I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect to be writing about Joe Biden again.
But something he said recently has stayed with me.
On September 24, the former president received the Sonia Schorr Sloan Service Award at Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s annual Chocolate & Champagne Gala. Jill Biden presented the award, named for a longtime friend and supporter of his who had led the organization’s board.
During his remarks, Biden said he was “outraged and appalled” when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. He talked about his efforts to protect access to abortion and urged the crowd to keep going: “There’s no time to give up. It’s time to get up.”
I understand why Planned Parenthood would honor him. What I struggle to understand is how he reconciles that position with the faith he so often talks about.
In 2023, Biden told supporters, “I’m a practicing Catholic. I’m not big on abortion.” Then he added, “But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right.”
Those statements are difficult to put together.
For decades, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which generally prevents federal funding of abortion, with limited exceptions. Then, during his 2019 presidential campaign, he reversed that position, arguing that access to health care should not depend on someone’s ZIP code.
But calling abortion health care doesn’t resolve the moral question. There is still another human life involved.
And while I’m not Catholic, the Catholic Church’s teaching on this is clear. Pope Francis spoke forcefully against abortion. This January, Pope Leo XIV told diplomats that abortion “cuts short a growing life and refuses to welcome the gift of life.”
At some point, the faith we claim has to shape the positions we take. That applies to presidents, pastors, and everyone sitting in the pews.
More importantly, we have to consider what Scripture says about the value of human life.
The nations surrounding ancient Israel sacrificed their children to Molech. God explicitly forbade His people from following them: “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:21).
That language expresses how utterly opposed this was to His will. His people were sacrificing the very children He had entrusted to their care.
Ancient child sacrifice and modern abortion are different practices in different settings. But I believe the comparison confronts us with a serious question: What happens when the lives of children become expendable in service of something adults value more?
Our idols can have respectable names. Success. Freedom. Financial security. Control over the future. Those things become dangerous when preserving them requires us to deny the value of another person.
The God who formed us in the womb has never treated that life as disposable.
I also know that behind many abortions are fear, pressure, abandonment, and circumstances most of us have never faced. We need to speak honestly about those realities. They should move us to help the mother and protect her child.
That is why seeing a former president celebrated for defending abortion troubles me. A man who spent eight years as vice president and four as president has enormous influence. I wish he were using it to defend the lives of unborn children.
But before anyone assumes this is simply a Republican argument, I have concerns about Donald Trump too.
Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe. I’m grateful for that. His other statements on abortion have been disappointing.
In August 2024, he promised that his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.” That same month, he criticized Florida’s six-week abortion law as too restrictive. He also said he would veto a federal abortion ban.
The Republican Party’s 2024 platform moved away from its longstanding call for national protections for unborn children and emphasized leaving abortion policy to the states.
During the last election, I felt caught between a Democratic ticket committed to expanding abortion access and a Republican candidate willing to oppose some abortions while protecting access to others.
That was frustrating then. It still is.
So when will we have a leader who consistently defends human life from conception onward?
I don’t know. I pray we will. But our responsibility is already clear, and we don’t have to wait for Washington to fulfill it.
Across the country, pregnancy resource centers are helping women face circumstances they never expected. We can support that work with our money, time, and prayers. We can help make sure a frightened woman has someone to talk to, somewhere to turn, and practical support for the months ahead.
We can foster and adopt. We can also support the families who do, because opening your home is only the beginning of a demanding commitment. Those families need people who keep showing up.
We can help the single mother in our neighborhood, workplace, or church. Sometimes that means diapers or groceries. Sometimes it means babysitting, a ride to work, or a connection that helps her find a job.
Being pro-life should be visible in the way we care for people after the baby is born.
And our churches need to be places where people can tell the truth about their lives.
A scared young woman should know she can come to us for help. A woman carrying regret over an abortion should hear that forgiveness is available in Jesus. A father who pressured someone into that decision needs to know he can repent and find grace too.
We can speak clearly about sin and tenderly to people wounded by it. Jesus shows us how to do both.
Proverbs 31:8 tells us to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. I cannot think about that command without thinking about a child in the womb.
Wherever you live, there are people who need help and lives worth defending. There is a family you can support, a ministry you can strengthen, or a conversation you need to have.
We don’t have to hold public office to make a difference. But we do have to take responsibility for what is within our reach.