There is a new (at least to me) artist who has released what some have dubbed the most pro-life song ever. I think Seventh Angel might like to have a word, but my point is not quibble over that point; I’d like to help spread this song around, because it’s pretty awesome. I do have some slight issues with the song, but we’ll get to that at the end.

The song is “I Was Gonna Be” by Rachel Holt. It’s a country song, which is not my favorite genre, but I found the song to be musically pretty enjoyable, the imagery in the video really powerful, and — the most important part — the lyrics, in the words of Michael Knowles — very arresting. Listen to the song (and watch the video). I’ll have the lyrics underneath.

Here are the lyrics:

Some don’t believe I’m a livin’ soul
Just a bad mistake that needs to go
If my momma could’ve just seen my face
Then maybe she would’ve had me anyway

And there are those who speak for me
Who fight for lives that they can’t see
But there are some who only mourn
This life of mine if I were born

And all I wanted was a chance
To learn to love, and laugh, and dance
Oh, but I was gone before I arrived
Sent back to Heaven on a starlight flight
Yeah, I was gonna change the world
And I was gonna be a girl

First thing I was gonna do
Was breathe and fall in love with you
But a couple of weeks before I saw the light
Mine flickered out when you changed your mind

And all I wanted was a chance
To learn to love, and laugh, and dance
Oh, but I was gone before I arrived
Sent back to Heaven on a starlight flight
I was gonna have some pretty curls
And I was gonna be a girl

I’m more than just some one-night stand
Or some burden that you think I am
And there ain’t no man who’s ever gonna be
What I was gonna be

Some don’t believe I’m a livin’ soul
Just a bad mistake that needs to go

https://www.rockol.com/uk/lyrics-290727997/rachel-holt-i-was-gonna-be

Overall, I think this is a fantastic song. It paints such a poignant picture of the cost of abortion from the aborted’s perspective. Just amazing. Those words, sung with the pretty soprano and the gentle instruments, are just incredible.

I do have two little nits to pick, though. The first is the line “Sent back to Heaven on a starlight flight”. This is a minor point, but we don’t start in Heaven first, then become humans. We come into existence at conception, an amazing and enduring act of creation still happening today that I’m not sure we fully appreciate. That said, it’s a minor thing, and I get the poetic aspect of the line, so … meh. 🙂

The other issue is a bit more serious: “I was gonna be a girl” While this may seem like splitting hairs, it’s not: “she” wasn’t going to be a girl. She was a girl. One of the pro-life arguments is that life begins at conception (there’s really no other place life can start, logically or rationally, but more on that another time). If that’s true (and it is ;), then “she” was already a girl, even if she didn’t look like one, or was still in her mother’s womb. She was a little girl from the moment of conception until her untimely death at the hands of Dr. Hatchet.

This girl, of course, is fictional, but she’s representative of thousands of real little girls (and boys) who are murdered every day for, more often than not, reasons as sad and mundane as concerns over careers. Of course, women who are considering abortion (or who have had abortions) need our care and compassion, but so do the young lives in their wombs who are so very dependent on the adults around the mother considering such a fatal decision.

Give the song a listen. I hope it changes someone’s mind.