talk to my young children about what’s going on at Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics? Do you have any tips on how to talk to them about this issue?
EPM staff member Karen Coleman provided this great answer:
In Appendix 2 of Why ProLife? Randy gives a list of “Biblical Passages Relevant to Life Issues.” Those would be good passages to talk to your children about, to help them see God’s heart on the issue in a very general but biblical way.
No one is born pro-abortion, and you can help them grow up knowing how much God is pro-life in every sense of the word. From that list, I would concentrate on the verses in section 5, “God has a special love for children.”
Since the oldest is only eight, you would not want to go into any great detail. You could say, “There are people who don’t know God and don’t know how much He loves all children. We need to pray for them to come to know Jesus so that they understand His love for even little babies—even babies who aren’t born yet.”
Your older children may remember when your wife was pregnant with the younger ones. You could use that as a general example, reminding them of the time before your youngest was born. Ask them if they think God loved that child when he or she was in your wife’s womb. They will instinctively know He did! If you want to add more information, you can have slightly different conversations with each of them, since the 8-year-old can understand much more than the littler ones.
I think you would want to stick to very general terms. They are too young to understand the videos, and might find them quite upsetting. There are many adults who are traumatized by seeing these videos, and you certainly don’t want to go there with your precious children. At their ages, I think they might even be upset by the concept of abortion as you would try to explain it. Many children would not be ready to comprehend more of the details of this issue until they hit junior high.
