I Am Pro Life

By Donna J. Wright

Are pro-life voters one issue voters? No, they are not. It appears that pro-abortion or pro-choice folks see them that way. The words “pro-life” have been placed onto one issue but it does not mean there aren’t other life-promoting issues left unsupported. 

My church and denomination (Southern Baptist Convention--and we have supported this in and through our church with regular tithes of 10 % with additional giving and volunteer hours for our lifetimes) spends thousands of dollars each year providing foster care, family services, family counseling & housing, senior adult/widow assistance, and college scholarships to people who need them. This is a pro-life stance.

My church spends a portion of its income in addition to a paid and volunteer workforce to pick up food twice a week that is donated from a local grocery store. They haul, load, unload, sort, package, and give away food to needy families to supplement their diet. They can also get clothes as needed. Church members support this with additional donated food to make meals for families in need. This is a pro-life stance.

One of my denomination’s seminaries offers educational benefits to prisoners in Angola, LA. Many churches have ministries to those behind bars as well as supporting families who struggle when a loved one is incarcerated. This is a pro-life stance.

My church womens’ ministry and the Bible study group I lead have answered many calls for help from women in need. I have watched them gather diapers for new moms, school clothes and supplies; hair bows for foster kids, items and money for women seeking a new start in life after rehab or jail, scholarships for children to attend camp and church programs, and much more. This helps goes to both people we know and to strangers. They are people who just need a little extra help or encouragement This is a pro-life stance.

I am a teetotaler, believing that alcohol does not help me to live a happier life. I stand against drunkenness and drunk driving because its’ consequences kill people. I have never voted to make it easier or less expensive to purchase alcohol or illegal drugs. I support making life-saving drugs available at the least feasible cost. This is a pro-life stance.

I support humanitarian and faith-based efforts to provide clean water and nutritious food to the hungry worldwide. I support agricultural efforts to help people feed their families with extra support for widows, orphans, and children. I am trained and participate in Baptist Disaster Relief, ready to serve to help people who are the victims of catastrophe. This is a pro-life stance.

My church provides ministries to people of all ages, from birth to death. No life is ignored. Anytime there is not a group for any age, I work hard to provide them with opportunities for fellowship, Bible study, and ministry. We use our building each weekday for our largest ministry: a child development center that is non-profit and seeks to provide low-cost and safe care for children through the fifth grade. This is a pro-life stance.

Our (my husband and I) retirement funds are invested so as to, as much as possible, not support businesses that advocate alcohol, tobacco, abortion, pornography, human trafficking, gambling, among other things considered immoral by most followers of Christ. Most people don’t even think to ask these questions when it comes to investment. Most people choose investments based only on profit; these investment overseers work hard to make their money agree with what they believe is right and honors God. This is a pro-life stance.

My church gives a portion of all gifts to our denomination and almost a dozen additional ministries who make an impact locally and around the world. Some money pays for the needs of crisis pregnancy center clients. Some pays for food and medicine that is given away on mission trips. Some helps those who are trying to get out of homelessness and start over. Some provides program funds for ministry to disadvantaged children and those living in poverty. These ministries are mostly staffed by volunteers from my church and from other like-minded people in and out of other churches. Missionaries supported by my denomination whose primary goal is sharing the gospel also work to feed hungry people, build wells for clean water, and provide needed medical care around the world. This is a pro-life stance.

I am against slavery, human trafficking, and abuse of any human being. I support candidates who work to arrest and stop those who participate in this atrocity. I also support laws that thwart the abuse of people. I am pro-refugee, having spent many years helping them get settled here in the USA and learn English. This is a pro-life stance.

Once a baby’s life is saved instead of being aborted, the people advocating on behalf of that helpless boy or girl do not stop being pro-life. They help people live their lives. They, like me, may be Christians, many are nurses, doctors, social workers, foster care parents, donors and volunteers in organizations and ministries to living, walking, human beings. This is a pro-life stance.

The opposition to abortion is only the beginning. Abortion is abhorrent. It is murder of the worst order. Because this act ends a life, it gets the most attention. But it is not the end.

Some people see me as a one-issue voter. I want to know how a candidate I am considering voting for stands on that one issue. Why? Their stand on that issue tells me how they will handle the rest of the issues I am concerned about. 

This is a pro-life stance. I am pro life.

[I took this photo at a daily feeding ministry operated by a local church in South Africa while we served there.]

Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer: A Movie Review

This is a movie I did not want to see. So why should you spend $10 and see this movie?

This is a true story. If you know nothing of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, you can research him yourself. Some charges against him for murder were for babies who were to be aborted except for one woman: Karnamaya Mongar who died in the clinic. This is a man who should have been prosecuted decades earlier and almost got away with these atrocities.

The movie shows the narrative of a pro-choice district attorney who was told she would never win the case, yet tried it anyway. There was arrogance on the part of the defense who never felt they could lose a case where a fetus was the victim. 

If you believe there is a case for legal abortion, even if you choose to not watch this movie, you, at the very least, need to look up what abortion is and how it is performed in the best of clinics. Don’t be for it if you don’t know what it involves. The movie presented what happened. If you want to know that—you should watch it. 

Gosnell did a lot wrong beyond performing abortions beyond the legal limit of 24 weeks, but there was very little difference in outcome. His clinic was filthy and had untrained staff and routinely did not wait the mandated 24 hours required by law. 

Stark and cold, the defense put a well-dressed, professional abortion doctor on the stand to tell the jury what abortion was and how a legal one was performed. She meticulously described the process. The defense for Gosnell intended this witness to show how little difference there was between what was done legally and what Gosnell did illegally. Under further questioning, this same witness admitted that if a baby happens to be born alive, it is kept warm until it dies on its own. This should, in most court cases, stand in contrast to the other side of the argument: a baby delivered either dead due to lack of intervention, or snipped in the neck after birth as Gosnell practiced, but it did not contrast very much. This was for me the most indelible part of the movie and probably why it gets so little publicity. One reviewer calls this scene “purposefully misleading” but I found it to be just the opposite. Abortion may be a choice for some mothers, but it is a horrific procedure for an unborn baby to endure to die. 

So how did Gosnell come to find himself be declared guilty? His staff. There was plenty of evidence to show he was guilty without them. But the few that came forward were undeniably compelling. One had snapped a photo of Baby A laying in a surgical tray: a fully formed and developed little boy. When asked why she took a photo she said, “He looked like he could be someone’s little brother.” The photo is not shown in the movie, it does not contain any graphic or salacious photos other than the tiny feet of babies preserved in jars discovered in the clinic.

Gosnell was shown to be a sick man. His behavior both inside and outside the clinic was appalling and callous. Although he could have been motivated by the money, his behavior toward the women who came for abortions was uncaring and apathetic—it made me angry and very sad. Gosnell showed more care for his turtles that he kept in a tank in the office than he did for his patients.  

Parents, don’t worry about what your teens will see if they go to this movie. There is nothing gory aside from blood-spattered tables being taken from the clinic. They don’t even show the famous photo of baby A—you have to go online to see that. 

This movie exists because of crowd funding. It was not bankrolled by a movie company or someone rich who wanted to get their message out. 2.1 million was raised in less than two weeks—people giving their money because this message needs to be available to the public to see.

This movie was completed in 2015 and is just now in theatres due to opposition in promotion. The movie is fair and factual. It could have been a banner-waving movie condemning abortion. It is not. It you are pro-choice or pro-life, you should see it and make up your own mind. 

I recommend you eat before you go. It is not a movie where popcorn can be enjoyed so skip it and watch intently. It moves fast and does not get bogged down. Plan to stay and watch the credits where actual photos of evidence is shown. The photos look exactly like the movie. This movie took great pains to be factual. It takes much of its dialogue from court transcripts.  Don’t ever be afraid of the truth. If you are pro-choice, this movie won’t make you pro-life. It is more of a factual movie rather than one made to manipulate your thought. But either way, you need to see it. You need to know what you are talking about when discussing abortion with your children, your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. You need to know what abortion is if you are going to decide to be for or against it. 

As a side note, in doing research for this review, I had trouble finding good clear information on abortion from pro-choice websites. The clearest information was from pro-life sites. This made me wonder how many people really know what abortion is and what it does.

If you like horror movies, you will like Gosnell for all the wrong reasons. I didn’t like what I saw, but I’m glad I saw it. I highly recommend it. It is a movie I will never forget.

If you think some people only care about life in the womb and not about people who are already born, read my next blog.