Fight For Life

As director of a Crisis Pregnancy Center, often I hear many stories. My team and I have heard many that sound the same, and quite a few shockers. Just when we thought we had heard it all, or had gone through it all, someone comes around and brings us back to the reality of the war we are battling, a fight for life.
We have counseled a few young women who have told us their decision was not to abort, only to call them back a few days later to find, they did. They had fallen under the pressure of family. We had one young mom who had called us a few times, we had a number of phone counseling. We had confirmation through family that she was indeed pregnant. While out of town at a seminar, her family called us to say she had had an abortion. That caused a long period of silence among the team as this young mom was over 24 weeks along.
Recently, we received a phone call to meet a young couple, boyfriend/girlfriend, at our doctor's clinic. They wanted an abortion and a social worker was going with them, but could we meet with them. Two of our staff members met them at the clinic and talked a bit with them. Our doctor told the young couple, they had to receive counseling from me first before he would take their final decision. So our staff came back with this young couple.
We did all that we normally do. Discussed fetal development, determined she was 7-8weeks along in pregnancy and showed her pictures of the baby at this stage. I noticed they did take interest in that and looked at it all rather eagerly. But it seemed then that a cold heart set in. "I had a cousin who was unmarried and pregnant. The whole family ostricized her, said cruel things to her. My parents, even to this day will say 'you better not embarrass us and end up like your cousin'." This was said through tears as this 21year old university student sat their tearing to peices the tissue in her hands.
She was a rather pretty young lady, dressed fashionably. Her fingernails were well done and manicured with blue and white sparkly fingernail polish. She came from a well educated, middle class family. Her parents were not divorced, their marriage, in her eyes, was wonderful. She was the oldest, so the pressure was on. Her parents, as both her and her boyfriend commented more than once, are very traditional. If they found out, they would make her transfer to a university at home, she would not be able to see her boyfriend, she would have no freedom, nothing.
Her boyfriend, while saying he wished to save more money to marry, seemed to feel inadequate. His story was sad, growing up in a single parent family, just him, his 2 brothers and dad. The pains of hunger were common for him growing up, the pains of no parent seeing him through his ups and downs or just being with him was still, at age 23, a deep set pain. He started working as a dishwasher in 6th grade to help pay for daily necessities. In 11th grade he had to drop out due to lack of finances and start working. His dad's health was not good and his brothers were out of county working. He was working and taking care of his dad. To him, now was not the time to have a baby. He wants to save money so when his girlfriend finishes college, they can get married. A baby now was not in the plan.
No matter what we said, they both still felt sure their decision was right. Of course, in my heart, I knew it was their decision, but I also knew this one decision could have an impact on the rest of their lives. The decision of abortion often leaves a deep wound, often open and bleeding, but the pain does not show itself till emotions have boiled over in the relationship. Research will tell us that chances are, this couple will not be together in a few years. This secret though, they will share for a lifetime. Often, it is a secret that eats away at them til the grave.
We prayed with this couple and talked with her about coming back after the abortion, when she was feeling better, and talking with us. Lots of things changed after the abortion, emotions they did not know were there, suddenly appear. They left knowing that we did not judge them for their decision, they know we are here for them to talk to. They left, hand in hand, headed towards the clinic. My staff and I just stood at the door.
After they left, I went back to my office, sat on the sofa and cried. I knew that I had lost this fight for life. My team member, Alexia, who was with me during all of this, sat beside me. She sat and cried. We both just sat in silence. This was the first time that this type of situation had come to us. We had done all we knew to do, but Satan still had a strong pull on this young couple's heart. They were blind to what was going on, blinded by Satan's lies of "this will make it all better."
We know that we will encouter many more situations like this. This was a way of preparing us I guess. We can rest in the assurance that this young life was ushered into the arms of the Heavenly Father. We know that Satan is working overtime, but we can have peace that the victory belongs to the Lord. Satan will try in many ways, as we have seen numerous times, to discourage us, to kick us while down, but we know that our Heavenly Father is their with His strong arms to pick us up, and walk with us hand in hand down the path He has chosen for us. The prayer of my team at our center is that we can keep strong and fighting the good fight.