The unbelievable results of the Baby Steps DVD, produced by American Life League, continue to inspire, motivate and touch the hearts of each person involved with ALL. We are so blessed to be instruments God uses to save children from death by abortion and their mothers from grief, pain and suffering. Most recently, we received two e-mail messages from pro-life pregnancy centers that make my point far better than I ever could:
A counselor at Shared Pregnancy in Lansing, Michigan, told us,
I personally gave the video to one woman who was having trouble convincing the father of her baby to keep the baby. She took it home for him to watch and told me it really helped her get through to him and helped him bond with the baby (so early in her pregnancy).
Another, at Pregnancy Resource Center of Fort Bend County, in Rosenberg, Texas, wrote,
Mary Doe came to our center and she had made up her mind about having an abortion done since she was going through a situation with her baby's father who is 30 years older than Mary. He was pushing her so hard to have an abortion. After Mary came and she had the chance to watch the DVD, she realized that what was inside of her was an angel sent by God. I am happy to say that her baby boy, now five months old, is the joy of her life! She tells me that she can't picture her life without him.
Yet another report tells us,
This situation started by me receiving an abortion call one morning around 8 a.m. When I answered the phone, I heard a young woman scared and crying. She started telling me that she just needed to get a number of an abortion center. I proceeded to ask her if she knew what an abortion does. After talking to her for several minutes, I was able to have her come into our center. This is when I realized that she wanted the abortion because she was going legally blind and could not take care of a new baby and her two-year-old. I explained to her that I knew she could do it and that I wanted her to watch a video. She agreed and she was crying while watching it. She told me that she could not believe that her baby was probably doing things that she saw in the DVD. I am happy to inform you that she had a beautiful baby boy and she's happy with her two kids and is doing fine.
These testimonies are the proof that God provides to encourage and spur us ever onward toward victory. In a world that is so filled with tragedy and deliberate destruction of human beings, not to mention loss of souls, stories like these expose the sharp contrast between the culture of life and the culture of death.
The 4-D ultrasound technology that has made this DVD such a powerful testimony to life is touching lives, saving lives and reinforcing an appreciation of human personhood – on a level that only a mother and her newborn child can experience.
More than ever, we need to hear more stories like these, because the more mothers realize that they are carrying a person created by God, the more rapidly will our culture reverse the trend that has left so many dead bodies in its wake.
Just think about the other side of the news, which is not only violent, but ugly and degrading to women. It isn't hard to realize that what our fellow Americans need is an increasing awareness of the sacredness of the human person, whether born or preborn. We know that a moving image does more to achieve this than words alone can ever do.
Here is but a small example of the dark side. A recent report reveals that abortion leads to domestic violence and other difficulties. Hilary White examined the latest study and reports,
When a woman gets an abortion, the couple is more than twice as likely to argue when discussing future children, and nearly three times as likely to experience domestic violence, compared with women who carry the pregnancy to term and raise the child, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Public Health on Mar. 24.
"Abortion may play a vital role in understanding the aetiology [cause] of relationship problems," the authors stated. The study said that abortion within a current relationship causes 116 percent more arguing when discussing future children, and 196 percent more domestic violence.
The researchers found that abortion affected future relationships as well.
"For both men and women the experience of an abortion in a previous relationship was related to negative outcomes in the current relationship," they wrote.
"Men whose current partners had an abortion were more likely to report jealousy (96 percent greater risk) and conflict about drugs (385 percent greater risk).
"These results suggest that abortion may play a vital role in understanding the aetiology of some relationship problems," the study's authors wrote.
We are positive that these latest facts, documented in a well-respected journal, will not be reported by most mainstream media outlets, even though such information is vital for expectant parents, who are entitled to know all the possible consequences of a decision that will change their lives forever. But as we know all too well, "informed consent" in matters pertaining to abortion is usually a joke.
Dr. Priscilla Coleman, who led this recent study, is no stranger to the devastating effects of aborting one's child. In a previous study, she and her fellow researchers found that fathers are vitally important in many ways:
A new study published in the International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction has found that the relationship between women and their partners and the level of support provided by the father are important factors in whether or not the woman aborts.
The study, headed by Prof. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University, was based on a survey of low-income women undertaken at various hospitals around the country. The women involved had all become pregnant within 18 months of delivering a child and either aborted the second pregnancy or carried to term. Participants were asked about drug and alcohol abuse, their relationship with the child's father and difficulties raising their first child.
The study found that women who felt they could not rely on their partner to help in caring for the child were more likely to have an abortion. They also found that women who had undergone an abortion were over three times more likely to report heavy alcohol use and twice as likely to report cigarette smoking.
Whether or not the media or the majority of obstetricians and gynecologists pay attention to these devastating effects of aborting one's child, each of us can and should spread the word. We should encourage our friends, family members, pastors and others to compare the testimonials from Michigan and Texas with these most recent findings, and reflect on the chasm between choosing life and choosing death.
Invite them, one and all, to take a baby step and save a life!