Country Star RaeLynn Says Her Mom’s Near-Abortion Made Her a Fighter for Life

For the longest time, country music was a safe space for conservatives in an entertainment industry on woke hyperdrive. But a battle’s been brewing in the genre for the last few years, as young activists like Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris try to infect Nashville with their own brand of political extremism. By and large, country has remained true to its patriotic, freedom-loving values. And stars like RaeLynn are doing their best to keep it that way. 

The blonde “firecracker,” as she calls herself, hasn’t shied away from her Christian faith since arriving on the scene a decade ago. But since marrying her Green Beret husband, Josh Davis, and having a little girl, she’s felt more compelled than ever to put her convictions front and center. “I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I’m a songwriter. I’m a country artist — and I guess now an influencer, whatever that means,” she joked in a new interview with PragerU. 

Growing up in a broken home, an experience she sings about in a heart-wrenching track called “Love Triangle,” the Texan says, “The biggest thing in our home was the Bible and Jesus. My family had a church in Baytown, and so I grew up always at the church, always serving our community. I wouldn’t have anything without God, and I know that for sure.” 

But as much as she loved her roots, RaeLynn says she knew she was “a little too rough around the edges for Christian music.” So she turned to country. “I just loved the songwriting … and I loved the honky tonk music and the fiddles and the guitar, but mainly the storytelling.” After a chance encounter in a coffee shop where she was singing, RaeLynn says she was encouraged to try out for “The Voice.” “I ended up making the show. Blake [Shelton] and Adam [Levine] both turned around for me,” a sign she’d been chosen, “and in that moment, my life did change. I never in a million years thought that I would be on a huge national television show.” 

Three hugely popular albums later, RaeLynn has leaned into the personal part of her story — sharing intimate details about her family in her recent songs. One of them from 2021, “She Chose Me,” is a deeply moving track about how her mom, a married woman facing an unexpected pregnancy with another man, thought abortion was the only way out.

In her mid-20s, “I started asking questions,” she explained in a conversation a couple of years ago, “and I found out some truths that I didn’t necessarily know. And it was hard for me to know that my mom almost didn’t choose me, almost decided that she didn’t know if that was the right path for her.” She even, in an interview with Candace Owens, said her mom had gone so far as to make an appointment to end RaeLynn’s life. “But I am so grateful that she decided to keep me and make that decision.” 

“She was a Bible Belt lovin’ believer
With a 12-year ring on her hand
Got a little too close to the fire
And started burnin’ for another man

“One thing lead to another
At a motel in Galveston Bay
They didn’t know it at the time
But more than just love was made
That’s one h*** of a choice to make

“She didn’t know where to turn to
But she knew a way to take it back

“She had it written into her schedule
Like just another thing to do
But that box never got checked off
And I’m sittin’ here livin’ proof

“She could have tied a different ribbon to the ending of the story
Could have kept her secret, gotten out before it
Changed her life, she could’ve changed her mind and changed everything
But she chose me, she chose me"

Talking to PragerU, RaeLynn explained that her mom was married, but they were “split up.” “She met my dad, and she got pregnant with me. And at the time, I think her and her husband were thinking about getting back together, because they have four children together. I mean, they’d been married for 12 years. At the time, she was considering to have an abortion. The quick fix is, ‘Hey, I’d rather not have this kid and make sure our family unit stays together or have this child.’”

But she chose life.

When RaeLynn was done with the song, she started having second thoughts. She said she wasn’t sure she wanted to release it. “But when I was picking songs for my record, I just could not stop thinking about ‘She Chose Me.’ I really do believe that God gives you a platform for a reason. And so we released [it]. Within I think, two weeks, there [were] over 750,000 videos made between TikTok and Instagram and all these different platforms of women telling their stories of how they chose life. And we just had Daisy,” their daughter. “So I was literally in my rocker, nursing my child, watching these videos, bawling my eyes out because I was just so thankful.”

It was having her daughter, RaeLynn says, that not only made her a better artist, but it was “a big reason why I felt more comfortable being more open about my beliefs. Because if I’m silent, what is that telling my daughter?”

That’s not to say there hasn’t been a cost. “Friends that have been my friends for 10 years weren’t my friends anymore, because I released a song about my story.” But, she insisted, “I truly do believe every child is a miracle. I’ve always been somebody that’s advocated for the underdog, the unborn. They’re the ultimate underdogs…” And what drew her to country music, she pointed out, “are the stories we can tell.” 

“We can be so vulnerable with our fans, and we can be so vulnerable in the lyrics that we write. I’ve always unapologetically loved Jesus, loved America, been an advocate for life, and the music industry. Now it’s scary because everybody’s like tiptoeing around each other.” But, at the end of the day, RaeLynn urges, “people relate to those stories.” And if there’s going to be an “awakening” in this country, and if America is “going to break those barriers,” artists need to “continu[e] to write songs that change the narrative, continu[e] to tell our stories. It’s important to fight for the right to write and sing what you believe.”

As for RaeLynn, she joins the ranks of so many well-known talents the world would have never known if their mothers hadn’t made the courageous choice. Like Steph Curry, J.K. Dobbins, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Tim Tebow, Pope John Paul II, and Steve Jobs, RaeLynn was fortunate. But for every baby like her, there are millions more whose lives end before they begin. Theirs are the voices we’ll never hear, performances we’ll never see, the Olympic winners we’ll never meet because of abortion. If RaeLynn’s song can save just one of them, it will mean more than any Grammys ever would. 

“I think the best thing that we can do as Americans,” she urged, “especially ones that have a platform and a voice, is to spread truth and love,” she urged. “You got to find your convictions. The more we continue to write what’s on our heart and be more not even just outspoken — but being unapologetically ourselves and standing up for what we believe in — that will kind of help change that narrative. Find those convictions that you have. Find what makes you authentic and stick to it.”