Throughout his ministry President Nelson has been a powerful pro-life voice advocating for the sanctity of life and the need to prevent abortions. I’ve written previously about the strengths of the pro-life position relying on the words of President Nelson.

He first raised the subject in one of his first few sermons as an Apostle called Reverence for Life. President Nelson powerfully called abortion a “war on the defenseless—and the voiceless” and “a war on the unborn.”

President Nelson noted a troubling irony about our society. We are so focused on fighting to preserve life. We spend more per capita than anywhere else in the world to prolong life even at immense expense. We give those on death row extensive due process such that executions rarely happen (not that I’m complaining, we should abolish the death penalty altogether). We claim to reverence life. Yet we turn a blind eye to the suffering of the unborn:

“Yet society professes reverence for human life. We weep for those who die, pray and work for those whose lives are in jeopardy. For years I have labored with other doctors here and abroad, struggling to prolong life. It is impossible to describe the grief a physician feels when the life of a patient is lost. Can anyone imagine how we feel when life is destroyed at its roots, as though it were a thing of naught?
What sense of inconsistency can allow people to grieve for their dead, yet be calloused to this baleful war being waged on life at the time of its silent development? What logic would encourage efforts to preserve the life of a critically ill twelve-week-old infant, but countenance the termination of another life twelve weeks after inception? More attention is seemingly focused on the fate of a life at some penitentiary’s death row than on the millions totally deprived of life’s opportunity through such odious carnage before birth.”

The proliferation of abortion is therefore a symptom of a society that has its priorities terribly and horribly out of wack. We have become calloused and indifferent towards the deliberate slaughter of the unborn and this thing is abominable in the sight of God

These thoughts really hit me hard. In what other ways am I indifferent to the suffering or death of others? What policies or practices do I support that create a culture of death and destruction rather than one that truly reverences life? How many times do I see the suffering of another and look away like the priest or the levite neglecting the wounded man on the road to Jerusalem?

I will continue to join President Nelson in raising a pro-life voice. I hope and pray that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and that we can bring back greater reverence for the life of the unborn. But I need to push myself to not be complacent about other suffering that I encounter. Being a disciple of Christ means working to alleviate suffering and lift those who are downtrodden. President Nelson’s call to defend the sanctity of life has inspired me to do better at not becoming indifferent towards the great suffering around me in the world.