My First National Right to Life Convention

Wow!!! It was amazing and I feel so blessed that the National Right to Life convention came to Charleston, that Michael and I could attend and learn to fight the good fight from seasoned veterans, some who've been at this for nearly 50 years. There were so many practical suggestions on speaking the truth in love, being salt and light, being a voice for those who have none, and so many personal stories. What is clear is that abortion is going to take center stage in the 2020 election. Already some states are passing laws to restrict abortion. Only 13% of Americans want unrestricted abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, yet many states, like VA, OH, and others are following a NY-style abortion proposal. The time has come to return the legal protection babies in the womb enjoyed before Roe v Wade.   There were many young people there as well--our future! The first right is the right to life, without which all other rights--for education, for health, for religious freedom--are moot. Here are some of the highlights.

The convention opened with Viable, a one-act play written by John Hoover. In this story, Judy meets her own daughter whom she aborted 30 years ago. We see and hear the unintended consequences of Judy's secret abortion--the sorrow, the rage, the despair (Judy's performance was electric!)--all because she believed the lies that were fed to her. But there is healing in Christ and Judy, restored, is able to take the message of His love to her husband and her second daughter, living, who is pregnant and considering an abortion. Watching this play made me realize how much I want Bound to be a movie, so that it can reach more people. I'd best start small, like writing a short play. The link for Viable has all the information if you want to bring it to your school or church. Please spread the word. It is beautiful.  

Michael and I both like numbers and data, but there was so much, we decided to get the book. One of the authors is  a physicist who's been collecting abortion data in his spare time for the past few decades and archiving his findings here. What a labor of love, of remembering. Abortion Worldwide Report: 1 Century, 100 Nations, 1 Billion Babies is a book for people who are interested in some hard data, in history and ethics, and in the nature of law and its purpose in protecting human life. From 1803-1919, every nation with a known policy prohibited abortion (see the map that's mostly blue). A hundred years later, abortion is legal almost everywhere (see colorful map below) leading to the deaths of a billion babies. It's clear we need to stop the slaughter of the innocents.   

 

Dagny was stunned when I told her about abortion survivors. She asked, "Is it even possible?" and the answer is yes. Melissa Ohden is one remarkable survivor who was born alive after her mother had a saline abortion. Her birth records indicate that she had an Apgar score of 6, not bad for a baby floating in a toxic saline solution for five days. After five minutes, though her score plummeted to a 2. She was nearly dead. She might've perished had not a nurse taken care of resuscitating her. She is an advocate for babies in the womb and for those born alive and in danger of neglect. Her story is so inspiring as is the testimony of others, like Gianna Jessen, who've survived. Many have been adopted into loving homes. I loved what Joleigh Little had to say about "unwanted children." That they simply haven't found their family yet. Adoption is a wonderful alternative to abortion. Many couples are on waiting lists for babies. But if you are being called to adopt, don't forget the older children and those with special needs. They often languish. One of Michael's colleagues went through the foster care system; she's made it her life's work to adopt several of the "hard-to-adopt" children. God bless her.    

Although abortion is the biggest killer, there were sessions on euthanasia as well. It was heartbreaking to hear of veterans and people suffering from cancer and other chronic ailments denied treatment but offered pills to commit suicide. This is a direct result of the abortion culture. Once killing is accepted as an answer to human suffering, then there's no stopping. And the medical industry can kill people without judicial review. The NRTL recommend you prepare a Will to Live.

There was so much more, but let me end with a story about Ashley Bratcher, the actress who plays Abby Johnson in Unplanned. Ashley had never heard of Abby but someone on social media told Ashley to audition for the part and only after that someone followed up with her, did she audition. We know Ashley got the part :) She was moved by the full script and read everything she could about Abby. Only Ashley's husband, son, and sister knew why she'd flown out to OK (for filming). So when her mother called, Abby told her what the movie was about and wanted to make sure her mom knew she wasn't judging her for having an abortion in high school. "There is hope and redemption," she said. Her mom wept. And then confessed that at 19, she went to a clinic to get an abortion, but she walked out. "I chose you." Talk about a Jeremiah moment. I love how wonderfully creative God is in writing our stories!!! God bless you all.  

 

Reading

I read two outstanding historical fiction books set in South Carolina and had to hurry up and send in my picks to our local newspaper. Aren't the covers gorgeous? I've been paying a lot of attention to book design, what attracts me, for we do judge a book by its cover.
 
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about the bonds of family. It’s how we know who we are. This book begins in present-day Aiken, SC, with Avery Stafford, born into one of South Carolina’s wealthy, privileged, and political families, who comes across a resident, May, in an ordinary nursing home who grips her wrist and asks, “Fern?” May takes Avery’s bracelet, a gift from her beloved grandmother, who is in a different and posh nursing home. When Avery discovers the theft, her federal prosecutorial sixth sense tells her something more might be going on with May and she goes digging for the truth. Interspersed with Avery’s investigation, we get to know the Foss family as they are in 1939. They live a happy life aboard their shantyboat until the parents have to take an emergency trip to the hospital with the mother in danger of dying birthing twins. The children, five of them, are kidnapped from their shantyboat and taken to the Tennessee Children’s Home where Rill, the oldest tries valiantly to keep everyone together, but loses one sibling after another to adoption. The abuses and travails the many children suffer are taken from historical accounts of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis, which stole poor children and sold them to wealthy families, under the direction of Georgia Tann (from 1920 to 1950). At the end of the book, Wingate shares many of her resources.
 
I've always believed that a child has a right to his or her own mother and father. Only if they cannot care for them and relinquish custody should the children be taken away and placed in loving homes. Alas, there are so many abuses, from telling the new mother her baby died to having illiterate parents sign away their rights to the baby by lying to them. And with the birthrate going down, I fear that children will become a commodity. It's already happening, with some people thinking they have a right to a child and doing all sorts of unnatural things to have one. I still remember learning about the first test-tube baby and wondering if we should be doing this just because we can. Now there are babies made with even three parents. And the saddest thing is when the parents decide they don't want the baby after all. Have mercy, O Lord.

 

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is a richly imagined life of Sarah Grimke and Hetty Handful. Sarah is a woman raised in a wealthy family in Charleston, who fought to abolish slavery and who also fought for women’s rights. The story begins when Sarah is given her own personal slave, Hetty, when they are both children. They become close and Sarah flouts the laws of the time teaching Handful to read, incurring a severe punishment for both girls. The real Handful dies soon after but in this book, Handful gets to live and we see their lives entwined. Told in alternating chapters in the voices of Handful and Sarah, we see how the two grow up into the women they are meant to be. Kidd is a masterful storyteller and at the end of the book shares her inspiration and some of her research.

 

I have read only a few slave accounts in their own words and Handful's voice is authentic. The sorrows they've endured breaks my heart. Man's inhumanity towards another man shocks me to the core. I hope we never forget our history, never forget that you cannot put a price on a man's head. Each and every life is infinitely valuable. All the arguments for abolishing slavery also work for abolishing abortion. It is evil. And just because something's legal doesn't make it right.

 

I've lived in Charleston for seven years and have never heard about the remarkable Grimke sisters. So I had to go digging. I highly recommend Sisters Against Slavery: a story about Sarah and Angelina Grimke by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson (illustrated by Karen Ritz) for young readers. It is beautifully illustrated and gives a good overview that will whet kids' appetites to know more.

And for those who want to dig deeper, check out the original writings of The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women's Rights and Abolition by Gerda Lerner.

What great books are you reading this summer?