Every year, our nation sets aside the second Sunday in May to rightfully honor and pay tribute to the mothers in America. After all, if it weren’t for our mothers, none of us would be alive. This year, I was struck by the degree to which a growing portion of our society appears to believe that Mother’s Day should be updated to also include those who own pets; now referred to as “pet moms.” 

Yep, you read that right: some want pet owners honored right alongside actual mothers on Mother’s Day. Apparently, 60 percent of those who participated in a Lending Tree survey think this is a good idea.

If this seems inconsequential, it’s not. Here’s why: it blurs the line between people and animals, running contrary to natural law.  

The suggestion that pet owners should be celebrated on Mother’s Day dangerously implies that the value of mothering a child is equal to that of taking care of a cat or dog. Not only does this degrade motherhood, it also degrades the value of human life: children and animals are not the same.

Yet, it turns out that almost half of Gen Z cannot see the difference. Another recent poll showed that they see “no difference between their pet and an actual human child” and even go so far as to “consider themselves mom and dad.”  

If we are validating this kind of emotional bonding with animals, it’s no wonder that the birth rate is falling.

What’s more, Gen Z is also the generation that has most strongly supported abortion. According to a Pew Research Center poll from last year, 76 percent of those under the age of 30 said “abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”

Get that? Almost 50 percent of this age group think that pets are like children, but only a quarter think aborting a human baby is wrong. The problem with their perception is obvious: unborn babies are indeed children, but pets are not.

Thankfully, the older generation can still recognize their pets occupy a different category than humans: either a “pet,” a “companion,” or “support system.”

But what explains this generational leap from companion to “literal child,” and why can’t more see that elevating animals on Mother’s Day is degrading both to motherhood and the value of human life?

A good guess is that the left’s atheist influence—which has targeted attacks against motherhood and fights to have millions of unborn babies aborted—has a lot do with it.

Ever since the sexual revolution, the left has portrayed stay-at-home moms as bored and brainless, and children as a burden. Bit-by-bit it has knocked motherhood and the nuclear family using channels in government, civil society, media, academia, and Hollywood to do so.

Not long ago, the left even attempted to do away with Mother’s Day entirely through the United Nations. That’s right—completely abolish Mother’s Day!

A UN Committee known as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)—the international equivalent to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) movement—at the time wrote:  

The Committee is concerned by the continuing prevalence of sex-role stereotypes and by the reintroduction of such symbols as a Mother’s Day and a Mother’s Award, which it sees as encouraging women’s traditional roles. It is also concerned whether the introduction of human rights and gender education aimed at countering such stereotyping is being effectively implemented.

Of course, the Biden administration famously tried to permanently ban from federal communications the term “mother” and replace it with “birthing people.” This was akin to when the Biden White House blasphemously declared it was commemorating transgender visibility day on Easter.

It’s important to also note that as hostility against motherhood has increased—in tandem with America’s growing over-the-top attachment to animals—abortion numbers are rising.

Planned Parenthood this month released its latest annual data showing that it performed an astronomical number of 402,300 abortions in 2022-2023—an increase from the year prior. And to add insult to injury, Planned Parenthood just so happened to drop this report on the Monday immediately following Mother’s Day. (Congress should have defunded this corrupt abortion outfit long ago.)

It should be sickening to all in America that precious unborn babies are daily being discarded and treated like trash. But even more troublesome is that at the same time that more unborn people, image bearers of God, are being aborted, there’s also an upward trend to treat animals like children.  

Clearly this is the wrong trajectory and suggests the possibility that Americans are looking to animals to fill a void that only children are meant to fill.

Some may want to dismiss this correlation, but it would be a mistake to do so. We should not underestimate the impact of the atheist left and how it has hijacked American minds and programmed hearts to feel dull and numb about the value of unborn life.

It boils down to this: it’s okay to love pets, but it’s irrational to elevate animals equal to or above human life. Animals should not be an emotional substitute for children.