By Diane Stark
Seven years ago, Maddie Martinez—then just 24 years old—stared at her home pregnancy test, desperate for a negative result. She bargained with God, promising to get right with Him and live the way He wanted her to, if only He would make the test negative.
But when she saw the positive result, Maddie knew immediately that she would choose abortion. If she kept the baby, she’d be a single parent, and she was convinced that motherhood would prevent her from being promoted at her job, which she loved. “I didn’t want an abortion, but I needed a second chance,” she said. “I had plans, things I couldn’t do if I had the baby.”
Maddie made an appointment to have an abortion. She didn’t intend to tell anyone about it. “I planned to stuff it down and never think about it again,” she said. However, Maddie did end up telling her best friend about her pregnancy. “She said she would support whatever decision I made,” Maddie remembers.
The day before her appointment, Maddie realized she had a problem. “I’d planned to take an Uber to the appointment, but they [the abortion clinic] required that someone sign off that they would take care of me afterward,” she said. Maddie had no choice but to tell her sister, Andi, who was three years younger than Maddie and already the mother of a five-year-old little boy.
Andi knew in her heart that her sister would never be able to forget the abortion if she went through with it. She asked Maddie to meet her that night, and Maddie reluctantly agreed. Then Andi called Amy Ford, the cofounder of a Texas-based, nonprofit pro-life group called Embrace Grace. The nonprofit’s mission is to inspire and equip churches to love on single and pregnant young women and their families. When Andi had gotten pregnant at the young age of 16, Embrace Grace helped her make a life-affirming decision for her baby. Andi prayed they could reach Maddie too.
To read the remainder of this article, visit clmagazine.org/topic/pro-life-champions/embrace-grace-loving-moms-saving-babies.
To read additional pro-life articles, visit the Celebrate Life Magazine website at clmagazine.org.
