While on vacation, we tend to sleep in.
But there we were at the crack of dawn, trekking to the beach, drawn to the promise of new life.
We were to meet up with locals trained in protecting loggerhead turtles, a species officially labeled as “vulnerable.” Mama turtle had buried her 100+ eggs about 60 days previously, using back fins to methodically sculpt a deep hole in which her progeny would be well-protected. Signs indicated that the eggs had begun to hatch and babies emerge. But not all. Some required rescuing or they would die.
The golf cart brigade that monitors the nests every morning staged an intervention. They would dig out the buried babies and set them on a path to life into the ocean. And they welcomed us to share in the experience.
We stood on the periphery, watching the team carefully dig into the deepest pockets of the nest. Anticipation was building. Digging and more digging. Finally, the announcement—a baby was found! Cheers erupted. We crowded around, eager to glimpse the little survivor.
And then more babies. And more. We marveled at each and every teeny turtle, rejoicing in their saved lives.
We then helped to place about three dozen babies on the beach facing the water. We watched their painstaking crawl to their new home, a struggle necessary for developing the stamina and strength needed for ocean survival.
It was a beautiful experience. A different kind of pro-life moment, yet one that parallels the heroic efforts made every day to rescue baby humans.
Like these naturalists, trained volunteers and dedicated employees invest time and pool resources to save human babies from death by abortion, rejoicing at each and every life saved and mother supported.
“Save the baby humans” could very well be the mantra of the 2700 pregnancy resource centers throughout our country. Countless people are alive today because of their efforts to support a mother and her child, both before birth and after.
In 2019 alone, pregnancy resource centers served roughly 2 million women, men, and youth with nearly $270 million in services at little or no cost, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
But ironically, while those who save baby turtles are universally acclaimed for their good work, those who strive to protect helpless, vulnerable human babies are being vilified.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has grossly mischaracterized pregnancy resource centers, calling for them to be shut down across the country. Dozens of centers have been vandalized and even firebombed by abortion extremists, destroying material goods and delaying counseling services that actually empower the very women that abortion advocates claim to care about.
It’s mind-boggling that some people who regard the destruction of a turtle egg as egregiously immoral have no problem with the purposeful destruction of human life.
Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the same year Roe had been decided, pre-born turtles have had more legal protections than pre-born humans.
We can and should protect both.
Like baby turtles, some baby humans require rescuing or they will die. Pregnancy resource centers provide the intervention. They rescue innocent children, a “vulnerable species,” from a violent death by abortion. They provide the needed support for mother and baby, digging them out of their own proverbial hole, setting them on a path for life, and rejoicing in the unique gift of every single human life.
In this post-Roe world, we need to ask ourselves a question:
If we encounter pre-born humans at risk of dying, would we do less to save them than we do for pre-born turtles?
