Triumph and Tragedy at the Abortion Center

This is a fifteen-week-old baby in utero sucking her thumb. Legal to kill at our local abortion center for 5 more weeks....

I got a call in the morning yesterday, shortly after I arrived at the abortion center sidewalk. I recognized the caller ID. It was a mom I have worked with for many years. She was the first mom I led to the Lord as a new volunteer with Cities4Life  Her struggles have been overwhelming at times, but she has never regretted choosing life for her first baby. She loves that little girl and is striving to turn her life around for the sake of her child. However, as the call would indicate, she stumbles like all of us.

“Miss Vicky, are you at the abortion center?” (I will call this young lady Lisa to preserve her privacy.)

“Yes,” I answered.

“I have an appointment there this morning,” she said. My heart plummeted.

“Tell me what’s going on,” I said.

I remembered she had texted me a few weeks back. She often texts when her struggles increase, though she almost never directly asks for help. All she did in that earlier text was say hello. I remembered thinking something is up with Lisa.

Well that something was an unplanned pregnancy. She tries to follow God...and she was ashamed and scared to tell me. She knew I would be disappointed.

“I don’t want to abort...” she told me, “But...I need help. I thought maybe I would talk to you first...”

I quickly assured her we would help and she could come see her baby immediately on the Monroe Help Pregnancy Center mobile ultrasound unit. We would go from there. On the RV later as she shared her story, I asked what she had been feeling when she couldn’t tell me. Shame. She knew that what she had done not only disappointed me, but disappointed God. She started crying.

“You are doing the right thing now,” I told her, hugging her.

I love this woman. I understand her loneliness and struggles. We reconnected her with Lovelife Charlotte who will work with finding her a good church and mentor who will be a loving friend but also help her remain steadfast in her commitment to God. As I have noted so many times over the years of working with Cities4Life, pro-life ministry is often “messy”. The path to walking in faith and obedience before God is not always as smooth as we wish it were. 

Another truth that I have learned over the years is don’t give up on these young ladies. Set-backs do not mean defeat. 

She was ecstatic as she watched her child on the ultrasound. She clapped with joy when I told her we would send her for a free 3-D ultrasound so we would know the baby’s gender for the baby shower we provide. We talked about the free counseling services we offer through Lovelife Charlotte and suggested she and her boyfriend consider that. She thought that would be a great idea.

We all hugged her when we finished exulting over the exuberant little baby on the ultrasound, and sent her on her way. I came off the RV to see a very young girl crying in front of the clinic. My team members had learned a little about her story. Her baby was 18-weeks-old in utero. 18 weeks. I had just watched a living 15-week-old baby. I had seen all four chambers of her little heart pumping blood. She had sucked her thumb, rolled over, kicked and stretched her legs...

That little living human being,  an 18-week-old unborn baby, would be dismembered limb by limb without anesthesia. That young girl looked at me as I called out to her offering help...and laughed.

Lord help us.

Our afternoon team remained after our morning team left. The young girl went through with the abortion. She did not stop to take the offers of literature that cited help for post-abortive moms. She did not stop to pray with our team. So they prayed alone, and at least one small group of people mourned and acknowledged that little innocent person’s death.

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Zephaniah 3:17 

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

1 John 3:3   And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

2 Corinthians 3:12  Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,