Jake Klassen is the social media coordinator for Pro-Life USask and a member of CLC Youth’s Virtual Pro-Life Clubs.

Perhaps the most common question any professed pro-lifer receives is, why? Why be pro-life? Why be [insert common crude terms here]? People are always shocked by my response, however, especially my fellow pro-lifers. My simple answer that encompasses everything in a few words is this: being pro-life is easy. Now, I imagine many seasoned activists and advocates would pause here and reminisce about particularly ugly past encounters with the pro-abortion crowd, and I definitely understand their trepidation, but I actually am quite adamant about this: the pro-life position is the easy one. What do I mean by easy? Certainly not in terms of public acceptance, at least in the mainstream media. Certainly not in terms of the vitriolic hatred we see from many pro-abortion individuals, either online or in-person (remember when that was allowed?). But there’s one person who is far harder to stand up to: yourself. If you are not sure of your own principles, if you can’t justify what you are saying, then you are probably not very comfortable talking to others about important topics. Maybe you don’t even like to think about them yourself, preferring instead to focus on your work, schooling, prayer life, or a hobby. The issue is, those important topics don’t go away when we don’t think about them. Eventually we have to engage, both in our own minds and when talking with others. 

How do we grapple with such a complex topic as abortion? By making it simple. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being unsure of myself. So, when I eventually started to dive into the abortion debate, I asked myself one very simple question: is murder evil? I found that question pretty easy, so I moved on to the next one: is abortion murder? Is it the willful taking of a human life? In other words, the widely accepted definition of murder? That’s all I asked myself. That’s all I feel needed to be asked. Ignore the diatribes, the politics, the contentious debates, and simply ask yourself those two questions, whenever you may feel overwhelmed. Make it easy on yourself – the world is stressful, full of many difficult questions about what to make of this crazy gift of life. What is the meaning of life? How do I be a good person? These are two of many difficult, challenging questions that merit a lot of reflection and discussion. But “is abortion wrong?” That shouldn’t even crack the top hundred.