I attended the Bringing America Back to Life Convention in Independence, Ohio, for the second year in a row. Both times I’ve been amazed, stunned, shocked, grieved, and motivated by the talks, and I’ve come to realize that the pro-life issue is much bigger than I ever imagined. We have not faced an issue as widespread and devastating as this at any time in recorded human history.
And, as Obianuju Ekeocha, founder and president of Culture of Life Africa, said last year, “One day history will judge our generation.”
The life issue affects women, men, children, the old, and the unborn, doctors, nurses, health care facilities, science, marriages, relationships, families, societies, countries, and all of humanity. The damage runs deep. Perhaps because our culture has lost the sense of the sacred, it struggles to recognize the sanctity of human life.
But this is our culture and our generation. This is our battle. Please watch the short video I created, inspired by this amazing conference.
Some people are against abortion except for that 1 exception: cases of rape. I am pro-life without exception. And one of the speakers who touched me the most was Jennifer Christie, a blogger and pro-life speaker for Save the 1. Save the 1 protects, supports, and empowers women who become pregnant by rape and their children conceived in rape. Save the 1 speakers represent the so-called “hard cases” in the abortion debate. Tired of people using their cases to keep abortion legal, these women speak up for the babies of the 1 exception.
They want to “…end the discrimination of the ‘least of these’ and to go into the world to change hearts and minds by putting faces to the issue…” ~from http://www.savethe1.com/
At this conference, Jennifer shared her story. She was brutally raped while on a business trip. The emotional damage took its toll and her body had only begun to heal when she discovered she was pregnant.
As I listened to Jennifer’s story, I confess that I fought back tears. I cried for what she went through. No woman should ever have to experience that. But I cried even more because of her love. And because of her husband’s love. While many urged her to abort, she and her husband welcomed this new life, this precious baby that came on the wake of a horrible nightmare.
“This child had nothing to do with the attack on my body or the scars on my soul. He had everything to do with my healing – giving me a reason to hope. I did not save my son. He saved me.” ~Jennifer
I encourage you to read her story at Save the 1.
Jennifer now speaks out for the unborn whose lives are threatened in those difficult situations where many want to make an exception. She recognizes that God can use the nightmare she’s endured to save babies and women. And so she blogs and she gives talks.
Sometime during the conference, I spoke with Jennifer. And I found myself on the verge of crying again. This time because I recognized a powerful, transformational love in her. Honestly, this woman radiates love, faith, and courage. And Jennifer not only blogs and gives talks, but she reaches out to women who have been hurt through rape, women whose lives have been turned upside down through this violent act. She reaches out to them even when they direct their anger at her because she chose life. And her love touches their hearts too, allowing them to finally heal.
Women who have been through violence do not need abortion. Aborting a child conceived in rape does nothing to diminish the memory of that violent event. It does not allow a woman to “get on with her life.” It causes great damage to the woman who has been hurt enough already.
“My son is a reminder every day that as women we can rise above our circumstances. My son is a reminder that love is always stronger than hate. And that who we are as human beings is not determined by how we were conceived.” ~Jennifer
For the love of women, for the love of the unborn, we must end abortion now. No exceptions.
Friends of mine who have learned about Jennifer have been “binge reading” her blog posts. Here is one you simply must read: When People Said We Shouldn’t Have You, We Loved You Louder
I will end with something else that Jennifer shared this with us during the conference. As she spoke these words, I couldn’t stop crying–but neither could anyone else in the room.
Jennifer was once told, “But if it’s RAPE…think about it from the woman’s point of view!”
“Okay. Yes, let’s think about it from the woman’s point of view.
The day after she is raped, she’s shocked to find out the sun still rises because everything in her world has changed. She feels different. Wrong. Inexplicably ashamed.
She’s certain that strangers can look at her and know that she is damaged. She walks around thinking “I am a woman who has been raped,” and knows her life has now been split in half.
Before she became a statistic. After. In the silence, she hears things he said to her. Things she knows she’ll never repeat. When she closes her eyes, she sees him looming over her. She can’t eat…the taste of her own blood lingers on her tongue…the dank earthiness of the ground as he held her head down.
She speaks with other survivors, with friends, with her lover who is trying desperately to comfort her, but she is terribly, terribly alone.
When a faint second line blossoms on the pregnancy test, for a moment, she feels as though the wind is knocked out of her. Instinctively, her hands drift to her flat belly as she tries to slow her breath. She knows what she should feel. Resentment. Anger, maybe.
But…somehow, for the first time since crossing over into the ‘after’ she doesn’t feel adrift. For the first time since crossing over into the after, she has a reason to go on.
She feels a ferocious need to safeguard this delicate new life. She might not have been able to protect herself, but she can protect her baby. Her baby. Deep breath. It’s okay, she whispers to nobody and everybody. I’m going to take care of you.
But they take care of each other. And in little arms, and big eyes, and the purest of all love, she begins to heal.” ~Jennifer Christie
Perhaps it is even more powerful listening to Jennifer speak these words: Is abortion in a case of rape “compassion” to the woman?
Follow Jennifer and other 100% pro-life bloggers and speakers at https://savethe1.blogspot.com
Learn about Unbroken, a support and advocacy group for those impacted by pregnancy from rape.
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Things Visible & Invisible 