By ALEXIS BAKER

Abortion morality

As a black woman who stands on pro-life values here in America, I tend to be widely disagreed with by certain demographics. I appear to be accepted by conservatives for my unpopular stance on supporting life in the womb and frowned upon by liberals for being archaic or insensitive. However, I’ve noticed that the arena of politics tends to be where abortion morality is most widely discussed, and I am disqualified from being anything but Republican because of my conviction.

I’m not allowed to identify with anything else because abortion is on the Republican end of the American political spectrum, and there I must evidently stay. What does one do, then, if they possess no political affiliation but are still pro-life? Are they immediately resigned to seal themselves into one box or another? I propose that perhaps we’ve failed to realize this simple truth:

Abortion is not a political issue.

Though it has been politicized as a topic of discussion, the sanctity, validity, and value of life in the womb is inherently above politics because it is a subject of human rights. Human rights have to exist before political affiliations, no? How a nation’s budget will be spent is a political discussion; how and when a military force will be deployed is a political discussion; but we must first have a budget and a military in order to have the bipartisan banter about those details.

Where we became deluded in our approach to life in the womb is rather straightforward and grotesque: We have identified that the value of life in the womb, of babies, in America changes with which political party holds office in any given presidential term or congressional majority.

One party seems to be vastly accepting of babies being burned, dissected, starved and suctioned out of the womb while the other seems to be firmly against it. We legalized the extermination of the most vulnerable of our human race in heated, passionate arguments and forgot the subject matter of the legislation: actual people.

Been down this road before

But hasn’t this star-spangled nation been down this road before, the road of allowing politics to determine some people’s humanity?

We’re not too far removed from the days of slavery and how the games of presidential popularity and economic sustainability determining the humanity of darker-skinned people have been played by both political parties since the inception of this nation.

Have we forgotten how the very thread of humanity hung (and still hangs) in a balance of preference and political correctness in this country since the time of first contact with Native Indigenous Americans? Or have we chosen to believe ourselves to be more evolved, more removed from those wicked days of antiquity where we would not dare commit the same atrocities again?

How deceived we have become, America, for we have yet again allowed the discussion of bloodshed to be Red or Blue, Donkey or Elephant, blinded to the numbers of Americans dying in the name of aggressive self-actualization and social rights.

One nation under God?

As both a Christian and a birth worker in my local community, I can firmly acknowledge that the definition of being pro-life should far surpass abortion and continue into post-birth life for all people. Proverbs 31:8-9 for example instructs us to stand up for ALL people appointed to die.

When exactly in our “One Nation under God” did we divide the value of life along manmade partisan lines and do exactly the opposite of what Jesus commanded we do, to love our neighbors as ourselves? Are we really one nation under God if we have divided our convictions about the existence of humanity based on political preference and affiliation? I don’t think we’ve erred on the side of caution by sorting the lives of people into political categories, I think we’ve simply erred on the side of error.

Missed the mark

Gun control, border policies, education reform, these all have their place to be debated and decided to assess what strategy is best for the benefit of the American people. We have, however, greatly missed the mark to believe that the very lives of American people are subjects to be debated and decided.

If it is not already evident, I personally possess no political loyalty as there is rich meat and heavy bones on both sides of the big political see-saw here in the States. As a God-fearing woman, before anything I believe what God says about humanity, that He loved it so much that He was willing to die to save it.

All of it.

If Jesus was willing to die for them, that’s enough for me to speak for their defense, to be heartbroken at their demise. God once told the prophet Jeremiah (1:6) that …

“before He formed him in his mother’s womb, He knew him.”

We are already human to our Creator before we are born, we have heartbeats and lung function and our own blood types and hands and feet before we ever exit the womb. We are human beings before we are political. In truth we, at the core, don’t need to be Democrat or Republican to believe in the humanity of our little ones. It should simply be that we know it, we believe it, we fight for it because we are, Right or Left, human.

[Thanks to Alexis Baker for permission to publish this essay.  Mrs. Baker lives in Columbus, Ohio, and is starting to enter the world of blogging. Her motto about creative expression is “may everything I think, touch, and say glorify Christ in me”.]

[subscribe2]

By ANGELINA DAVIS

J.C. Watts once famously said, “Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking.” And he wasn’t all words and no action: when faced with his own pregnancy scandal with a white woman in the 1970s, he chose life for his daughter.

Modern day pregnancy scandal

Like Watts, I grew up in a home that taught that God was real and life was sacred. I too, was faced with the dilemma of choosing to uphold what I was raised to believe or succumb to the fear surrounding my circumstances. I found myself in my own modern day pregnancy scandal, an 18 year old white girl, pregnant by a 25 year old black man. I wasn’t married. I wasn’t in love. I was just having “fun”. And I felt like one giant walking cliche.

My close group of girlfriends were reasonably worried about my future. Some were more so worried about an interrupted summer of carefree adolescence. My parents were worried about my full ride athletic scholarship that was now in jeopardy. The father of my baby was worried I would somehow use this baby as leverage against him and urged me to abort. Me? I was scared and desperate for answers about what to do next.

Was abortion wrong?

I agreed it was because that is what I had been taught. But little did I know, this doubt rattled in a hidden corner of my heart … maybe abortion was okay in really difficult circumstances. Maybe it’s okay if it’s early in the pregnancy.

But I knew that with something this serious, I had to be absolutely convinced. So I scoured the internet for the truth about abortion. It didn’t take long before I was sobbing and nearly repenting of even considering the option. Though it would be years before I truly gave my life to Jesus Christ, that day I experienced God’s common grace — a working conscience.

I’m not sure what it takes to justify murdering your own baby, but I didn’t have it in me.

The next dilemma

I was then faced with my next dilemma. The father wanted nothing to do with this baby. What did I know about being a mother? What kind of life could I really offer this child? Not to mention, the pressure of being a white mother to a black, fatherless child. How could I contribute to this stereotype?

I felt so stupid and ashamed. So much was stacked against my baby from the beginning and it was my fault for being so careless and naive.

Maternal instinct kicks in

Angelina Davis and husband

Adoption floated around in my heart and my head. Until I heard my baby’s heartbeat. Instantly I was flooded with an instinct to protect this life inside of me. I couldn’t promise much in terms of material comfort but I knew I would love my baby. Love was bigger than fear.

Today I am married to a strong black man, with 4 beautiful black children (above). And I feel redeemed. My child has been redeemed. I have no regrets. Being a single mom was not an easy road. But through it, God showed me that His plan was never to destroy me but to draw me closer to Him.

Even in my sin and rebellion, He gave me a good and perfect gift. He had a plan for my life, in spite of me. When I looked at my baby boy’s face for the first time, I realized that I almost destroyed what I loved because of what I feared. And that’s the real travesty of abortion— you never get to experience the true relief of knowing you did the right thing, when no one was looking.

By LOIS BROOKHART

Although I am not sure of the source of this prayer, I have prayed it daily for over a year:

Prayer for the Unborn

Eternal Father, we pray that we may

hear the cries of the unborn in our hearts.

That we may see in the eyes of every child,

their brothers and sisters in Christ, those whose

eyes have never been gazed upon , the unborn.

 

May the womb, which God envisioned to

protect the most precious, fragile life,

once again become a safe haven for the life

which God has entrusted to it. And may

no human take away that which God has created.

 

We pray for all involved in the abortion

process that through God’s grace and mercy,

they will turn to Him for guidance and repentance.

 

And we pray that the Holy Spirit be our voice of God’s

truth, guiding us closer to that which God has called

upon us to complete. In his Holy Name we pray. Amen

Pain. Guilt. Shame.

Lois Brookhart

It is the first two verses that really spoke to my heart. You see, I am a 75 year old, Catholic Black American widow, mother of five children, and almost 25 grandchildren (expecting number 25 in early May) and 5 great-grandchildren. I also have 7 stepchildren, and I am guessing close to 70+ step grand and great children. Some of whom I have never met.

Of my biological grandchildren, I know for certain that two were killed in their mother’s wombs. Two of my teen children had abortions, and I approved those abortions. My medical insurance paid for the procedures. In one case the procedure took place at Planned Parenthood and the other in a local hospital.

I recall the pain of the guilt and shame I experienced after allowing this to happen to my children, especially when I considered that I had never had an abortion after giving birth to six unplanned pregnancies. The fifth one I gave up for adoption. I confessed and repented of my sin, and begged God’s mercy, forgiveness, and guidance. You see, once upon a time, I believed that my body was my own, and no man could tell me what I could do with it.

An unwanted pregnancy

In the days before Roe vs Wade, Planned Parenthood Clinics were not readily at my disposal. As a teenager I discovered to my horror that I was once again pregnant. ” It was November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

I sought a certified physician who allegedly did abortions. Since I had no money and because his daughter was a personal friend and schoolmate, I naively thought he might sympathize with my situation, and perhaps consider doing the abortion on a payment plan. But God had a much different plan for me. That doctor flat turned down my request. Later, in my journey, I would discover that this rejection was actually a blessing, and part of God’s plan for me. At the time, however, I could not see it. His light had not yet fully fallen on me.

My Heavenly Father did not want me to take the life in my womb which he had, “Envisioned as a safe haven for this precious, fragile child.” Praise God, he instead entrusted to my care another beautiful precious life, a boy.  A few years later, I found myself pregnant with not only a fourth, but a fifth, unwanted, unplanned pregnancy. On the fifth, God showed me the light to choose adoption for this life, and I obeyed.

God’s open arms

Abandoned by my biological father at the age of 5, and sexually abused by men starting at about the age of 9. My attempts to find a father figure led to promiscuous sexual behavior with older men. My life was going nowhere. Collecting welfare and nearly completely consumed by a victim mentality and low self-worth, God began to fall on me with open arms, revealing his plan for me.

Having been a high school drop- out, he put it on my heart to get my GED, and then go to college. I entered a Junior college, in the Fall semester, and was an expectant mother. I missed a week of school after giving birth to my fifth child, a beautiful baby girl, whom I called Theresa Camille.  I did not get to see her. She was whisked away to her adoptive parents. To date of have never met her.

Graduation

Ultimately, I graduated from Junior College, and the following school year enrolled at Drake University for my final two years of college. I graduated Drake with honors, and went on to attend Graduate School. After several years of struggling to write my Master’s Thesis, on Racism, I quit. I got a job with a large auto insurance company, and was on my way to success. However, during those years at Drake, I met the love of my life, Jim we too had a son. He was unplanned, but a wanted pregnancy.

Jim and I were ultimately married when our son was 5 years old. Our beautiful precious child is now the father 9 children, and he and his wife are expecting their 10th child in May. They celebrate the lives of their children every year on each of the birthdays, in a very special way. It is a joy to behold. They homeschool all but one, and they are grandparent to a beautiful 1 1/2 year old girl, and a beautiful 10 month old boy.

Called back to the Church

In the late 1980’s, the Lord called me back to his Church, after having been away for over 20 years.

Slowly he revealed to me his teachings regarding the unborn. With further research and study I learned how Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, “… to reduce ‘deplorable” elements of our society.” Realizing those deplorable elements were people like me, my children and grandchildren, my people. God’s light has led me to expose and testify to the evil of Planned Parenthood and any and all those who support them.

Now through legislation, they want to force taxpayers to pick up the bill for all those unwanted and unplanned pregnancies, falsely calling it “Women’s Health Services.” Or “A Woman’s Right to Choose”.

I say, “May no human take away that which God has created.”

Given that charge, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit which has shed his light upon me, may I continue to be,

“…a voice of God’s truth, guiding me closer to that which God has called upon me to complete.”

In His Holy name I pray. Amen.

My amazing family

My first born graduated college and works for a major utility company. She has 3 beautiful children. Her youngest graduated two years ago from Simpson College as a music major and has a beautiful voice and married last Fall.

My second born, a son, is the director of people at a video game publisher on the West coast. He is single and lives on the East Coast.

My third born, also a son, is married, has 7 children, and is a small business owner.  Two of his children graduated from West Point. One son is a helicopter medivac pilot now stationed in Korea. His is younger sister, is a paratrooper, but now recruits for West Point in New York.

My fourth born, is mother of four sons, and is a Chef and Manager of a large retirement Home. She has one 9 year old granddaughter.

My fifth born I have never met. My prayer is that she is well, has had a good life, and that someday we will be reunited.

My sixth born, I have already mentioned is married, and the father of nine, expecting his tenth, and grandfather of two.

Given my life journey you can see my precious family could not or would not exist had I followed the way of Margaret Sanger and her instrument of death, Planned Parenthood, to reduce the black ‘deplorable’ elements.

[Lois Brookhart is founder and co-owner of Divine Treasures Catholic Book Store. Divine Treasures has been loyal supporters of Iowans for LIFE and the pro-life cause. IFL encourages you to buy local when you shop for religious books and gifts! Thanks to Lois for sharing her amazing story.]

[subscribe2]

By CATHERINE DAVIS

Catherine Davis

In 1945, Julian Lewis, the first Black professor at the University of Chicago wrote about taking  birth control as a measure of equality with Caucasians. His essay showcased what he  considered a treasure of the Black community – their “precocious fertility” that resulted in a  what he called biologic victory. The enslaved survived and overcame their bondage and tripled their presence in the nation into which they had been imported. He called birth control race suicide. 

“Precocious fertility”

Before his essay that encouraged Blacks to avoid birth control, Planned Parenthood (then called  the American Birth Control League), launched the Negro Project in recognition of that  “precocious fertility”, resulting in a bullseye being placed on the backs of Black women of child  bearing age. Since 1939, they have marshaled their resources to control the Black birth rate,  targeting those their founder called weeds in America’s garden. 

Planned Parenthood confesses

Twenty- twenty was more than a year of isolation and death created by the Covid-19 scare. It  was also the year Planned Parenthood acknowledged and revealed their eugenic roots and the  reproductive harm they have caused. They went so far as to use terms such as white  supremacy, ableist and racist ideals, and white systems of oppression in describing the  organization’s participation in the culture they created to coerce Black women into their birth  control and abortion facilities. 

Even as they were confessing their discriminatory behavior, they were not turning from it.  Instead, they were writing a list of demands to be implemented day one, by what they hoped  would be a new administration after the election. Unlike previous presidential election years,  they did not take care to disguise their population control mission in terms of reproductive justice, and healthcare. They made demands that included giving American taxpayer dollars to  international organizations including those whose mission is population control. They made  clear they wanted removal of any and all regulations and laws that restricted abortion in any  way including removal of the Hyde, Helms, Weldon, Siljander and Kemp-Kasten Amendments – all amendments that prohibited use of American taxpayer funds in lobbying or supporting abortion in America and abroad. 

No more cloak of secrecy

Planned Parenthood and others in the abortion industry have abandoned the cloak of secrecy  in which they had shrouded their population control mission. Something in the culture shifted  allowing them to feel secure in openly revealing their intended victims are the children of Black  and other women of color. They have made it clear their blood lust for Black children has not  been filled by the more than twenty million Black lives lost to abortion since 1973.  

Race suicide

It is time for Blacks in America to heed the warning sounded by Julian Lewis seventy–six years  ago. It is race suicide to continue allowing Black women and their babies to be targeted. It is race suicide to continue allowing the abortion industry to define Black children as burdens. It is  race suicide to allow even one more Black child to die in one of the abortion chambers that dot Black neighborhoods. It is time for Blacks to claim the Declaration of Independence promise of  life, liberty and happiness in a land that has long denied them.

***

[Catherine Davis is the Founder and President of The Restoration Project. Thanks to her for permission to publish her essay during Black History Month. She often partners with the National Black Prolife Coalition, the Network of Politically Active Christians, and the Frederick Douglas Foundation in an ongoing effort to educate Americans about the issues that are impacting the Black community. 

Catherine, a public speaker and civil rights champion, is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tufts University who attended the University of Bridgeport School of Law.

Early in 2010, she partnered with The Radiance Foundation to launch one of the most news-generating Pro-Life campaigns ever, the “Endangered Species” billboard/web campaign. Catherine was featured in numerous TV, radio and newspaper features including The NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC World News, NPR and throughout the entire blogosphere. She believes in holding public officials accountable and legislatively chipping away at the practices and policies that are ravaging a free America.

A former candidate for Congress in Georgia’s fourth district, Catherine is focused on positive change through education, local/state involvement, and peaceful action.]

By AMINA STOCK

I was the 18 year old daughter of a progressive mother who briefly taught me that abortion was a woman’s choice. I also had a father who never mentioned a word about this topic to me in our home. It wasn’t until after my own abortion that I realized how wrong and harmful this view was.

Abortion in society has played a huge role in exaggerating our fears. Fathers and mothers are increasingly afraid to parent more, to parent poor, to parent alone, along with many other fears of the unknown. As “My Body, My Choice” has become the mantra for abortion advocacy, women are legally allowed to have the baby in their womb destroyed by dismemberment, suffocation, starved of key nutrients by a pill or burned alive with a saline solution. All provided by the government with our tax dollars.

Abortion seems to offer a no-questions-asked, quick result for a fearful generation. But after my experience I want to remind you of a few things that abortion doesn’t offer.

An informed decision

Gestational age and facts about fetal development are largely withheld from mothers and fathers to review before an abortion is performed. Photographs, tools and an explanation of how they will be used are not discussed either. In this way  abortion in itself becomes aloof to the human mind and reenforced when the providers say,

“baby doesn’t feel pain yet …”

… when in reality they will.

The greatest travesty is when providers offer no details or information concerning children’s remains. Now we know, by undercover investigation, that aborted fetal bodies are discarded in trash bags, shipped off for experimentation or harvested for their vital organs. How is this productive, caring or loving to a growing, ethical society?

Healing

Abortion offers no practical healing to the post-abortive mother who struggles from the physical trauma a procedure has left on her body, or the mental trauma a procedure has waged on her mind. Gas to the fire is when many in society will tell her the pain she is experiencing is not real and nothing to be ashamed of. Even more grievous is when a father is unable to grieve for the sake of his unborn child because he is a man. Families are left broken this way.

Many women turn to drugs, violent fits, promiscuity or fall into depression due to unresolved mental pain. Physically, many women are left barren or in the case of some botched abortions end up losing their own life.

Trust in God

What God has taught me is that these children are his precious ones: Healers, Leaders, Doctors, Inventors, and they are being destroyed. The god of lies has ruled in our hearts more than our ability to trust in the Living God (who loves us) to provide for our needs. We as a society have been tricked to trust the devil’s schemes. It is true when Jesus says,

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

When we chose abortion, we allow generations of families, cultures, and God’s glory to be wiped out.

I can’t tell you how many times I thought I couldn’t, but He helped me through. I am thankful for the work Jesus has done for us on the cross by his forgiveness and what His Holy spirit does now to heal our wounds and trauma, bringing us truth in this dark world.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

[Thanks to the author for allowing Iowans for LIFE to publish her essay. Amina Stock is a married, homeschooling mother of 4 (soon to be 5!). She loves gardening, natural living and serving God through his Son Jesus Christ.]

By TAMIKO THOMAS

Tami Thomas

Greetings everyone! My name is Tamiko Thomas. I’m an African American woman who grew up in the midwest, in an evangelical Christian home. I am married. My husband Corey Thomas and I have been married for 31 years. We have three adult children ages 30, 25 and 22. We also have two grandsons, ages 9 and 6.

Taught that abortion is a sin

Growing up in a Christian home, going to a Christian school and going to church at least three to four times a week, I was taught to value life. I was also taught to abort a child was a sin, and I believed that whole heartedly.

As a teenager, I knew friends who had gotten pregnant and quietly went off to get an abortion because it was a “mistake” or that the pregnancy would “ruin” their lives. And I noticed that there were adults in the church who were surprisingly okay with their decisions. The more and more common it became, I noticed that it wasn’t discussed, and just swept under the rug. As a young, impressionable girl, I still believed it was wrong, but there may come a time when a young lady may have to “do what she must”.

Unplanned pregnancy

At the age of 18, I met my husband during our freshman year at Bible college. We fell hopelessly in love and became engaged. A year later, we were living together and I had become pregnant. No longer just starry eyed kids in love, we were faced with real life adult circumstances and challenges. Our relationship was strained at best, we fought all the time and I was a hormonal mess!

I had been speaking to my mother, who was in another state at the time about us moving back to my hometown. She knew people from our church who could help us with getting a job and finding a place to live. We finally made the decision to go back to where I grew up. We had gotten airline tickets and had planned to fly home soon.

In my heart and mind, I was struggling with a lot of conflict. By this time, I really didn’t like my husband and felt as if I had made a terrible mistake in marrying him. I was tired of fighting and crying all the time. By this time I was almost 6 months pregnant. Things had gotten so bad between us, that I made the decision that I was going to get an abortion and just part ways from each other. He agreed and so we made the appointment for an abortion.

God intervened

As a child and teenager, I loved the Lord and wanted nothing more than to serve Him. I had experienced God in very true and real ways. I knew His voice…I knew when He spoke to me. I couldn’t believe that I had failed so miserably. I was actually willing to go forward with aborting my child simply because it was more convenient for me. I thought I’d just get through it and seek forgiveness later, convinced it was my only solution.

The night before I was to go in for my appointment, I had a very vivid dream from God. I heard God’s voice speaking to me, telling me not to kill my baby. He told me He loved my baby and had great plans for my baby’s life. Then I saw my baby in the future. I saw that he was a boy. A curly haired, beautiful boy. He went on to tell me to name him Caleb Joshua and that He loves him and that I didn’t have the right to take his life from him. Even now, all these years later, I am in tears and in awe of what happened that night.

Because I knew this dream was from God and not my imagination, I told my husband about it and in that moment we decided to not go to the clinic that day as planned. We carried on with our plans to move back to my hometown. In the years that followed, we have done our best to raise him and our other two children.

No one is a “mistake”

Since that time over the years, we have pastored churches, been involved in many various areas of ministry. And I have made it my mission to tell my story to others. God truly is the one who forms us in our mothers womb, who makes us and decides exactly who we are to become. It is not our right to take a life that is given by our Creator. Children are a blessing from God and He makes each of them…each of us beautiful and with divine purpose. No one is a “mistake”!

(NIV) Psalms 139:13-16

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers 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.”

[Thanks to Tami Thomas for permission to publish this essay, No one is a “mistake”, during Black History Month. This is the third in a series of essays from Iowa’s African-American community. You can read earlier essays here and here.]