Shelley was an unwanted child.
Ruth had longed for a child of her own and adopted Shelley at birth and loved her. Ruth never hid from Shelley that she was adopted. It was important to her that Shelley know that she had been “chosen.”
Shelley would wonder at times who her birth mother was. The year after she graduated, she would find out who she was. She sat across the table from an investigator and listened to a few facts about her birth mother. Shelley then asked her name.
Her name is Norma McCorvey. You may know her by her pseudonym, Jane Roe.
Four months before Shelley was born, Norma signed an affidavit with her lawyers that filed a lawsuit now known as Roe v. Wade to abort Shelley’s life. Somewhere along the way, Roe v. Wade has become a bumper sticker slogan or a cause to try to get elected. We must never forget that Roe v. Wade was about one life.
Shelley was fortunate that the court system takes longer than four months. Roe v. Wade’s verdict occurred in 1973 when she was 2 years old and in a loving home with Ruth.
Many South Carolina Baptists celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade to hopefully give other children like Shelley the opportunity to be wanted and loved. We grieve the 63 million unwanted lives that were aborted over the past 49 years. We have compassion for women in unplanned pregnancies and those affected by past abortions.
How hypocritical would it be of us to be caught partying instead of preparing to adopt, foster, or advocate for every unwanted child in the state of South Carolina? The time is now to rise up as South Carolina Baptists and be poised to love every unwanted child. Every dollar contributed to the cooperative mission in the state helps fund Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries and missionaries from our South Carolina Baptist Convention team dedicated to helping each church advance in the area of adoption, fostering, and advocacy for those who have been marginalized. It will take more than our dollars. The solution will take selfless lives who are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others.
Your community has children like Shelley and mothers like Norma who need someone to love them.