Pro LIFE

This is the complete version of the story submitted to me for Talk About Town written by Lissa Gobel.  Following her story, I wrote some additional thoughts, I pray your read this entire story.  God Bless.

Did you also know that there is something you can do to change this statistic?!... Lets not just be disgusted by this, lets DO something about it!  There are many ways to get involved: There are clinics called "Crisis Pregnancy Centers." These are Pro Life centers that are completely "non-profit." They are not to be mistaken for Planned Parenthood centers!! Planned Parenthood centers are government funded and these are Pro CHOICE and they promote abortions!!  You can volunteer your time and your money to a Crisis Pregnancy Center in your area. They always need money and volunteers. They also need donations such as diapers, formula, baby clothes, etc.

I have been a volunteer at a center in Ft. Worth, Tx, for the past several years. I used to do limited ultrasounds on abortion-minded young girls and show them the little life growing inside them and let them hear the baby’s heartbeat. It was amazing to see their faces and the change in them. Currently, I am on the Board of Directors at this center. My background is: I am an RN working in Labor and Delivery and I am going back to school for my PhD in nursing so I can be a Midwife. The center that I am talking about is the Women's Choice Resource Center in Ft. Worth, Tx. These Crisis Pregnancy centers are sooooo important to fight against abortion. When these young girls are shopping around for an abortion, they come into one of these centers and they get loving Christian counseling on adoption and keeping her baby. They also educate these young girls on the physical and mental risks of abortions. When these girls get a sonogram and see their babies growing inside of them, 80% of them change their mind and choose LIFE!! These centers can't stay open though, without financial support from Christian pro-life believers!!

So,.... here's my challenge to all of you on this site... find out where there's a Crisis Pregnancy Center in your area. Make sure they are pro-life (non-profit), Christian organizations that do not refer for abortions!!!  Find out how you can help them. Get your church involved. Have a fund-raiser for them, volunteer your time. What ever you can do.  Let's not just say that we're disgusted by the thought of 50 million abortions, let's DO something to prevent them.

GET INVOLVED.   ALL for Him, Lissa Goble

Comments from Cindy

You hear about the subject of abortion frequently, but do what do you really know about it?  Have you researched this topic yourself or do you just go along with what you hear from your friends and peers?  I did some research for those of you who don’t want to take the time.  First I asked the question, what is abortion?  About.com gave me the answer:  Answer: Abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy after conception. It allows women to put an end to their pregnancies, but involves killing the undeveloped embryo or fetus. For this reason, it is a very controversial subject in American politics.

So who does abortion affect?  I found these abortion statistics in the United States as reported by the Guttmacher Institute in May 2006:

1. Unintended pregnancies account for almost half of all pregnancies.

2. Four out of ten unintended pregnancies end in abortion.

3. Out of the total number of pregnancies, 24% end in abortion.

4. For women ages 15-44, two out of every hundred have an abortion.

Of these, 48% have had one or more abortions previously.

5. For women choosing abortion, 52% are under 25.

Teenagers account for 19%, and women 20-24 account for 33%.

6. Black women are almost four times as likely to have an abortion as white women.

For Latino women, the number is 2.5 times.

7. Women who have never been married account for 2/3rds of all abortions.

8. The majority of women who choose abortions have already given birth.

Mothers who have had one or more children comprise over 60% of all abortions.

9. Women who have never used any birth control method account for 8% of abortions.

10. For women having abortions, 43% are Protestant and 27% identify as Catholic.

What do these statistics say to me?  That abortion affects everyone!  The young, the old, families, people of all color, people of all religions.  I was born in 1959, during that time abortion was not legal, lucky for me.  Things changed dramatically during my teenage years when the landmark case of Roe v Wade legalized abortion January 22, 1973.  Since then, more than 50 million abortions have been performed.  Norma McCorvey, aka as the famous Jane Roe from this landmark case has changed her position on abortion.  An excerpt from her book she said:

I was sitting in O.R.’s offices when I noticed a fetal development poster.  The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet.  It hurt my heart, just looking at them.  I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me.  ’Norma’, I said to myself, ‘They’re right.  I had worked with pregnant women for years.  I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself.  I should have known.  Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath.  I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that’s a baby!  I felt crushed under the truth of this realization.  I had to face up to the awful reality.  Abortion wasn’t about ‘products of conception’.  It wasn’t about “missed periods”.  It was about children being killed in their mother’s wombs.  All those years I was wrong.  Signing that affidavit, I was wrong.  Working in an abortion clinic, I was wrong.  No more f this first trimester, second trimester, third trimester stuff.  Abortion- at any point is wrong.  It was so clear.  Painfully clear

I listen to a higher authority, so I asked, what does the Bible say about abortion.  While many pro-life supporters’ states that abortion is not mentioned in the Bible, I think the Lord makes his position very clear.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…

Jeremiah 1:5

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:13-16

If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she give birth prematurely but there is no serious injury the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows.  But if there is serious injury you are to take life for life.

Exodus 21:22-23

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he create him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.

Genesis 9:16

"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

Psalm 51:5

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:41

God considers an unborn baby to be alive.  He also considers the loss of that life by another’s hands to be murder.  His word tells us that life begins at conception; He uses the term ‘baby’ for the born and unborn.  Read more about God’s view on abortion in His word.  The bible specifically condemns partial birth abortion as against God’s will (Exodus 1:15-20).  God also tells us to choose His ways, instead of our own ways; shameful acts done secretly do not please Him (Proverbs 1:29-31; Ephesians 5:10-12).  Only a society that hates God, loves death (Proverbs 8:35-36).

Lissa challenged us to learn more about our local Christian, non-profit Crisis Pregnancy centers.  Locally, we have Grace House Ministries.  They provide a number of services that support life.  Visit their website to learn about their ministry and services to the community at http://gracehouseministries.net/

Grace House Pregnancy Center 112 W Russell St, Weatherford

The Options Clinic- The Options Clinic for Women is a medical clinic with a medical director and nursing staff trained in limited obstetrical ultrasound to determine gestational age and viable intrauterine pregnancy. Studies have shown that when abortion-minded women see the baby in the womb – 90% will choose life, 9 out of every 10 women!

Pure Truth - Abstinence Education Program

The Pure Truth abstinence education program utilizes the “Worth The Wait” curriculum developed by Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas.

Through Scott and White Hospital’s education program, we seek to engage, educate, and empower students to make healthy sexual, life affirming choices.  Grace House Ministries began offering Worth the Wait in 2004. This free service to the community is conducted through public and private schools where we teach the ten-day program through school health classes.  Issues addressed to help teens in the class are:

•Emotional needs

•Communication skills

•Peer pressure

•Legal issues

•Sexual Transmitted Diseases/Infections

•Pregnancy issues

•High risk behaviors – alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc.

•Healthy futures – goal setting, dating and marriage relationships all encouraging kids that “sex is awesome but it is meant for marriage.”

This interactive, educational experience gives teens the opportunity to make healthier choices for a better future.  Grace House teaches the program in several schools:

•Aledo

•Brock

•Graford

•Peaster

•Perrin-Whitt

•Weatherford College

Grace House also helped to implement the program in both Weatherford and Mineral Wells Independent School Districts.  In addition a modified version of the program is currently being taught at Weatherford College.

Here is their contact information:

Grace House Ministries

P. O. Box 1416

Weatherford, TX 76086

817-599-9080

info@gracehouseministries.net

Grace House Pregnancy Care Center

112 W. Russell Street

Weatherford, TX 76086

817-599-4700

Janelle Miller - Director GHPCC

janellemiller@gracehouseministries.net

Hours: Monday thru Thursday 9 am – 4 pm

The Options Clinic

1712 Bethel Road

Weatherford, TX 76086

817-599-6700

info@theoptionsclinic.org

www.theoptionsclinic.org

Hours: Monday thru Thursday 9 am – 4 pm

My prayer for you is love life, save life, cherish life.