Prayer is great, and I'm a big believer in it. Sometimes I get the impression that a big part of the pro-lifer's prayer, at least for many of them, in effect goes something like this: "Dear Lord, please send an express train to hell right away to haul off everyone who's ever had or performed an abortion. Please make all those impoverished women have their unwanted children -- but then I'm never going to bother my head about them again." That's so far from my idea of prayer that the distance is immeasurable. I pray for compassion and forgiveness to take hold in this sorry world, for love to have a chance. I pray for healing. I have no interest in a dialogue with people whose idea of God includes revenge, because our ideas of divinity have no common ground. I also don't believe that prayers, no matter how ardent, can make 2+2=6. Women who have no money, or who have no help, whose dreams are important to them and whose circumstances are difficult, will continue to terminate pregnancies. Many will quite literally die rather than give birth to a child they don't want. A merciful prayer for them might be to pray for a spontaneous miscarriage, or at least a safe and affordable abortion from a compassionate provider.

There are a few pro-lifers who have credibility with me, and who have gained my respect -- and those are the ones who adopt the babies that no one wanted, the crack babies, the disabled, the "children of color" -- children who would probably have been left out to die of exposure and hunger in the ancient world. If you would like to prevent an abortion, adopt a baby.