A veteran of 25 years of effective pro-life activism, Denny Hartford is Director of Vital Signs Ministries. He believes the pro-lifers who stay in the battle are the ones that are alert, committed and thoroughly equipped. All of these characteristics, he insists, are greatly helped by carefully reading (and heeding) the best pro-life authors. Here’s his list of indispensable reading. We’ll look forward to your ideas about others who need to be added to this list!
1. Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments by Randy Alcorn. There is a reason this one’s at the top of the list. It is an insightful, very readable pro-life primer which I would love to see in every Christian’s library. Check it out.
2. Abortion: Questions and Answers by Dr. Jack Willke. This was long the standard text on the issue and through recent revisions; it remains a tremendous and up-to-date source.
3. Whatever Happened to the Human Race? by Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop. This is the hard-hitting book dealing with all of the primary life issues that helped bring evangelicals into pro-life ministry. It combines exhaustive knowledge, creative presentation, and keen challenges to response.
4. The Least of These by Curt Young. Published in 1983, this book was a major foundation for the emerging pro-life movement. Strong on the Bible, church history, the centrality of pregnancy center ministry, etc., Curt’s book remains a treasure.
5. Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation by Ronald Reagan. A President writing a book while in office? This remarkable event was totally ignored by the liberal media, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept their verdict! A compelling, common sense pro-life must.
6. Who Broke the Baby? by Jean Garton. One of the first breakthrough pro-life titles, it remains a classic, especially in its exploration of the critical shifts in language which were necessary to win the day for abortionists and their pals.
7. Blood Money: Getting Rich Off a Woman’s Right to Choose by Carol Everett. (Originally published as The Scarlet Lady.) Carol takes you behind the closed doors of the abortion industry as only an insider can. She also shows you the power and awesome love God has for repentant sinners.
8. Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood by George Grant. Think you know the origins, strategies and goals of Planned Parenthood? Think again and carefully read Dr. Grant’s expose`.
9. Aborting America by Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Once upon a time, he was one of America’s leading abortionists, but Dr. Nathanson left the grisly business after a crisis of conscience. That crisis led to this shocking, tell-all book; then to its sequel, The Abortion Papers: Inside the Abortion Mentality; and finally to salvation from sin as he surrendered to the cause of Jesus Christ. That story (The Hand of God) also makes powerful reading.
10. In this number ten slot, let me list several other titles. They too represent books that could easily make the list of most important reading for pro-life Christians so consider number 10 an extended bibliography of sorts.
Closed: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion by Joe Scheidler;
Without Moral Limits by Debra Evans;
Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue by R.C. Sproul;
Gianna by Gianna Jesson;
Christian Manifesto by Francis Schaeffer;
Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? by Randy Alcorn;
Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America by Marvin Olasky;
The Silent Holocaust by Fr. John Powell;
Humanae Vitae by Pope John Paul II;
The War Against Population by Jackie Kasun;
Forced Exit by Wesley Smith; and
When Is It Right to Die: Suicide, Euthanasia, Suffering, Mercy by Joni Eareckson Tada
You’ll learn much you can use in the service of “the least of these” from any of these excellent titles. Good reading.
