Treating Casual Sex Like “Comfort Food” While Society Falls Apart

Just when I think I have seen it all, I come upon an article which leaves me speechless (although usually not very long!) Yesterday, I came upon an article on the Huffington Post entitled, “Comfort Sex: Is it a Bad Thing?” Well, that depends on the definition of the term “Comfort Sex.”

I really don’t think I can describe it as well as Jill Di Donato, the author of the piece. Ms. Di Donato is an Adjunct Professor of English at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. From the gist of the article, I also assume that she is a single woman, probably in her 30′s or early 40′s.

The article begins like this: “Have you ever gotten that craving for sex, but not for usual reasons? After a particularly rotten day, a silly fight with one of my best friends, or may just one of those days when nothing seems to go my way, I tend to call a certain ‘acquaintance’ who is more than happy to have me over for a few hours between the sheets (how kind of him.) This guy isn’t someone I’d date, or even consider a friend (seriously?) but he does have a knack for taking me from forlorn to very content faster than any other remedy I’ve tried.”

Wow! And we seriously wonder why we have skyrocketing rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Casual sex has become the norm, being treated on the same level as going to a movie or having dinner.  In fact, Ms. Di Donato goes on to say: “Here’s what I’ve decided: Sometimes, single people want sex like we want fried chicken or ice cream or a box of Entenmann’s chocolate covered doughnuts. It’s a quick fix– you don’t expect it to sustain you, and you know it probably wouldn’t be good for you to indulge in too, too often (just those times that it doesn’t give you a deadly disease, if you can tell when those times will be) It’s what you want right now, though, and right now, that’s okay.”

I realize that I live a somewhat insular existence, but the extremely casual, blase way that sex is treated in this piece blows my mind, especially considering the state our world is in.  Obviously this woman is older than most of the girls we see at the Center, but her generation is hardly immune to the raging consequences of irresponsible sex. In the last decade, STD rates in women and men 45 and older have more than doubled, with some increasing by as much as 127%! Women over the age of 30 also account for a quarter of all abortions. And, yet, in articles such as this, found on sites all over the internet (including conservative leaning Fox News!) men and women are encouraged to hop into bed with whomever they would like at any time. Oh, and at the end they usually add the note that it might be a good idea to wear a condom.

In my search, I also stumbled across a piece which was advising single parents what to do if your children knock on your bedroom door when you are having sex. The whole tone treated it very lightly, isn’t it all so inconvenient and awkward, but really, what is the big deal? Well, the big deal is that those children will almost certainly be sexually active themselves, modeling their behavior after mom or dad. Sometimes I think that this generation really doesn’t have a chance.

How do we get our society back on track? It really is no wonder that fewer and fewer couples end up getting married, and half of those that do will face divorce. God intended sex to be a wonderful, but sacred, bond between a man and woman who have committed their lives to one another. I know this concept is considered horribly archaic, but it is true nevertheless. And, unless we return to it we have not even begun to see the ravages of disease which will sweep through those who use their bodies in ways which are so destructive. God did not make us to be able to sustain sexual relations with so many people and in such careless ways.

Actually, this makes me very sad. This woman really thinks she has found the secret to comfort and sexual satisfaction. Actually she has no idea! Sex is meant to be an amazing bond that grows over the course of a lifetime. I have seen too many young women who have been used and abused by selfish partners and think that is all there is. Someone needs to show them there is so much more, without fear of disease or unwanted pregnancies.  They certainly won’t hear it from women like Jill Di Donato.

Keeping it real!  Barb

Selective Abortions: The Tragedy and Shame of Killing One Twin and Leaving the Other

My heart broke this week to read a story about a woman in Australia who was 32 weeks pregnant with twins. Her doctor convinced her to abort one of the babies since he or she had been diagnosed with a congenital heart condition and would either die soon after birth or face many surgeries. Through a horrible error, it was the healthy child that was injected with the deadly drug. Soon after, for some reason, the sick twin was taken by caesarean section and died as well. The heartbroken and devastated mother lost both of her very wanted babies.

This is a tragedy on many levels. However, unlike the media, I do not find it horrible because the wrong child died, but, rather, that either one of these precious children was targeted for death at all! I am not blaming the mother. She was trusting her physician for his advice to her. No, I blame a medical community that targets the disabled for destruction in the womb, rather than to seek a way to ease that child’s entrance into life and doing all they can to make a way to help the baby to not only survive but thrive.

Late term abortions, no matter what the reason, are horrible things and should never be allowed! Doctors are not infallible, and we have all heard of many examples where children exceeded the expectations set for them, or were born perfectly normal in spite of the diagnosis. However, even should the worst occur and the baby would die at birth, it is still not up to us to play God. Plus, even if you put faith aside, no child should die the horrible death that occurs with abortion.

To imply that such an ignoble and barbaric end is ever in a child’s best interest is twisted and evil reasoning. With death comes the end of hope and love and compassion. It should horrify us all that parents, often loving and compassionate parents, are convinced all the time by medical authorities to make the decision to have their child killed in the womb.  Their own parental concern and responsibility is used against them as a weapon against their own offspring. It is unconscionable!

With in-vitro fertilization, it has become common to implant several embryos in the womb. Often several of them will not make it. However, if they do, doctors will often encourage the parents to “selectively” abort some of them. It is not uncommon for that even to occur with twins.  At random, one will be selected for death and one for life. I cannot imagine how parents can bring themselves to make this evil choice.

Often they say it is for the sake of the surviving child (or children.) I’m sorry, but that argument does not hold water! I have read accounts of children being haunted with dreams of siblings that seem to be calling out to them. They have a sense that there is someone missing, only to discover that they had brothers or sisters destroyed in the womb. Can you imagine finding out that you were a twin, but your parents killed your sibling at random? That they could just as easily have targeted you for death? Sophie’s Choice was nothing compared with this!

This type of targeted death needs to stop! This deadly tool of guilt and persuasion needs to be taken out of the hands of the medical community. Some proponents of the disabled are already rising up against targeting certain diseases and conditions in the womb. Actually, the solution would be to outlaw late-term abortions (early term as well) so that tragedies like the death of those twins in Australia will never happen again!

Keeping it true!  Barb

When Human Life Begins: A Matter of Opinion or of Fact?

We live in a world that increasingly believes that all truth is relative.  One thing can be true for you and not for me.  Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity: all are merely true in the eyes of the correct beholder. Absolutes are a thing of the past.

What nonsense! Things are either real or they are not. Either Jesus truly was the son of God or He wasn’t. He either died and rose again or He didn’t.  We either need to believe in Him to get into heaven or it is all a lot of rot. It has nothing to do with our opinion.

The same is true for the beginning and end of life. We cannot randomly choose the point at which life has its beginning. Neither is the end of life dependant on an opinion poll. A person is either alive or they aren’t.

Until recently, there really was little debate on the subject. It was determined that life begins when the sperm and egg combine and form a unique new person. Life ended when the heart ceased to beat and breathing stopped. Most physicians still believe both of these to be true.

Things only got complicated when our society began to accept things like abortion on demand and contraceptives which worked by preventing implantation of the embryo in the uterine wall. At the end of life, hearts and other organs are not usable once the heart stops so a new definition had to be created.  Now a person can be declared “brain dead” while their heart is still beating.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has decided that “pregnancy” (they don’t want to call it life for abortion purposes) begins not at conception but about a week later when the fertilized egg implants itself in the uterine wall.  This seemingly random determination has many political ramifications. If this is true, then suddenly drugs, such as many contraceptives and the morning after pill, are no longer a big deal. Neither is embryonic stem cell research.  Why would anyone object to any of these things since “pregnancy” has not begun yet anyway?  (By the way, they haven’t said when they think Life begins!)

Of course, this same austere organization also denies that there is such a thing as post-abortion syndrome. They also reject a link between breast cancer and abortion, even though there seem to be more research confirming the link all the time.  Since they are seen as the official arm of obstetrical work in this country, they are cited by other organizations as the ultimate authority, when actually they are nothing more than a mouthpiece for the abortion movement.

If organizations are allowed to randomly alter things as crucial as the beginning and end of life, what else will they begin to change and distort for their own political ends? What would stop them in the future from deciding that people should not live any longer than 65? Or that infants can be killed if they don’t meet certain criteria? These things are not as far-fetched as you might think.

No matter what people think, this world is filled with truths that are absolute.   Such things are tampered with to our own demise.  Instead, we should be seekers of what is right and true.

Keeping it true!  Barb

AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling: Thankful for a Chance to Make a Difference!

I’ve always dreamed that I could do something with my life which would make a real difference in the world. I think that is an innate desire for all people. We want to know that our lives meant something. Without purpose, life can seem shallow and meaningless.

On this Thanksgiving, I am grateful for many things: my wonderful husband, children, daughters-in-law and grandsons. I thank God everyday that I was born in this amazing land of opportunity and that all the people I love have a roof over their heads and plenty of food to eat, as well as the freedom to become whatever they want to be. In the United States, neither myself or my children have been restricted by class barriers or anything else from being whatever we desire. I am also grateful that they have all chosen to love Jesus and to use their lives for doing good.

On a personal level, I thank God every day that I found the AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling. I was blessed to be at the very first meeting to discuss the concept of a place where women could come and find love, compassion, and the truth about the humanity of her unborn child. The vision was to not just tell her not to abort her baby, but to all help to meet the needs that were driving her to make that awful decision in the first place.

We laugh fondly about our bumbling attempts in the early days. Pregnancy tests were not as sophisticated and women had to bring along a first morning urine sample. Sometimes the containers were very “creative”. With a list of community referrals and hearts filled with compassion and the truth of God’s Word, we did what we could. God rewarded our faithfulness and honored the work we did. We saw many miracles and lives changed even from the very beginning.

As the years sped by, we continually re-evaluated what we were doing and added ministries as we saw the need. It wasn’t long before we began to give away baby items to those who needed them. However, after finding many of our items being sold at a garage sale by one of our “clients,” we decided that it would be best for everyone if we required a little accountability. Today the women who come to us must be involved in our parenting program before shopping in our large Baby Boutique. Everything there is purchased with points that the men and women earn while learning to be better mothers and fathers.

Six years ago, God blessed us with an amazing building on 65th and Sorensen Parkway. A former medical facility, our team wept the first time we walked through it, even though it was somewhat rough and clinical in appearance. Hundreds of volunteer hours later, the building was transformed into a work of art. The women who enter our doors are always telling us how beautiful and nice it is, a particular blessing to those used to dealing with the social welfare system.

A year after opening our new facility, we realized that, in spite of our beautiful building, very few women were entering our doors. And, they were those who primarily wanted to keep their babies. We were no longer having the impact against abortion in our community that God had called us to have so many years before.

Immediately, we began to search for a way to do things better; to find a means of getting ourselves back on track.  As we prayed, God was quick to answer. In less than a month, we heard about a webinar which was being hosted by NIFLA, a legal arm of the pregnancy center movement. It concerned an organization from Rochester, New York, called CompassCare, which was reporting amazing success in reaching out to women who were determined to abort. We signed up for the webcast and have, quite literally, never been the same!

In the next few months we threw out almost everything we had been doing and restructured  into a 15-step linear process, beginning with the initial phone call and ending with a follow-up process which lasts until the baby is born. The results have been beyond belief! Before the process (called the Optimization Tool or OT) the majority of the women we saw had negative tests and wanted to carry to term. Now 60-70% of our tests are positive and the great majority of the women are at risk for abortion. As a result, we estimate that the lives of over 600 babies were saved last year, with that number hopefully climbing to over 800 this year.

I am not going to pretend that things are easy. This is probably the hardest work I have ever done. Our hearts are wrenched everyday by the tragic lives that so many women lead. Little girls, without any good role models in their lives, give themselves over to too much sexual activity way too early and way too fast! They model themselves after their idols in the music industry or the beautiful girls they see on television, and find out too late that instead of finding fulfillment or Prince Charming, they are now abandoned and pregnant and infected with unspeakable disease!

In the midst of this stormy, heart-wrenching sea of misery, our only hope is to cling to Jesus. We invite Him daily to fill the Center with his sweet and powerful Spirit.  We share the truth of His Gospel with all who will allow it, knowing that only He can set women free from the seemingly hopeless mess they have made of their lives. Only He can show her that the “problem she wants to get rid of” is actually a baby, a tiny being made in God’s image, and already worthy of protection and life. Over 80% of the time, we find success. With the rest, we shed some tears and then look to Him for the strength to press ahead for another day.

So, on this Thanksgiving Eve, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness for this place and for all the men and women who sacrifice so much to make the miracles possible. I feel humbled to be allowed to play a part in seeing lives saved and transformed. There is nothing quite like the feeling of seeing a loving mother with her beautiful baby, and know that the child would be dead and the mother without hope if we had not been here.

(If you feel God tugging on your heart and would like to be involved, please call me! My number at the AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling is 402-390-9700. Or e-mail me at bmalek@aaacpc.com.)

Keeping it true!  Barb

The FDA, Politics and Journalistic Fraud: The Stem Cell Battle in America

It was announced last week that Geron, the company that was at the forefront with embryonic stem cells, is now discontinuing their research.  They have reportedly been having difficulty finding financial partners (besides our government) who are willing to invest in work which is not having positive results.

When Geron was granted permission by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to run some human clinical trials using embryonic cells in 2009, the mainstream press went crazy! The Los Angeles Times declared that they were “ushering in a new era of medicine!” When the first patient received an injection, a headline read, “Hope for Spinal Cord Patients!” In contrast, the news that Geron was discontinuing their research was met with either silence or a small article buried on the back pages.

The same silent treatment has been given to the numerous amazing breakthroughs which have been occurring on the adult stem cell front. Around the same time that Geron made their announcement, there was a huge breakthrough of adult cells with the treatment of heart disease. In England, there was a headline in the Telegraph which read: “Biggest Breakthrough in Treating Heart Attacks for a Generation“. In American newspapers there was mostly silence.

In fact, most of the treatment being done with the use of adult stem cells is being done overseas.  Recently Indianapolis Colt quarterback, Peyton Manning, flew to Europe to have his own stem cells removed and then reapplied to his injured neck. There is no news as to whether or not it was successful, but scientists say the technology holds a lot of promise.

It is estimated that FDA approval for adult stem cell treatments is at least a decade down the road in this country.  One of the primary reasons for this is that the FDA has declared that stem cells are “drugs” and must face the same strenuous regulations that any new medication must face. We are the only country in which use of a person’s own cells and tissues are considered in the same category as medications. The FDA process is lengthy and very expensive, and, according to some, can be influenced politically.

I am certainly far from an expert on the whole FDA process, but it seems to be that some drugs, such as RU-486, which the FDA approved, but now has issued warning that it has killed some women, receives different treatment than drugs which become outlawed because they merely have the potential for loss of life. In addition, the FDA also approved the morning after pill for over the counter use by teenagers, a highly irresponsible move in my opinion. I find it very difficult to believe that the approval of these abortion drugs was not politically motivated.

As far as adult stem cell treatments are concerned, on the one hand it is troubling to read about people undergoing unregulated treatments in other countries and dying as a result. On the other hand, there are some treatments which have had amazing results which have been clearly documented, yet those suffering from the conditions must pay thousands of dollars to travel and stay overseas to receive them. Pressure is being put on the FDA to reverse their classification of stem cells as drugs, particularly those taken from the same patient receiving the treatment.  Hopefully this can be accomplished, especially in an administration that heavily favors embryonic research.

As I have mentioned in this blog before, the advances being made in the whole area of Adult Stem Cell Research are incredibly exciting! Scientists foresee a day when new organs will be able to be grown from a patient’s stem cells for transplantation! Since their own cells would be used, there would be no fear of rejection.  Success has been seen using adult cells to treat many different medical conditions: Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and on and on and on. Since my mother has Parkinson’s, I would hate to see these treatments postponed while she continues to suffer, especially if it is just a matter of political philosophy.

With Geron pulling out of the embryonic stem cell business, maybe our government will reconsider their commitment to this futile and needlessly destructive research. Then again, it never was about curing diseases to begin with. It was just another phase of the battle for unborn lives, and, therefore, defies logic or reason. Overcoming it calls for warfare on a spiritual level. Please pray for a breakthrough so that our loved ones can get the care that they need before too many more years of needless suffering!

Keeping it true!  Barb

Hypocrisy in the Church? What Should Be Our Reponse to Abortion?

“Something is wrong with Christianity in America.” These were the opening words to an article I read this morning, entitled Abortion: Do As I Say, Not As I Do, written by a woman named Bethany Blankley.  The article appeared in the Huffington Post,  a website which I occasionally scan for left-leaning fodder for this blog, so I read Ms. Blankley’s article with caution.

In the second paragraph, she proclaimed herself to be a “pro-life evangelical,” but goes on to describe the efforts by other pro-lifers which drive her crazy: “baby bottle campaigns orchestrated to help single moms with chump change; protesting outside of abortion clinics; attempts to change the law and alleged deceptive advertising at crisis pregnancy centers.” Okay then. Well, I don’t really wonder where she gets her news. It sounds like she reads the Huffington Post and other left-leaning main-stream media outlets a little too much.

Actually, let me interject here that I think Christians getting their news from media sources that have proven themselves hostile to pro-life sentiment, as well as the church, has led to a lot of skewed thinking. Believe me, whatever we feed upon is what we will become.  It leads to someone like Bethany Blankley, who, I have no doubt, started out as a sincere Christian pro-lifer, becoming embarrassed by the distorted picture that has been painted for her of what so many others in the movement are doing.

Ms. Blankley goes on to state that all these pro-life efforts “ignore the fact that in America, Christians have more abortions than non-Christians.” She then proceeds to list a lot of statistics, some from the  Guttmacher Institute, which is an arm of Planned Parenthood, and really not very reliable.  I am not going to deny that an alarmingly high rate of abortions occur among Christians. That is all too true. However, I am also not aware that those in the movement are ignoring that fact. Neither does it make believers hypocrites for trying to do something about bringing abortion to an end.

The high rate of abortion in the Christian community should trouble us all. Not nearly enough churches talk about moral issues, period, let alone abortion. The majority of the women we see at the AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling attend church somewhere. Many of them tell us they love Jesus. And, yet, they are very sexually active and do not even see a correlation between their behavior and their faith. It is like they have never heard it from the pulpit in their life!

The percentage of those whose faith keeps them from aborting is somewhat higher. However, I have heard far too many women who know abortion is wrong justify it by saying that God will forgive them. Or they refuse to face the embarrassment that they will face with their family or church community. We know that abortion exists inside the church at way too high at rate; the dilemma is what to do about it.

Ms. Blankley believes that the Christian community has no credibility on the issue of abortion. Well, that is certainly what the mainstream press believe, as well as those on the left. Of course, what else would they believe if they read their own articles which paint all Evangelicals as hypocritical buffoons? Her own words show she has drunk the liberal kool-aid, when she uses terms such as “chump change” to describe baby bottle campaigns (which, in reality, are a ground roots effort that have provided needed funds to help needy mothers and children.) Or when she describes advertising by pregnancy centers as “deceptive.”

How does she think Christian’s should address abortion? She travels back in time to the 1st Century believers and their response to the Roman practice of killing female babies, pointing out that Jews and Christians were the only ones who did not take part in this vile practice. Ms. Blankley extols those early believers for not rising up in arms or trying to change the law, but just quietly living righteous lives and letting their example do the talking.

In like manner, she believes that today we should live out our pro-life convictions by not aborting our own children, and becoming foster or adoptive parents to children in need. I heartily agree that these things are necessary and are certainly a living example of faith in action. I know many believers who have done both, and am aware that the number of children in need far exceeds those willing to take them on. It is certainly our mandate to “feed the hungry and clothe the naked“, and “to care for widows and orphans.”

As much as I agree with her exhortation to believers to demonstrate their convictions in a positive way, I strongly disagree that we should just quietly live our lives while unborn children are dying all around us. I doubt that Bethany Blankley would have had positive words to say for those in Germany who silently carried on day after day while smelling the corpses of Jews burning in the ovens.  History has universally condemned them for their non-action, regardless of the good they did in their personal lives. As a committed pro-lifer, I see no difference between those who were forced into the camps and those being carried into the abortion clinics in their mother’s womb. If good men and women do nothing, it will never end.

She ends her article by saying “it’s time for Christians to get serious about what they say they believe.” I couldn’t agree more. We must live with integrity in our personal lives as well as in our actions. That includes helping the needy as well as striving to rescue those being led away to slaughter. It includes taking in foster children in addition to working to change the law. Let’s clean up our act; but let’s also stop letting the Left infect our minds, leading us to false judgment about our brothers and sisters.

Keeping it true!  Barb

Abortion Doulas: The New Wave of Pro-Abortion Radicals

Doesn’t the picture at the left look so cheery? From just a simple glance you would think it was for something pleasant and happy: like a party or, maybe greeting a new child into the world. No, it is the cover of a piece put out by a relatively new organization in New York: the Doula Project, which provides trained assistants to help women through an abortion by holding their hand or giving them a back-rub.

The official definition of a doula is “a woman who assists women during labor and after childbirth.” Volunteers with New York’s Doula Project take that one grotesque step further by accompanying women into the room as they have their unborn child destroyed. Actually, it is quite amazing that they call themselves the same thing as those assisting with birth, since the whole movement denies that it is actually a child that is being destroyed. However, I guess they do at least admit that it is a pregnancy.

New York City is undeniably the Abortion Capital of the United States. It is estimated that at least 40% of all pregnancies there are aborted, or about 90,000 a year. New York is one of the states that allows abortion to be paid for by state Medicaid funds. There are also almost no abortion restrictions, except against pregnancy centers. As a result, women travel there from all over the country to have their children destroyed at the taxpayer’s expense.

In addition to the Doula Project, the article I read from Observer Magazine talked about another organization called Haven, which finds volunteers willing to house low-income women who travel to New York to abort. It was actually founded in 2001. One of the volunteers with this program told a story which was supposed to pluck my heartstrings. Instead it left me cold. She told of a middle-school student who had traveled to the city with her parents to get rid of her baby. They had extended all their lines of credit to make the trip, and had to turn to banks in New York for help when it was discovered that the baby was over 21 weeks along! There was no talk of encouraging adoption, or what a gruelling experience a late-term abortion would be for such a young girl. No, all anyone wanted to do was to help this family go deeper in debt to make sure this baby died!

The reaction of the pro-abortion movement to this new wave of what I will call Anti-Doula (since I’m sure the Doulas out there will agree that their purpose is to support healthy, thriving births, not deaths!) was to not embrace it at first. One staunch abortion supporter put it this way:”Even as a pro-choice feminist, when I heard about abortion doulas my first thought was: Are women really so fragile that they need to hire a complete stranger to hold their hand at the doctor’s?” Supposedly, the abortionists weren’t too thrilled about them at first either, but now they find that the anti-Doulas make their job easier. I would imagine so; I’m sure that having someone holding your hand and telling you you’re doing the right thing would make it easier to do what you know is wrong, no matter what it is.

The anti-Doula movement in New York estimates that they see about 15-20 later term abortions a week, along with 75 first trimester. (Hmmm…I thought those later term procedures were supposed to be rare.) The leaders admit that they worry about new volunteers and the impact that viewing actual abortions might have on them. In fact, one of the co-founders of the group, Mary Mahoney, stated: “Those pictures that pro-life activists flash are real. That is what a fetus looks like when its head is crushed. When you see the procedure, you must decide, as a pro-choice person, whether you are in or out.” She goes on to assure us that she “has never been more in.” (What a horribly sad statement for anyone to make!)

When their volunteers asked how they should respond if the woman would say something like, “I just killed my baby,” they were told to explain that the procedure is legal because the fetus is not a baby, it just has the potential to be one. (So, does that mean it also has the potential to be a puppy or an otter?) I’m sure her tears and pain will also be silenced with their assurance that there is no such thing as post-abortion syndrome and that they just need to get over it. How comforting!

Some branches of the Doula Project, which has spread all over the country, are considering what actions they might take if state laws become more and more restrictive. Since New York City is so abortion-friendly, they are considering a type of “underground railroad” to shuttle women along to the Big Apple. In preparation, they are considering providing assistance with insurance fraud, where women can be linked up with residents in the city and mail themselves a letter to their address which they could use as “proof” of residence in order to get their abortion paid for by the state’s Medicaid program. Lovely.

Towards the end of the article was a story which was supposed to convince us, the readers, that women who came to New York had excellent reasons for ending their pregnancies. It seems there was a woman who travelled there for her abortion who said she didn’t believe in abortion because she was a Christian. But,  she already had two children, and she knew she had to take care of those children first. Tragically, she never found a compassionate voice of reason to assure her that the Lord would help her to parent and love one more. Or that killing their sibling would not help her children, but rather load them down with a lifetime of guilt and overwhelming loss. Or, if she was a single mom, that there are millions of families who are desperate to take her child if she cannot care for it. Instead all she found were those willing to feed her a meal and hold her hand while walking with her through a chamber of death.

Abortion Doula is the saddest term I have heard in a long, long time. If I was a caring, compassionate, dedicated Doula, I would be outraged that the same name is being applied to those assisting with death. Then, I remembered that Satan is the great master of counterfeit. We can be sad and angry, but maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised after all!

Keeping it true!  Barb

Medical Workers Forced to Perform Abortions: The Battle Against Coercion!

As Christians, we face battles on many fronts in our society. Not only do we confront our own personal battles to remain pure and “unstained by the world,” but there are many who are angered by our obedience to scripture, especially in the arena of morality, and will do all they can to trip us up.

New Jersey state law clearly says: “No person shall be required to perform or assist in the performance of an abortion or sterilization.” Federal law (at least for now) prohibits hospitals that receive federal funds from requiring their employees from assisting with abortion. In spite of all that, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey ordered all of their nurses to either perform abortion-related services or face termination of their employment.

Fe Vinoya is the spokesperson for a group of twelve nurses employed by the hospital who are striking back. She stated that suddenly in October of this year the hospital she had been working at for years ordered her and other nurses to assist with the abortions being done in their Same Day Surgery unit. When she expressed her objection, she was told that the hospital had “no regard for her religious convictions and that she must assist.” In order to protect their jobs, the nurses hired an attorney from the Alliance Defense Fund.

Formed in 1994, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is, in their words: “a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and direct litigation.  We defend Our First Liberty – religious freedom – by empowering our allies, recognizing that together we can accomplish far more than we can alone.” Defending cases such as this one is the reason they exist.

Their ADF attorney, Matthew Bowman, was able to get a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order prohibiting the firings on November 3rd. The case is scheduled for federal court on December 5. In spite of all this, the hospital has not backed down. They told the media that they were not compelling anyone to violate their religious beliefs, but the nurses have testified that this is a lie. In a press conference yesterday, Fe Vinoya stated: “We and our attorneys have repeatedly asked the hospital not to force us to provide services on abortion cases, and the hospital has repeatedly said it will not back down and that we are required to assist.”

This hospital’s brazen defiance of the law makes me wonder where all this stems from. Do they feel emboldened by ObamaCare to think that they can mandate this for their workers? The present administration has not made any secret of the fact that they think that medical workers should be forced to perform and assist with abortion. Many physicians have already found themselves losing their hospital rights or their practices because of a refusal to refer women to others for their abortion. Requiring them to actually perform the deadly procedure is just a simple step from there.

I fully predict that this is just the beginning of this type of battle, especially in left-leaning states with a strong pro-abortion sentiment, like New Jersey. I am glad to see the nurses at this hospital fighting back in such a vigorous manner.  An overwhelming victory is needed or this problem will quickly become an epidemic.

One of the encouraging aspects of this story is that I would imagine that the hospital began requiring their nurses to assist with abortions because they were having a problem finding enough nurses to volunteer for the duty. The same is true for the pressure to have medical students learn how to do them: it is a loathsome and terrible task, and there are not nearly enough men and women willing to take it on. And, pro-life sentiment is on the rise!

I will keep my eyes posted for more updates on this story. Please pray for these courageous nurses who desire to heal and not destroy. No one should ever be coerced to do such an odious and murderous task against their will. In fact, no one should ever do it to begin with! In the midst of this battle, we must just continue to fight each skirmish with the truth and integrity, never allowing evil to win!

Keeping it true!  Barb

Abortionist Knows He is Killing: Spinning Scripture to Make Abortion Right with God

Pro-abortion advocates seem to fall into one of two camps: they either don’t care what God thinks or they attempt to twist Scripture to make the killing of unborn children acceptable in God’s eyes. To me, there is no way that one can do this and maintain credibility. The Sixth Commandment clearly says, “You shall not kill (or murder.)” The rest of Scripture backs up that point with astonishing clarity.

There are those that would argue that the Old Testament, in particular, allows for the killing of criminals.  I am not going to get into the issue of the death penalty here, except to say that the death of convicted criminals and the deliberate destruction of innocent unborn lives can never be placed in the same category. The Bible never condones the death of life in the womb!

Those who attempt to make a Scriptural argument for abortion usually do so by denying that the unborn are human beings in the full sense of the term. They are redefined as “clumps of tissue” or “fetal matter.” One huge exception to this is a late-term abortionist by the name of Curtis Boyd.

Mr. Boyd (I refuse to call him doctor) was recently interviewed by a television station in Austin, Texas. Boyd, who performs abortions up to six months, admitted that he is killing babies: “Am I killing? Yes, I am. I know that.” He also admits that he is an ordained Baptist minister, but is now a part of the Unitarian Church.

Boyd says he is a praying man. Every time he dismembers a child in the womb, he asks “that the spirit of this pregnancy be returned to God with love and with understanding.” What the heck is a “spirit of pregnancy?” I take great comfort in knowing that the child returns to God once it has been destroyed. However, what is God supposed to be “understanding” about?

He goes on to state: “When a woman acts in a responsible way (by having an abortion) doing what she believes is in her best interest and the best interest of her family, she’s being moral. This is a moral decision and I believe in that….. they think what they are doing is wrong and that they’re a bad person for doing it. And that’s really sad because what they’re doing is showing a higher level of moral development than probably most anyone else.”

What makes this statement really grotesque and twisted is that this man specializes in really late-term abortions. The kind where the baby is fully formed and just needs a few more weeks to grow. At six months, some of them could possibly live outside of the womb. However, Mr. Boyd do his best to make certain that never happens.

Killing a child is never in the best interest of a woman or her family. One of the worst evils of our society is allowing women to have this terrible choice. And here is this ”medical authority” convincing her that dismembering her child is not only right, but is morally superior. Mr. Boyd: the woman feels guilty because she knows what she is about to do is wrong. Intrinsically we are all aware of that fact. Some of us just bury it under mounds of selfishness, guilt and justification.

Boyd receives tens of thousands of dollars for his so-called benevolent work. His clinic, Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) in New Mexico was reimbursed $16,000 by Medicaid (yes, New Mexico allows Medicaid payments for abortions) to kill a 30-week unborn child with Down Syndrome. Gee, I would imagine one could rationalize a whole lot of things for that kind of cash!

Curtis Boyd goes way back with the abortion movement. He was one of those “back alley abortionists” killing children in the 1960′s. He performed thousands of illegal procedures in his clinics in Athens, Texas and Dallas. He says the reason he did it was for the women. “It’s work that I am very proud of. I have never experienced a greater level of gratitude from patients or the feeling that I made a real difference in their life, and really in the life of our society… It’s never ceased to feel rewarding and to feel that I’m doing something good and something important.”

I am not denying that pregnancy sometimes places women into difficult situations. If you eliminate the fact that a child will die, it is easy for society and women to rationalize that the problem is solved by getting rid of the baby. However, in most cases, the pregnancy is only the visible manifestation of much deeper problems. With so many women that we see, their lives were already on a path of disaster even before the pregnancy. Plus, statistics prove that most women who have abortions feel coerced into having it by their boyfriends, parents or others.

Even though the pro-abortion movement denies it, most women also struggle with a host of mental problems after aborting. This is particularly true for those who have later term abortions. These procedures often take several days, and can be brutal for the woman as well as the child. Plus, they are not stupid. They know how big and fully developed their child is. And, in our experience, many of these late-term abortions are not the result of any type of medical emergency but result from denial of the pregnancy until things are really advanced.

Whenever the abortion movement gives the men and women who perform these horrible procedures almost saint-like status, it makes me sick. These people know exactly what they are doing and they make a lot of money doing it. They are watching on an ultrasound as they take fully formed babies apart. They see the little arms and legs move around before suddenly convulsing in pain and falling forever silent. There will be a day when they will have to face God with what they have done. I wonder what their rationalization will be then?

Keeping it true!  Barb

What Would You Sacrifice to End Abortion?

I don’t remember the exact year, but in the late 1980′s I got arrested in St. Louis, Missouri, for taking part in a peaceful sit-in at an abortion clinic. These were happening all over the country in those years. Many were led by the group Operation Rescue, but I am pretty sure this one was not. It was led by a pro-life group in the St. Louis area, and many of us came in from other parts of the country to stand along with them in solidarity.

In those early days of the movement, people even get arrested sometimes for just prayerfully standing on the sidewalk outside of abortion clinics. My good friend, Denny Hartford (with Vital Signs Ministries) was always being harassed by the police for one thing or another, and, at least in Omaha, he never blocked the doorway. In a way, the authorities were forcing us into making an illegal stand.

Back then, just as it does now, the fire against the injustice of abortion burned in my heart. People in Nazi Germany had been condemned for not fighting against the concentration camps in their midst where millions of innocent people died. How could we just stand idly by while millions of unborn children were being slaughtered? I still don’t see where there is any difference. A life is a life, even if you can’t see it with your eyes.

I was very excited to be able to do something in a physical manner, to risk something of myself, in order to stand up for the unborn. None of us knew exactly what would happen. In past sit-in’s the participants had been charged with a misdemeanor and released. However, we knew that could change at any time.  Since we had several children, we decided that my husband would not get arrested together. We didn’t want both of us stuck in jail at the same time.

That morning is somewhat of a blur. I remember sitting with the group (I believe there was over a hundred of us) in front of the doors, singing and praying. The police arrived and warned us that we needed to leave or risk arrest. Some went limp as the police attempted to carry them away, but a big policeman came and merely swung me over his shoulder and carried me to the police wagon. (I felt a little cheated that they had such an easy time with me.)

I believe we were all arrested before noon. It took quite some time for them to get us all processed and released. I was one of the last to leave the holding cell, in the early hours of the next morning. I will never forget one Catholic priest who specifically asked to be released last so that no one else would have to be alone. I was grateful for him, especially as the night wore on and more and more real criminals replaced the pro-lifers in the large cell. I was amused at the look of astonishment on their faces to come in and find a priest stretched out and asleep on the jail floor!

My memories were prompted today by an article in LifeSiteNews.com by Abby Johnson, a former of abortion clinic director for Planned Parenthood. In it, she spoke of her previous radical commitment to abortion and her willingness to give her life for it if necessary. She was the director during the time when abortionist George Tiller was shot and killed. Fear had gone out throughout Planned Parenthood and others that the same violence might come their way by “anti-abortion zealots.”

In response to these perceived threats, Abby would arrive at work early every morning and check the schedule of those who were working that day. In her head, she would chart out where everyone would be so that if violent intruders entered, or a bomb threat came, she could get all the workers out of the building and face the threat herself. In her own words: “That was my burden everyday. I was willing to DIE for the sake of abortion.”

Just a few years later, Abby had the chance to actually witness one of the abortions for which she previously felt so willing to give her life, and fled her workplace in horror. It was one thing to defend an ideal, and quite another to come face to face with the knowledge that real human beings died gruesome deaths under the abortionists knife or suction machine. If you have not read Abby’s story, she is now a pro-life advocate.

Abby reminds us in today’s article (found here) that the rescue movement of the late 80′s played a vital role in opening the way for the peaceful and prayerful protests of today. In order to end the illegal blockage of the clinic doors, most communities became more accepting of allowing protestors on the sidewalks. Problems still crop up here and there, but today’s demonstrators are largely protected by laws defending freedom of speech.

Pro-lifers no longer block the clinic doors. Peaceful protests and sidewalk counselors who offer help, along with Pregnancy Centers like the one I work in, have taken over the task of rescuing unborn children. I must confess, however, that there still lingers in me a desire to do more. Would we stand on the sidewalk and allow children already born to be carried in and killed? Are we any less accountable for allowing the same to be done with the unborn? It is a difficult dilemma!

I made that same correlation when I was listening over the weekend to all the furor over the little boys that no one protected from abuse at Penn State. Why did no one rush in and rescue them when they saw them being molested? Where was the hue and cry?

I know there are thousands of good people working very hard every day on behalf of unborn children. I am privileged to work along side of many of them. There are tireless efforts made on their behalf. However, there will always be a part of me that still longs to block the clinic doors. I am trusting that I will always be open enough to hear God’s voice telling me what to He desires me to do and then to have the courage to obey.

Keeping it true!  Barb