Her fears were confirmed by the appearance of an extra blue line on the pregnancy test. Juanita had seen information about assistance with unplanned pregnancies at an abortion center. She decided to schedule a visit.

At the facility, an ultrasound confirmed that she was six weeks pregnant. The medical assistant explained the procedure for medical abortion: She was to take a single abortion pill (RU-486 or mifepristone) and follow it the next day with another pill (misoprostol).

The clinic staff told Juanita that the side effects of misoprostol were limited to mild cramping and bleeding. She was skeptical about how the side effects were minimized but felt like she had to
end her pregnancy. She swallowed the first pill quickly and would take the rest the next day.

Abortion Pill Reversal is Possible

Juanita told her husband as soon as she got home, and she began to regret her decision almost immediately. Her husband had seemed excited that she was pregnant and was disappointed to learn she had taken the abortion pill. Juanita felt awful. She desperately wished she could somehow turn back the clock.

She called the abortion provider about reversing the effects of the pill she had taken. They told her there was nothing they could do.

Her mood changed from regret to anguish. Lord help me, Juanita prayed silently. There must be a way.
She Googled “abortion reversal” and found Abortion Pill Rescue. The website offered her the assistance she was told wasn’t possible only moments before, along with a toll-free, 24-hour phone number.

Juanita called, and within 20 minutes, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. Kelly, one of the hundreds of volunteer nurses in the Abortion Pill Reversal Network (APRN), quickly conveyed the key details of
Juanita’s story, her phone number and when she’d taken the first abortion pill.

I phoned Juanita and told her that I was one of the network’s physicians. I confirmed the facts of her situation, reviewed her medical history and asked additional questions. Then I explained the reversal process, arranged for her to obtain the medication she needed at her pharmacy and set a time to meet with her at my office.

I saw Juanita and her husband a few days later. While she had experienced some light spotting and cramping, a bedside ultrasound confirmed her baby’s heartbeat and as well as fetal movement. She decided to continue prenatal care with me in my practice, and she successfully delivered a healthy baby boy just a couple of months ago.

Having a Choice – Abortion Pill Reversal

Many women agonize about the decision to abort a child. Frederica Mathewes-Green, a researcher and author who once identified as “pro-choice,” summed up the feelings of many on both sides of the debate: “No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg.”

And yet Juanita’s story is increasingly common in an age where it is estimated by Guttmacher that over 50% of abortions are now chemical rather than surgical. The abortion pill, after all, seemingly simplifies the process. Instead of a surgical procedure, a woman only has to take a single mifepristone pill followed by additional medication to cause cramping and the evacuation of the now-dead baby. These pills can be used up until nine weeks of pregnancy. A research study claims that the regimen is 98% effective in ending a pregnancy.

Mifepristone works by blocking the receptor sites for progesterone – a naturally occurring hormone that typically rises rapidly in early pregnancy and is critical for the sustenance of a developing fetus in the first trimester. The antidote, therefore, is to provide enough additional progesterone to the mother to overwhelm the abortion pill and keep it from successfully blocking the hormonal support necessary for the baby.

While many women and health care professionals are unaware of the option, the abortion pill reversal strategy has been in place for almost 10 years, and the network has grown to more than 1,000 health care professionals around the country who volunteer to assist women who’ve changed their minds after an initial decision to have a chemical abortion.

Additional Resources:

• Overlooked Dangers of Mifepristone, the FDA’s Reduced REMS, and Self-Managed Abortion Policies: Unwanted Abortions, Unnecessary Abortions, Unsafe Abortions
• The Evolution of “Self-Managed” Abortion: Does the Safety of Women Seeking Abortion Even Matter Anymore?

Reversal is both possible and safe

How well does the reversal process work? Since Dr. George Delgado first started APRN, more than 4000 babies have been rescued from a death initiated through chemical abortion. Initial studies show that 64-68% of women who take progesterone within 72 hours of having taken the abortion pill are able to continue their pregnancies.

Of course, this means that some 35% of women won’t be as fortunate as Juanita and will lose their baby. For perspective, approximately 20% of normal pregnancies end in miscarriage even if the mother never takes an abortion pill. That makes the impact of the abortion pill reversal protocol even more significant.

Whether or not a woman who changes her mind after beginning a chemical abortion is able to carry the pregnancy to term, she ought to at least be offered the choice. Yet many doctors who claim to be
“pro-choice” are opposed to offering this information to women.

Supplemental progesterone has been used safely during pregnancy for more than 40 years and is a critical treatment offered to women who have inadequate hormone production from their own ovaries
during the first trimester. Moreover, there is no evidence to date linking mifepristone or progesterone to an increase in fetal birth defects.

Simply put, abortion reversal for medical abortion is both possible and safe. When the proper protocol is
followed, it is successful in about two out of three pregnancies when given to a woman who has changed her mind after taking an abortion pill. Explaining this option is a simple matter of matter of open, honest and informed consent.

To hide the option from a woman or deny her access to this treatment is unethical. Thankfully for Juanita and her baby, she found the Abortion Pill Network in time.

If you or someone you know has taken the first dose of the abortion pill, only to regret the decision and wish to reverse the process, visit www.AbortionPillReversal.com or call their 24-hour helpline at 877-558-0333. Time is of the essence.

The post When it’s Not Too Late: Can the Abortion Pill be Reversed? appeared first on Focus on the Family.

What is the SLED Test?

We all agree that toddlers are valuable human beings with rights. Yet the unborn differ from toddlers in only four ways, and the first letters of each of these differences spell an easy-to-remember acronym, SLED: 

• Size
• Level of Development
• Environment
• Degree of Dependency.

"Trotting out the Toddler"

Here’s how to use the SLED test with a technique I like to call “trotting out the toddler.”

• The unborn is smaller than the toddler, but toddlers are smaller than adults.
• The unborn is less developed than the toddler, but toddlers are less developed than elementary school kids.
• The unborn is in a different location than the toddler, but toddlers can change environments without changing their value.
• Finally, the unborn is more dependent than a toddler, but toddlers are more dependent than adolescents (even if some parents would deny this). And many other born people depend on medications, caregivers, and spacesuits to sustain their lives. They are more dependent than those who don’t need these things.

So, there are only four ways the unborn differ from toddlers, but many toddlers and other born humans differ in exactly the same ways. So how can we justify killing the unborn on these grounds, when we protect born humans who have the same deficiencies?

The SLED Test Meets the Real World

Anyone who has talked with an abortion advocate knows that the dynamics of real conversation many times make it impossible to give a four-step argument like the SLED Test. Sometimes people have a short attention span or want to focus on just one of these points. Even still, items from the SLED test come up frequently in any conversation on abortion. All you have to do is keep watch for them, then respond with a response from the SLED Test.

Here are the SLED concerns I hear repeated most frequently on campus, followed by my most favored response(s). Learn these, and you’ll be in good shape!

Size

"How can Something so Small be a Person? It Looks Like a Clump of Cells."

“Why should we believe that microscopic human beings aren’t persons? Are you saying those who are larger have the right to determine whether those who are smaller deserve to exist? Doesn’t that sound like discrimination? Would that be called sizism? And to disqualify someone because their body is undeveloped sounds mean. How is your statement different from saying to a disabled person that he doesn’t count because of how his body looks and works? Should we call that developmentism, discrimination against someone for the body she’s developed? Think of a two-year-old: Isn’t she smaller than the rest of us? But she has equal value to adults in spite of her small stature. If she’s valuable, size is irrelevant to value, right? Isn’t the embryo valuable too?”

Additional Resources:

• Speaking Up to Defend Life
• Should Abortion Be Legal?
• Is Abortion Murder?
• Abortion Rights in a Post-Roe World
• Abortion Stories: Procuring, Coercion and Walking Out
• Pro-Life and Pro-Choice: What Does It Mean?

Level of Development

"The Unborn Can't Think or Feel Pain or Know That It Exists."

“There’s a debate about when we develop these abilities, but the embryo can’t do any of these things. But is our value really based on our abilities? After all, even adults differ in how well they think or how sensitive they are to pain or how self-aware they are. How can you value all of these people the same even though some of them can’t think well? And some children, like Gabby Gingras, can’t feel pain at all. Are they disqualified? Some severely disabled people aren’t self-aware. People in a reversible coma aren’t thinking, feeling pain, and they definitely aren’t aware of themselves. In order to be consistent, aren’t you going to have to disqualify all of these people with disabilities too? And if not, shouldn’t we value the unborn, who is also a human being?”

Environment

"It's Not in the World Yet. It Doesn't Even Breathe Air."

“What do you mean by saying the unborn isn’t ‘in the world?’ Surely the unborn is in the world — it’s simply hidden from view. It doesn’t interact with you and me like a toddler does, but isn’t he interacting with his mother in exactly the way someone at his stage of development should? It’s interesting that you claim the unborn is not breathing air. 

“Do you mean that he isn’t even undergoing oxygen exchange, or respiration? All of us did that from the moment we began to exist as zygotes. But you must think breathing air into the lungs is critical for value. What is it about the unborn’s method of respiration or the location of her respiration that diminishes her value? Let me ask you a question. How long can you breathe under water? For about one swallow of water, right? Well, did you know that the unborn is not only surrounded by amniotic fluid, she is breathing it in and out of her lungs? If you can’t survive in her world, why do you expect her to survive in yours? Isn’t that a bit arbitrary and unfair?”

Degree of Dependency

"The Unborn is Totally Dependent on Only One Person."

“So let me see if I understand your concern. Are you saying that since the unborn can’t survive without the mother, that it’s dependent in a different way than a toddler, who can survive with any caretaker? So, being dependent on only one person is what disqualifies the unborn?

 Imagine that you are the last person to leave a swimming pool area and you know everyone else has left and are miles away. As you’re closing the gate, you hear a splash in the pool as an infant falls into the pool. Evidently, her parents forgot her and left her at the pool. How are you going to respond? You would save that infant, right? But why? She’s dependent on only one person – You. Isn’t it the case that human beings are valuable even if they’re dependent on only one person? If we don’t disqualify the infant that’s totally dependent on only one person, why disqualify the unborn? Dependency is irrelevant to value…and doesn’t dependency usually signal that we have an obligation to the dependent person, not a right to terminate them?”

The post The SLED Test – Four Top Arguments appeared first on Focus on the Family.

Pro #1: "Pro-Life Just Means Pro-Birth"

Often, the debates on abortion tend to center solely around birth. And while every child certainly deserves to live outside of the womb – that’s not all the pro-life movement is about. Instead, being pro-life encompasses many amazing ministries and support systems for women, babies and families. This includes things like: 

• Parenting education
• Housing
• Mentoring
• Special needs
• Prison ministry
• Elder care
• Foster care
• Adoption
• Baby supplies
• Post-abortive care (physical and emotional abortion complications effect one-third of women)
• Equality and race (the history of abortion is steeped with dark issues, including eugenics)

Additionally, if the tax dollars (1.5 billion) given to abortion are instead redirected to post-birth resources, it would significantly relieve the burden of parenting or adoption. The pro-life movement could take those already-allocated government resources and fill the desire for abortion with love and support for families, whether Roe is overturned or not. Women shouldn’t have to fear a world without abortion.

Pro #2: "Abortion Solves Overpopulation"

The idea that overpopulation is solved by abortion has a few flaws. For one, the U.S. has enough capacity to feed twice the amount of people it currently does. Additionally, if foreign countries tweak agricultural processes, they won’t need the food exports that the U.S. provides. So food will certainly not be scarce if abortions cease to exist.  

Another challenge to the overpopulation argument is that lower birth rates naturally lead to higher economic consumption and output. This means that even if abortions continue or even increase, carbon emissions will remain consistent. In fact, studies show that couples with no children can produce even more harmful emissions, so children can actually be thought to benefit the issue at hand rather than exaggerate it. 

But even considering the points above, let’s assume a higher birth rate negatively impacts overpopulation. Would we take the lives of those outside of the womb to improve life for the rest of us? I’d sure hope not. And since the pro-life movement believes a child is alive before birth, there is no difference when comparing the two. 

Plus, with all the environmental, physical and emotional toll on our current culture – why wouldn’t we want even more fresh minds coming together to help solve those issues? The gift of life is not obstructive, as some may say. It can instead be a breath of fresh air for our hurting world if we allow it. 

Pro #5: "My Body, My Choice"

Perhaps the most common case for abortion is that it’s “my body, my choice.” At first glance, it’s not too hard to fathom why someone would support such a statement. After all, women’s rights are objectively crucial to our society, and women should have bodily autonomy. But what the pro-life movement believes isn’t about taking away those rights. Instead, it’s about drawing a line when it takes another’s rights. Take, for example, when a pregnant mother is killed. It’s considered in some places to be a double homicide because of the second life to account for. A similar parallel can be made with abortion.

We champion equality for all, regardless of their stage in life, dependency, gender, race or needs. It’s about indiscriminate value for every single human life. And just as any other human rights movement, advocates must speak up for the victims of prejudice. Since preborn children cannot defend their rights, pro-lifers are dedicated to magnifying the injustice of abortion for preborn children and the families it wreaks havoc on. 

The post Abortion Pros and Cons: 5 Pro-Life Arguments appeared first on Focus on the Family.

Growing up in a pastor’s home we saw our parents as the pastor and his wife on Sunday – then during the week, we saw them as Dad and Mom. And I’m proud to say they are the same people. My parents’ values were consistent and visible in every part of their lives all the time. Then, when I was in third grade, they became licensed foster parents specifically to be a welcoming home for expectant teenagers.  My dad worked in hospice so he could comfort and share Jesus with those facing their own undeniable mortality. 

Still, my parents live out the Biblical value of when life begins.. As kids, we saw it. It shaped us. And now, it informs how we raise our kids. Additionally, because of the values instilled in us by Jesus through our parents’ lifelong example, we started helping our kids with their own pro-life projects.

Take the Next Step

These are things anyone can do. You can. Your kids can.

Kids are learning. All the time. They’re seeing in you what’s important, and they’re learning now to protect and value the lives of others. Not everything has to be a big effort – pray for God to use your family and to be faithful when He does! (In fact – attending a Bible-believing church is a great place to start. Get your children in church around others who share and will encourage your children in Biblical values.)

To anyone who doesn’t know where to start, just do anything! Here are a few ideas to get started building pro-life values in your home.

Show Your Kids the Humanity of the Preborn

First and most important: Pray with your kids for the preborn. Second, if you have them, show your kids their own ultrasound pictures. Then emphasize that the little person they see in that scrabbly image is them. The same them. 

Speak positively about every person at every age and ability. Likewise, talk to your kids and let them hear you speaking on behalf of the preborn. Be real with them about the threat to the preborn, but also show them the people bravely standing for them and how they’re doing it.

Teach Them to Use Their Voice for Saving Lives

Take your kids to the March for Life so they can learn that saving lives is a group effort. Also, let them make their own signs and learn how to peacefully demonstrate. Take your kids to your state capitol to meet their representatives. Additionally, did you know you can request a 10-minute appointment with your representative to talk about anything you want? You can! In fact, they value hearing from their constituency. Even if they don’t agree with your values – it makes a difference!  Bring your kids and let them hear you impress on lawmakers the value, humanity and rights of the preborn. Teach them that their lawmakers are accessible to them – and influenced by them. (Remember to send a thank you!) 

Pay attention to the legislative bills in your state. Next, call the legislative hotline and respectfully request your representative vote according to your pro-life beliefs (“Please oppose HB1234”). Policymakers weigh public perception and contact from voters heavily in their decisions; after all, it’s how they keep their jobs. Therefore, a phone call to a representative (takes less than 1 minute) can make a big difference! Get others to call, too. Teach children to use their voices. Sign them up for a public speaking or debate class. Equip them to use their words powerfully, effectively and respectfully for the preborn, who cannot speak for themselves.

Show Them Saving Lives Means Action

Ask your pastor or elders where to get involved. It doesn’t have to be the perfect project or ministry. Simply help where they suggest! Pray for a servant’s heart. Help moms. For example, offer to babysit for a single mom. Accompany an expectant mom to an appointment. Help find baby items for unexpectedly expecting moms. Post on your social accounts offering to help those in an unexpected pregnancy. Become a sidewalk advocate, offering to pray near Planned Parenthood with moms considering abortion. Help your local pregnancy resource clinic. Next time you’re at the grocery store, let the kids pick out a pack of diapers or formula to take to the local pregnancy resource clinic or pregnancy help organization and drop it off together on your way home.

Help kids in foster care. Further, donate to foster programs and support foster families. Focus on the Family’s Wait No More Program has a great cause in sending a new suitcase, teddy bear and Bible to kids in foster care. 

Help pro-life ministries. One great way of doing so is to donate to Focus on the Family’s Option Ultrasound Program to help provide women with free ultrasounds and so much more. Many women choose life after hearing and seeing their baby’s heartbeat! Or, call your local pregnancy resource clinic and ask if they have a specific need you can help meet! Pray for those who are working faithfully in this ministry every day.

Remember, you are fighting for someone’s life. You might one day even meet the baby you helped save!

Saving Lives Takes Work

But even if we do these things only to be met by angry faces or discouragement, remember that we do this because it is right. And because it is teaching our children. So, fight the good fight and remember to do everything with prayer.

Kids will grow up to look back on their childhood and remember what they saw in you and what was important to you. Something as simple as the mug received when you stood alone for the preborn can be a powerful reminder for them. Your love for Jesus and your example matter. 

Let your kids see you take that brave stand for those who cannot defend themselves. Pray to shape them into people of action; leaders in a world that will need them. And never get tired of doing what’s good.

Here’s 2 you.

The post How These Kids Are Saving Lives appeared first on Focus on the Family.

Theories of Personhood and Their Inevitable Complications

Theory of Genetic Criteria

One popular yet simplistic theory of personhood is on the basis of genetics. This theory promotes that if something contains human DNA, and that DNA is unique, personhood is present. At first glance, it makes logical sense. However, there are some complications that we should address.

For instance, if personhood only requires that something contains human DNA, how do we make sense of things like hair falling out of people’s heads as they walk down the street? Or, what about saliva that exists in the mouth of an individual who is having a conversation? The strand of hair and the droplet of saliva both contain human DNA, but those substances could never qualify for personhood on their own. Rather, personhood is more than just DNA, though our genetic makeup plays a crucial role in helping us understand ourselves. Let’s dive a bit deeper into that.

Theory of Sentience

According to philosopher Peter Singer, personhood should solely be defined on ability to feel pleasure and pain. In short, if a being is sentient, the being has personhood. But, in order to agree with Singer’s claims, one must then agree all animals are persons due to their ability to feel the same. Furthermore, if animals are persons and humans are persons, there is no longer a distinction in value between animals and humans. Of course, this idea runs in direct opposition to the Judeo-Christian worldview, as God graciously granted humanity dominion over all creation.

Theory of Cognitive Criteria

Next, “The Cognitive Criteria of Personhood” was created by Mary Anne Warren in 1973, where she lists the five requirements for a person to exist. The criteria includes consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, ability to communicate and self-awareness.

Today, Mary Anne Warren’s criteria for personhood is a topic that abortion activists around the world frequently utilize. Many attempt to use her theory as a sword to cut down the value of preborn life, claiming they seemingly do not meet her five requirements. However, to subscribe to Warren’s cognitive criteria for personhood, one must be comfortable with removing the title of “person” from all children under 18 months old. Child development research points to self-awareness occurring at 18 months old, thereby disqualifying any younger babies from personhood according to Warren’s argument.

Personhood According to Scripture

Humans continue to relentlessly attempt to sort out what constitutes a person. Still, only the Creator of all persons has the authority and intelligence to decipher the criteria. The Bible, God’s beautiful breath of life, sheds light on the true realities of personhood. God gives us his criteria for personhood on the very first page of the Bible, where He says, “Let us make man in our own image.”

Made Distinctly in His Image

God created humanity with distinction from the remainder of creation. And, though He believes all of His creation is good, God intentionally created man in His own image. Personhood is exclusive to humanity and is only detectable through creation marked by the likeness of God. For example, Jesus, being fully God and fully man, walked the Earth as a person. In fact, Jesus is the most accurate picture of personhood to ever exist, because Jesus is the only person to ever bear the image of God with perfection and purity.

The concept of personhood interweaves all throughout scripture, always tying back to being created in the image of God. Any time God creates a human, He creates them with love. Because the human is made in the likeness of God, they qualify for personhood.

So, you may be thinking, “when does the Bible say that personhood begins?” The answer is simple: when God begins to form the human. He forms all of humanity in His image, and His formation indicates tremendous value. 

God’s loving and mighty hand forms every human in the womb. The very moment God begins to form a human, that human is a person, and that person holds value because they are made in the image of God.

So, pray today for all of the little persons who are at risk of losing their life to abortion. Pray for courage to fill the hearts of their mothers. Pray that the Holy Spirit makes our hearts tender to the personhood of the unborn, so that we can protect life from the moment of conception.

A person is a person, no matter how small.

Dr. Suess

The post Personhood Explained appeared first on Focus on the Family.

I grew up in the predominantly liberal and “pro-choice” state of Connecticut. In my state, teenagers are required by law to get their parent’s permission if they want a tattoo, a piercing or a professional tan, yet when it comes to getting a surgical or medical abortion, their parents don’t even have to know about their decision.

I attended a few different churches growing up, but I don’t recall ever hearing a message on abortion. I went to public schools from kindergarten through college, yet never heard abortion discussed by my teachers as anything more than a woman’s right or basic health care. When a friend got an abortion in high school, I was only worried because her parents found out. My ignorance about abortion made me apathetic.

It wasn’t until I was in college that my mother told me a story that would change my life. In 1981, in Hartford, Connecticut, my mother had an appointment to abort me. She met with a “counselor” who didn’t give her any actual counsel. Instead, she told her, “This seems like the best decision for you to make.” The abortion was paid for, and she was already wearing the medical gown.

She Said Yes

But, in that eleventh hour, God heard her silent cry. He sent a janitor, an elderly African American woman, to approach my mother, to look her in the eye as she was crying in the hallway, and to say, “Do you want to have this baby?”

And my mother said yes. She said yes.

The janitor told her, “God will give you the strength to have your baby.”

When my mother went to the waiting room to retrieve her things, the doctor called her name. She then went back to the procedure room, where there was blood on the floor from the last abortion.

Alternatives to Abortion: Pregnancy Resource Centers

“I’m leaving,” my mother told him. “I’m keeping my child.” And he said, “No. You’ve already paid for this.” He told her she was just nervous and yelled at her: “Don’t leave this room!”

Thankfully she did not listen to him. She walked out. I owe my life to my mother’s courage in that moment.

Abortion and the Black Community

That shocking revelation set me on a path to discover the truth I’d never been taught. What I learned about abortion burdened me so greatly that I’ve dedicated my life to fighting against it.

There’s a popular saying among some Christians that the devil’s greatest trick is convincing the world that he doesn’t exist. We know that evil exists in our world, but actually considering its depths makes us fearful and uncomfortable. We’re left with the choice to passively ignore evil or actively confront it.

I eventually learned about the dark history of the pro-abortion movement.

Even after becoming pro-life in college, I was unaware of how much devastation abortion has brought to the black community. I have a passion for black history and have a collection of books about the lives of abolitionists, civil rights and community leaders. So when I realized that early American supporters of birth control and abortion pushed it as a means to reduce the African American population, I was livid. Some of the things I learned that stirred my heart to action were…

Margaret Sanger Had a “Negro Project” Specifically Targeting the Black Community

In a 1939 letter to Dr. C.J. Gamble, a member of the Birth Control Federation of America, Margaret Sanger laid out her plans to hire black ministers to push birth control: “The ministers’ work is also important and also he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. And the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Sanger knew that most Americans weren’t ready to accept abortion, so she proposed that laws against birth control be abolished first. Although this quote has been explained away by Sanger apologists, it’s just one piece of her writings that fit in a puzzle, exposing her racist views.

Leaders in the African American Community, Such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Once Publicly Opposed Abortion

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told Jet magazine in their March 22, 1973 edition: “Abortion is genocide. Anything growing is living… If you got the thrill to set the baby in motion and you don’t have the will to protect it, you’re dishonest… You try to avoid reproducing sickness. You try to avoid reproducing deformities. But you don’t try to stop reproducing and procreating human life at its best. For who knows the cure for cancer won’t come out of some mind of some black child?”

Jackson made many other stirring, pro-life statements, but later changed his opinion when he ran for president as a Democrat and adopted the party’s stand on abortion.

Christina Bennett shares the importance standing for life in the black community.

The Vast Majority of Abortion Clinics Are Located in Black/Hispanic Neighborhoods

Protecting Black Life, an outreach of Life Issues Institute, released data that reported: “79% of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are strategically located within walking distance of African and/or Hispanic communities.” It’s a leading factor as to why black women are five times more likely to have an abortion than white women. Abortion clinics are strategically placed in their neighborhoods to provide these services.

The Black Abortion Rate is the Highest in the Country

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own research highlights the disproportionate rate of abortions. The CDC’s 2019 Abortion Surveillance Report shows that black women obtained 38% of reported abortions. The same report reveals that black women have the highest abortion ratio in the country, with 386 abortions per 1,000 live births. According to the Center for Urban Renewal and Education’s 2015 policy report, “more than 19 million black babies have been aborted since 1973.”

Standing Against Abortion

As an African American woman, I enjoy many rights today because those who came before me earnestly fought for them. The right to vote, to attend a school of my choosing or even sit in certain restaurants is available to me because others sacrificed greatly. Yet, I wouldn’t enjoy any of those rights if I never made it out of the womb.

Without the right to life, we have no other rights. As a member of the black community, I know we’ve come too far to allow our race to be decreased because of abortion.

Planned Parenthood presents abortion as a cure for women facing an unplanned pregnancy, yet issues like poverty, lack of support and other challenging circumstances should never equal a death sentence for a child. As pro-lifers, we must work together to make this nation a safer place for women and their families.

The fight to protect preborn life is an extension of the civil rights movement. It is indeed the human rights movement of our day.

The post Abortion’s Impact on the Black Community appeared first on Focus on the Family.

Abortion Facts

Based on accumulative data from the two primary sources of U.S. abortion statistics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Guttmacher Institute), the United States has over 600,000 abortions performed each year. Since 1973, we estimate more than 63 million abortions have been performed in the United States.

• Based on more recent data, about 1 in 4 women (24%) will have an abortion by age 45.
• Additionally, nearly half of all U.S. abortion patients are in their twenties.
• Adolescents make up around 12% of abortion patients.
• About 6 out of every 10 women who have an abortion (59%) already have one or more children.
• 51% of abortion patients were using contraception during the month they became pregnant.
• It’s estimated that about half of the patients who receive an abortion pay for it out of pocket.
• Over half of abortion patients (54%) identify as Christian (30% Protestant, 24% Catholic).

America's Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice Stats

• Furthermore, according to the 2021 Gallup poll, among 1,016 interviews, 49% were pro-choice, 47% were pro-life and 5% held no opinion.
• Also, the 2021 Gallup poll recorded that, among pro-choicers, 50% were non-Hispanic or White Americans, while 47% were non-White or Hispanic Americans. In contrast, pro-lifers were 46% Non-Hispanic White Americans and 48% Hispanic or Non-White Americans.

Additionally, a Barna poll from 2016 explored Americans’ views on abortion, asking if they believe “abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, or illegal in all cases.” Given these four options, the nation’s population leans toward retaining legal status for abortion:

• 64% prefer keeping it legal in all or most cases.
• In contrast, 36% would like to make it illegal in all or most instances.

However, these percentages have showed varying and competitive percentages throughout the years. More recently, a separate study by Barna in 2018, one focused on learning the morality of Gen Z, found that: 

• In comparison to Millennials, members of Gen Z are less likely believe that abortion is wrong.
• Furthermore, the study observed that, “Gen Z as a whole are generally opposed to challenging others’ beliefs, likely driven by a desire to avoid offense or to acknowledge the value of other perspectives.”

More facts about abortion:

• Pro-Life and Pro-Choice: What does it mean?
• Free Dignity of Human Life Toolbox

Research on Medication Abortions

• Abortion via the abortion pill accounted for 39% of all abortions in 2017. This percentage has risen as in-clinic abortions have declined.
• According to Micromedex, symptoms of the abortion pill include: headache (up to 44%), nausea (43-61%), vomiting (18-26%), diarrhea (12-40%), fatigue (10%), cramping and pain (96%).
• Additionally, the medical abortion process may mask symptoms of ectopic pregnancy. 
• Currently, the abortion pill is provided up to 10 weeks’ gestation.

For more information about the abortion pill and it’s reversal check out, “The Abortion Pill: How Does it Work?”

Articles on the truth about abortion:

• The True Cost of Abortion
• Seeing and Serving the Post-Abortive in Our Churches
• Did My Abortion Disqualify Me From Being Used by God?

The post Abortion Facts, Stats and Research appeared first on Focus on the Family.

The Tragedy of Not Seeing

This is the tragedy of today’s political climate surrounding abortion. Most of the world would rather scream with their eyes shut tight than listen with their eyes wide open.

Courthouses and city streets are filled with well-meaning people who don’t realize that the price they’re willing to pay for what they want isn’t worth what’s lost in the process. Is the effort to defend an invasive medical procedure worth the 62 million lives that it has claimed?

Yes? No? How do you know?

If you’ve never seen an ultrasound, it’s hard to understand the feeling of making eye-contact with a preborn person. Oddly, what’s most startling is the revelation that you have come face-to-face with another human. It’s the feeling of life looking back at you that’s shocking.

Peering into Darkness

Before ultrasound technology, the womb was a mysterious place. It was dark and unsearchable, like endless Kentucky fields at night. Then ultrasound, like a flashlight or headlights, illuminated that darkness. This “window into the womb” showed us the reality of what’s resting just beyond our line of sight.

Years before Roe v Wade, and sometime after, we were unsure of what the womb held. Was it a clump of cells, or was it something more? For the most part, Christians have always held onto faith concerning the preborn. We all know about Psalm 139:13-14:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

But like how knowing that deer exist can be eclipsed by seeing their eyes, believing a person exists will never be as powerful as meeting them yourself.

The post I Thought I Was Pro-Life Until I Saw an Ultrasound appeared first on Focus on the Family.

There’s help available for parents navigating the uncharted waters of a pregnancy loss. One group making a difference is String of Pearls out of Denver. They provide guidance and compassion as families decide how to proceed after a fatal prenatal diagnosis.

Laura Huene, founder and president of String of Pearls, walked through her own adverse pregnancy diagnosis when her baby girl, Pearl, was found to have a fatal disorder during a routine ultrasound. The doctor advised them of their options, but as a labor and delivery nurse, Laura already knew the difficulties that lay ahead of them.

Coping with Pregnancy Loss

“There were no more decisions to be made,” she says. “We decided to honor Pearl’s life by carrying her for as long as my body would allow, and to let God be in control of this seemingly out-of-control situation.”

After a hard and emotional delivery, Pearl Jean Huene came into the world at 32 weeks.

“Our time with her is unforgettable,” Laura says. “We were able to lovingly launch her into the arms of Jesus. Not an easy thing to do, but a decision without regrets.”

Laura encourages parents in a similar situation to embrace the moment instead of planning for the end. She tells them to take their preborn baby for ice cream, a swing at the park or have dance parties in the kitchen.

“We already had a trip to Ireland scheduled, but we made it about Pearl,” she says. “We threw rocks in the ocean in Ireland and shouted her name, and visited gorgeous castles and cathedrals. That summer, we spent a lot of time at the pool with the kids. I sunburned my belly so she got her first sunburn.

“The Lord gave us so much grace to be present with our kids instead of being constantly sad. And they watched us grieve well.”

Don't Be Afraid

Whether a baby survives nine weeks or 32 weeks in the womb, Laura says there’s a profound loss of the hopes and dreams that parents carry in their hearts from the moment they learn they’re pregnant. She says women need to give themselves permission to grieve. She also warns that their circle of friends might change.

“The people you thought were going to stand by you are often not brave enough to enter into this time of grief,” she says. “And yet there will be new people you never expected who come out of the woodwork to be by your side.”

Her advice to those friends?

“Do something. Anything. Don’t be afraid to talk about the baby, because you’re not bringing up something that’s not already on their mind 24 hours a day. And don’t be afraid to sit in the sad with people.”

Adriel Booker | Healing After Pregnancy Loss

The post How Families Grieve (and Commemorate) Pregnancy Loss appeared first on Focus on the Family.

Tara, a nurse who works in the NICU at our local hospital, lost her daughter, Blakely, at 36 weeks gestation. She describes her trauma, “The only way I can describe what I was feeling was disbelief and shock. I immediately went numb from head to toe. Delivering her and holding her brought about a whole new level of emotion. The days, weeks and months after that moment were very difficult for me. It was hard to live life because the rest of the world was still moving, and I felt like my life was standing still. I felt as if Blakely was going to be forgotten about, and that gave me a strong drive to help keep her memory alive.”

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted ...

Psalm 34:18 Tweet

It would be a disservice to a grieving mother or father to say that every parent responds to grief the same way. One parent may want to talk about losing the baby, while another grieving parent refuses to speak openly about their child. There does appear to be one common desire that parents share: the need to know that the life of their child mattered.

There are many books and websites dedicated to answering questions and giving advice to those experiencing pregnancy loss.

• Sufficient Grace Ministries has listed helpful insights into what to expect and how to recover from preborn child loss. 
• I’ll Hold You in Heaven. Jack Hayford offers compassionate, reassuring answers for parents who’ve lost children through miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, or early infant death.
• Bridge’s Cradles focuses on healing quotes and scriptures and offers insight into grieving families. In addition, they have ideas for memorials and processing grief. 
• Hope for Today, Promises for Tomorrow. Finding light beyond the shadow of miscarriage or infant loss.
• Buried Dreams: From Devastating Loss to Unimaginable Hope.

Grieving the Child I Never Knew

A wise and tender companion book for mothers whose hearts have been broken--mothers whose dreams have been shattered and who wonder how to go on. A devotional with thoughtful questions and journaling space.

Tara says that reading the Bible, books, and daily devotionals related to loss were helpful to process the stillbirth and Blakely’s absence in her life. Her compassion for those experiencing the same loss inspired her to create a Facebook Page called Blakely’s Breath of Life. Out of this ministry, she distributes beautiful bereavement boxes to the hospital for parents experiencing a similar loss. She has a book, The Truth I’m Standing On, scheduled to be released in November that tells her story with the hope of bringing healing to other mothers.

On Joel’s birthday, Sarah quietly goes to a bakery and pays for a birthday cake that has been ordered for another child. This compassion for others who are hurting comes naturally from those who have suffered inconceivable loss.

Other parents and loved ones affected by stillborn births and miscarriages celebrate the lives of their little ones through the arts. A few years ago, I found a song by Craig Aven called “The Perfect Way To Start.” The writer put into words what my heart wanted to express but did not know how to articulate

The post Losing a Baby: Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness appeared first on Focus on the Family.