New Life Now

Blog now located at my website

2012-03-07T01:12:00Z

Not sure how you found this link to my old site, but please visit the updated blog at www.kimketola.com. See you there!

Refreshing

2012-02-09T16:05:51Z

I really need to step away from the news today and rejoice in the goodness and faithfulness of God, even and especially in our broken world.

Chris Tomlin reminds me today that God is never the problem as he sings simply, "Let Faith Arise"

God offers healing, mercy, and love as the answer to the misery all around, "A fountain for the thirsty."

Take heart in Psalm 87:7, "All my fresh springs are in Thee." Return to God's heart and be refreshed no matter what is challenging you today.

Planned Parenthood Investigation? What investigation?

2012-02-09T01:33:49Z

The Los Angeles Times asked a great question about a week ago in a story from Noam Levey and Rosie Meste: "Komen, Planned Parenthood, and Congress, what's the status?"

I mean, this matters, right? If Susan G. Komen was aware that an investigation had revealed financial fraud or other wrongdoing, would Komen have been right to continue to give PP money from Komen's loyal donor base? And if Planned Parenthood had been aware that such news was about to come to light, wouldn't leadership be obliged to address the investigation and face the charges head-on?

The investigation which lies at the heart of this story was initiated in September of last year by Rep. Cliff Stearns,( R-Fla.). Back on February 1st before PP supporters unleashed their wrath on Komen, Stearns answered to the Times:

“As Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I am leading a formal investigation into taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, which receives over $1 million a day in taxpayer money. Repeated cases of Planned Parenthood ignoring state and local reporting requirements, many involving minors, and allegations of financial abuse led to this investigation – the first ever oversight conducted on this group. We are still working with Planned Parenthood on getting the records and documents for the investigation, and I’m interested in holding a hearing depending on what the investigation discovers.”

And:

“This investigation of Planned Parenthood’s finances and use of taxpayer dollars is ongoing, and we are continuing to work with Planned Parenthood in getting the requested record and documents. I was not contacted by anyone at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and this decision was solely up to them.”

Stearns clarified his position on the motivation for investigating on February 3rd in a broadcast interview: the taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent.

Oddly, the Times missed a crucial status update on the investigation yesterday from the Alliance Defense Fund. I know I missed the explanation from Planned Parenthood for being implicated in almost $100 million dollars of fraudulent Medicaid overbilling and other financial abuses of taxpayer funds in seven states. The ADF summary also found PP directly responsible for $8 million of "waste, abuse, and potential fraud." Of special interest to me as an advocate of women hurt by abortion is the blurred reporting lines of abortion services by the PP locations in the investigation. As America's largest single provider of abortion services and a non-profit agency, PP should be transparent in all phases of their operation. In particular, the original impetus to the investigation, PP use of taxpayer money to fund abortions, was proven in New York:

Additionally, in the November 2008 New York State audit A-02-07-01037, HHSOIG
found that New York improperly received enhanced ninety-percent federal
reimbursement for 102 out of 119 sample claims. Of these, 96 were for services unrelated
to family planning, and 33 were for services for which no reimbursement was available -
including twenty-seven abortion procedures, and four services performed in conjunction
with an abortion. HHS-OIG found that one provider was responsible for twenty-five of
the twenty-seven abortion claims; this provider billed at least 3,900 abortion claims
during the audit period.

But for now, let's don't even address how billing fraud exploits the ones who actually are taxed and footing the bill.

The real story here is Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards prosecuting this case in the media last week by hiding behind the skirts of the poor. You see, poor women have nowhere else to turn but Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and health care. So anyone who opposes PP opposes poor women and jeopardizes their health.

Well, granted, Cecile Richards didn’t put it that directly.

Here’s what she said (quoted by Politico on February 3rd) :

“I hope that there are members of Congress who will re-think their attacks not only on Planned Parenthood and on women’s health, but really think about the importance of providing preventive care for women in America, and particularly those women who have nowhere else to turn,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told reporters Friday. “Bullying and trying to make political women’s access to health care is just a losing political strategy.”

But again, what if the investigation exposed Planned Parenthood as the one bullying and exploiting poor women?

The ADF report to Congressman Stearns' office suggests that PP is not a health care provider of last resort, but instead a Medicaid contractor guilty of overbilling and collecting government resources intended to serve as a safety net for the poor and underinsured.The fact that the CDC will refer any woman for breast health care who cannot afford insurance means that the "woman who has nowhere else to turn" is a myth and an invention.

Planned Parenthood truly is a solution in search of a problem. Susan G. Komen had it right the first time. Time to break this bond and tie the pink ribbon elsewhere.

Abortion and the Big Lie

2012-02-08T01:27:15Z

If you're a person, like me, who has suffered the harmful impact of abortion in your life, the news lately has been brutal. Stories about abortion are everywhere. The Planned Parenthood/Susan G. Komen story is still developing and my file of abortion myths is growing by the hour on that story.

But in the news too was the controversy over graphic images of aborted babies airing as a commercial during the most-watched TV event of the year this past weekend. Radaronline reports that Gloria Allred pressured broadcasters to block the ads, threatening to bring the matter before the FCC in a demand for equal time. [This is a CORRECTION to an earlier version of this story which misstated that the matter had gone before a judge.] A ruling was issued by the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcast activity and is not a judicial commission, agreeing with WMAQ in Chicago that the sponsor was not a legitimate political candidate and stating that sponsors of ads do not have a universal right to purchase broadcast time.

What is interesting to me is Gloria Allred's basis for blocking the ads. She did not argue that it would be distressing to view children harmed by abortion procedures, but rather the images might incite pro-life violence against abortion workers. In propaganda tactics, such a move is known as The Big Lie. The way it works is this: when you know your own actions are indefensible, you manufacture a gross offense on the part of an opponent, or create a suspicion of guilt by association by bringing up wrongdoing not even linked to your adversary--a charge in this case that anyone against abortion is dangerous.

Her letter reads in part: "in light of the fact that we now live in an environment in which there is a frequent harassment and sometimes violence against doctors, healthcare providers, and clinics that provide abortions, it is particularly dangerous to air such an ad without the other side being presented. I am sure you are well aware of the tragic murder of Dr. George Tiller (an abortion provider). Even before he was murdered by Scott Roeder (an anti-choice activist), Dr. Tiller was the frequent target of violence against him."

Reality check: The fact that a handful of abortion providers have been killed is tragic and wrong. Violence has been publicly and loudly decried by every major pro-life organization working in the pregnancy help movement as well as most in the political arena. And for our purposes, it's important to note that anti-abortion violence is also exceedingly rare--as Allred is certainly aware. Before Tiller's death in 2009 there had not been a fatality as a result of anti-abortion violence since 1998. And before 1998, there were 5 fatalities linked to abortion center violence. That's over a span of 39 years.

By the way, one of the offenders was executed, another committed suicide while imprisoned and the others are incarcerated--no one considering such a crime could imagine they could act violently with impunity. Allred also omits Scott Roeder's diagnosis of mental illness reducing his actions to that of an "activist." Her inferences are intended as a slur on the peaceable millions who support and encourage pregnant women to choose life and who lawfully exercise a right of free speech to educate the public about what abortion is and what it does to the people involved. Censoring the ads also served to cloak the gruesome truth behind the curtain of privacy which already protects abortion providers from government oversight of the many deaths which have resulted from their practice.

The ads did air in some markets. I won't link to the ads here because if you are hurt by abortion you already know the harm done to you and yours. But I also won't keep still.

I believe those who have been bold to witness the truth of abortion by displaying the images have the moral high ground here. Yes, it is heartbreaking to see a battered human body, but our Lord has said the truth is what makes us free, when we face it with his love.

Open our eyes and our hearts, God, and help us all to see.

Encouragement

2012-02-01T21:19:48Z

If you are feeling discouraged today, wishing you could change the past, here is a song to lift your spirits, and a few of my favorite promises of Scripture to cling to as you let God lift your head.

You already have everything it takes to please God.
Your heart is all that He is looking for today (Matthew 22:37-38).
Your worship is His number one priority (John 4:23).
You don't have to hold on to the pain of the past;
You can give it as an offering (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Your faith in Jesus heals your heart and makes you well (Mark 10:52).
You are His beloved child (1 John 3:1).

A Face in the Crowd

2012-01-24T11:42:11Z

Together for Life we marched through downtown Atlanta yesterday.

As the mother of a child lost and forgotten because of abortion, I was so very thankful to have this day to express my grief in a public way.

We gathered to remember and to grieve with those who understand. We prayed. Together we sang the praises of our God who is able to redeem it all. It was a deeply moving spiritual experience to sing the words "His mercy rains" (Amazing Grace chorus by Chris Tomlin) in memory of the millions and millions of deaths due to the decision to make abortion legal 39 years ago. Together we mourned that terrible day.

As we sang, I lowered my umbrella and felt a cooling mist wash over my face and hands before I bundled back up against the cold and rain. As we walked in silent memory of the dead, I hoped that anyone who was simply going about their day could drop their ideas about a march and a protest and seeing signs, to let the refreshing truth of God's love for life, for children wash our minds and hearts.

Atlanta Journal Constitution Photos by Jason Getz

The worship service on the steps of the Georgia Capitol was followed by speeches and progress reports on the battle to defend the lives of the weakest members of the human family. I am encouraged that so many faithful people remain in this fight to help women and children. By joining their ranks, I was there not to make any public statement, but to stand with those who are standing for life. I had no motive to change legistlation at that moment, or to try to persuade, and for sure I was not there to argue anyone into the love for little children not yet born that God has placed in my heart. I tried to look past the signs--some clever, some aggressive--and see into the heart of the event.

And then I saw a sign that told the story in three words.

Reagan Scholes of Acworth, Georgia held a sign saying, "Adoption saved me."

How could anyone argue with that?

Other signs expressed what I believe.

"And a little child will lead them" from the Scriptures in Isaiah came to mind when I took in all the school groups attending the silent march.

There were a couple thousand people and we worked our way around downtown Atlanta on the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to place a cloak of privacy over those who would deny an unborn child a right to life.

The solemn tone was underscored by buglers playing Taps as they marched ahead and behind, and the dignity of eight mounted police following our procession also stirred my heart. Onlookers were respectful--most looking unconcerned, some appearing embarassed or annoyed. My mind returned to the stirring solo sung to send us off, A Mighty Fortress is Our God which placed the battle where it belongs--in the hands of God and in our deepest spiritual hearts.

After we passed, life went on.

I don't know if my presence made any difference to anyone who saw us march. I was just a face in the crowd. But our gathering gave me hope. Thank you, Georgia Right to Life for helping us make our stand.

His mercy rains.

If Joseph and Mary were on Facebook

2011-12-22T21:26:16Z

The Christmas story stands at the center of the events we have been celebrating and anticipating for the last three weeks--the birth of a Savior for all the world. One God sent to destroy the evil in the world, and powerful enough to do it, born in a stable. And conceived to an unwed mother.

What would the happenings be like if the story were being told today? Many of us have experienced certain aspects of what Mary and Joseph experienced in those days. They are us. I love this re-telling:

Merry Christmas! I pray that as the holy day draws close you will take time to ponder in your heart that all God is asking us to do is to believe this amazing story. Have faith and then rest in your gift. "This is the work of God, that you believe Him whom He sent." John 6:29

"Are you having a baby or an abortion?"

2011-12-09T19:43:01Z

Here's a video announcing our mission to Perm, Russia April 12-25, 2012

Often the first question a physician asks a pregnant Russian woman is, “Are you having a baby or an abortion?” Russia's abortion culture is so entrenched that half of Russian women in their thirties have had abortions and the rate rises to seventy-percent of women in their fifties. As a result, Russia now faces a serious population decline due to low birth rates and infertility. For more check here. The conference, Reversing the Fall will bring a message of life and hope—not only to Russian pregnancy centers, but also to the church, the medical community and beyond—for the purpose of:

Post-abortion healing
Educating and equipping medical professionals on the sanctity of life
Training on how to run a pregnancy resource center
Bringing churches and centers together to communicate the life message

I'll be part of a team led by Vicki Hale, founder of Women Care of Russia, and we’ll be joined by Pastor John Ensor, Heartbeat International Executive Director for Global Outreach, along with members from ten different churches united by our love for Jesus Christ and the Gospel of life. Following the conference, the team will lead a retreat at Perm’s Vineyard church. A New Song weekend is designed for inner healing, deliverance, mentoring and awakening potential, as well as post abortion recovery.

Please pray about supporting our mission as we reach out to a nation devastated by abortion. Above the financial need for travel and presenting the conference is the spiritual work of seeking God’s healing of minds and hearts after abortion, and empowering Russian women to choose life. I know God hears your prayers for Russia’s women and children, and for us, as we go to share the love of Jesus Christ.

“In His name the nations will put their hope.” Matthew 12:21

Thank you and may God bless you in the grace and knowledge of His mercy and his truth.

To support the mission, please use the comment section to leave a confidential reply providing the best way to get in touch with you for details. Your comment will not be published without your permission.

KFAX Podcast ~ When abortion is someone else's choice

2011-12-02T15:45:34Z

Here's the podcast from my November 30 interview on KFAX San Francisco on Lifeline with Craig Roberts. You can download the podcast and listen for free. My interview appears midway through the 2-hour broadcast.

We discussed the hard-sell pressure tactics abortion providers engage in to coerce women to make a quick and ill-informed decision. Abortion coercion can take so many forms. As Roberts pointed out so clearly, withholding information about alternatives to abortion is not offering women a choice. I tried to help connect the dots to this strong-arming as the starting point on a continuum which all too often ends in a hurried and harrassed decision. This exploits the vulnerability of women in need of real help. It is no less predatory than the homicides which result when a woman stands up to an angry partner who would force her to abort (see When abortion is no choice at all)

I've met many such women who fought the battle to carry a pregnancy forward and give birth, but who were forced to abort due to pressures too great to bear. I know the brokenness and loss of hope we suffer when abortion is a result of someone else's choice. If that describes you, please reach out for safe and confidential help today. Call 1-866-4-My-Recovery or 1-800-395-HELP. There is someone who cares who can offer you real help, even if you are trapped in an abusive or violent situation right now, and even if you feel nothing will ever change the trauma you have suffered in the past because of abortion and abuse. You're not alone. There are those of us who sorrow with you for your losses, and we are here to build you up in the love God has for you.

Thanks to Producer Wanda Sanchez and Host Craig Roberts for presenting and speaking truth on this issue so freely and forcefully.

When abortion is no choice at all

2011-11-29T01:15:22Z

I remember the first time a nurse asked me a routine screening question about whether I was subject to domestic violence. A new law had been passed in my home state at the time, she explained, and the law was a way to help break the silence which so often keeps victims trapped in a cycle of abuse, denial, and shame. Thank God, I was able to say that I did not need support for that problem. But I recall that I wondered how many women would admit to the need for help in the setting of a routine physician visit. I came to the conclusion that even aiding a few would be better than doing nothing at all.

I feel the same way about a protection being considered by the state of Wisconsin to ask women whether they are making the choice for abortion as a free choice or whether they feel they are being coerced. Yet, the Daily Cardinal reports that there is a pushback from representatives of a group called Young Progressives Issues, who somehow managed to miss the point entirely, claiming that this screening process limits a woman's . . . reproductive freedom.

If women are being coerced, as the research reported by Physicians for Life indicates, invoking reproductive rights is ludicrous at best. At its worst, feminist non-thought like this serves to enable threats, coercion, and violence against a woman at the most vulnerable time of her life--while she is carrying her young.

I've heard the stories firsthand from women who feared for their lives because they were pregnant--a phenomenon reported in 2005 by ABC News. The Associated Press reported almost ten years ago that women are most at-risk for homicide in America when they're pregnant. This was also confirmed in Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health study in 2001. A 2004 Washington Post report was exhaustive and made for devastating reading--your heart will break thinking of how the families of these women must feel as we continue to debate such a basic need for public safety in the lives of women in America today.

Why are we still discussing the need to intervene? And if not us, who will hear their cry?

The Beauty of Imperfection

2011-11-18T13:07:22Z

There are no words for some of the deep emotions evoked by remembering our lost children after abortion. It seems our hearts are pierced and lifeless around the edges.

Our worth as women is not defined by our childbearing--I know too many fruitful single women who fulfill God's command to multiply Him in our world to ever believe that motherhood alone is what makes you a woman. But abortion often leaves us feeling damaged and devalued as women.

The thing that sets us apart as women from all other living creatures is the ability to bear human children. It's as if an essential element of our individual identity dies off with every abortion. And the acceptance of abortion strips all women of the dignity of our unique role in producing human life.

It took a long time for the truth of this to settle in on me after abortion, and even longer to be able to articulate those feelings. It was a source of hopelessness. I didn't believe there would ever be relief from the irrevocable reality of being a mother without her young.

But we are not marred forever.

Take heart in the promise of an end to the season of sadness even if your season has stretched beyond your ability to measure it in time. As the last leaves leave this fall, ponder the beauty of God's mercy. By his healing grace, life itself holds the key to healing the loss of all life. Even the loss of our children by human hands. Our days of mourning are not without number in the mind of our loving and forgiving Savior, Jesus Christ Our Lord.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..." (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8)

Reverse rainbow

2011-11-14T20:56:36Z

Maybe you can tell from the photos on my recent posts that I am enjoying the beauty of God's creation lately!

I don't think I have any particular talent as a photographer, but I've been shooting pictures as a way to narrow my focus in order to gain perspective on problems I can't seem to solve. I can consume endless hours forecasting future storms or sorting through the wreckage of a painful past. I'm pretty certain that kind introspection never healed me of anything yet. Sometimes it does help to head into the actual weather and face the day.

Sometimes God throws in a rainbow....

Actually this is a sundog - a rainbow colored halo around the sun. The shot was taken over towering trees so that the rainbow image was almost directly overhead. You really had to look up to see it. I loved the idea that dreams can come true both over and under the rainbow.

Here's another angle.

Harder to see the sundog, but the colors follow the arc of the clouds. This reminded me of so many songs and hopeful images in God's Word. He sets rainbows in the sky to encourage us. Keep looking up. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He knows, he cares, he hasn't changed. He's still our helper and our defense. He is a shelter from the storm, and his face shines like the sun.

See the heart

2011-11-04T15:22:03Z

We prayed outside an abortion facility in Atlanta today as a joyful act of obedience to God's call for Day 38 of the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil. I arrived early and joined three women already in prayer. We stood across the street and faced the facility. It was cold and windy and quiet. The sun had not yet come up. As I faced the building something beautiful caught me eye.

Do you see the heart in the trees?

It's a shaky image, I know, but the sky was still so dark that my little Nikon couldn't capture the shutter speed of the flash without the blur.

Our prayers took us to God's heart as we offered requests for mercy and for healing to all who have participated and those who will participate in abortion. If that's you--I really hope and pray you see God's heart today. Here is what He wants you to know: "Don't be afraid for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." (Isaiah 41: 10 Holy Bible, New Living Translation)

If you are suffering after abortion, even if your faith is shaky, keep looking up. See the truth of love pouring out to you from Jesus Christ today, and see the heart of God.

Let's pray

2011-11-03T15:23:28Z

Please pray with us as God is calling me to pray outside an Atlanta abortion facility tomorrow and Friday, Day 38 and 39 of the worldwide 40 Days for Life prayer vigils.

I'm more of an evangelist than an activist, although I thank God for faith champions in the public arena! So, while I have been engaged for ten years in writing and speaking and private prayer for life, until last fall I had not joined the organized prayer effort nor agreed to fast at an appointed time. But I heard God's call to go and pray at a facility a couple of weeks ago--my first time to stand outside such a place and pray.

God ordained a solitary time in this rather unusual location--no sidewalk, parking lot marked no trespassing--no interaction opportunity whatsoever.

A concrete bench nearby beckoned, and I sat down ready to move if asked. Yet no one disturbed me as I gazed at the exterior of the facility and watched the traffic moving in and out. I prayed for the uniformed guard that he would realize what he was protecting, and that he would resign his position. I prayed for his heart and his family. For women arriving to work, I prayed and asked that they would resign their jobs and turn to God for His provision and mercy. I saw women arrive two-by-two walking slowly and resolutely. I prayed that friends would be true friends and offer true help, and I prayed that mothers would change their minds and let their children live. I prayed for all for whom my prayers arrived too late.

I read Lamentations aloud and listened to the sound of our culture echoing ancient Jerusalem in her fall.

I felt overwhelmed as I considered the grief and sorrow which will surely arrive one day for everyone who enters and leaves that place. I had to admit that as I set out for this assignment, I didn't see what difference an hour of my time would make on that particular day. I just knew God wanted me there. And of course, it changed my heart.

My time in prayer at that place increased the urgency I feel to rescue others from the lifelong consequences of abortion. I thank God that my time in prayer came to an end with rejoicing over Jesus Christ and his tender mercy. Again, I heard his sweet words of welcome to my little one, to all the little ones we reject when he said, "Let the little children come to me...."

So, Lord willing, I will return tomorrow, eager to pray with others this time through.

Lord willing, I will be there, praying.

Will you pray with me?

A New Season

2011-11-02T13:07:24Z

Autumn this year has been a time of new beginnings. Or maybe new remembering.

At times I feel as if each new discovery of God's love and grace is something my heart has always known, something only needing to be refreshed and made new for today.

Either way, as a new beginning or as a deep remembering, I want to encourage you this day. God sees you and He cares. Just as He knows every tree in a forest, He is aware of the turning of every leaf. Our times are in His hands (Psalm 31:15).

No matter how much we may want to cling to the familiar, we have to accept that things must change if we want to experience the full beauty of all that God has for us in life. This can be so difficult for us if we are clutching to the past as a way to avoid the pain of facing the reality of all that has happened in our lives due to an abortion in the past. The only way I know to get through it is to continually come back to the question of how God sees you in this present moment.

To even risk asking this question requires faith--and, as Oswald Chambers said, "God's character has to be cleared in our own minds." We must believe and know firsthand that He is kind, He is loving, He is good and just, He sees us, and He cares. Nothing escapes him, yet Jesus doesn't reject anyone (John 6:37).

If you haven't yet settled those questions about God's character for yourself, today is the day. Now is the time to worship Him and begin to believe. Faith is a muscle which gets better with use. Read your Bible for some amount of time today--for the sole purpose of getting a better understanding of God's character. Ask God to teach you who He is.

Pray.

Be still and know Him.

Kim Ketola on KFAX: Abortion and crime both create a victim

2011-08-31T12:20:24Z

KFAX had a segment on prison ministry this week on Lifeline with Craig Roberts. Guest host PJ Olivor and I talked about our broadcast experiences inside facilities like San Quentin and supermax Oak Park Heights and being locked away with men convicted of murder and more. What's the motivation and what happens when you meet men and women--and youth--behind bars? What have I learned about justice and grace from interviewing the real people behind the story of the movie Dead Man Walking? Why reach out to children of inmates as we did recently at the Returning Hearts weekend at Angola? Listen to the August 30 podcast here.

I have been on a parallel track with post-abortion ministry and prison ministry over the last ten years. Knowing firsthand that abortion is a crime of the heart brings the dual nature of my calling into focus. Jesus was talking to me in the Sermon on the Mount when he indicated that our crimes of the heart make us just as guilty as crimes that break the law. And Jesus said in Matthew 25, “What you do to the least of my brothers, you also do to me.”

It matters to him how we treat those who are not in a position to do anything for us—the fatherless and orphans and the voiceless unborn, and even those who may be considered a drag on society like the hungry, naked, the sick, and those in prison.

Abortion and crime both create a victim. Having chosen abortion, I know the heavy burden of the weight of that transgression. And having received the mercy of Jesus Christ, I know my obligation, which has now become my joy. I live with this question, “Since I have been redeemed—bought back from condemnation for my crimes of the heart—what does that mean about how I should treat those who have been convicted of crimes which break the law?”

I believe I owe it to them to tell them how I have gained a new life now through embracing the love of Jesus Christ, and to encourage them to do the same.

Prison ministry is about life change. According to the experts I’ve spoken with and interviewed—everyone from wardens to mental health professionals to corrections commissioners and policy experts—a small percentage of inmates lack enough conscience to respond to correction, and even other inmates need to be protected from them. But it's a very small percentage. Our culture wrongly fears everyone with any prison record is a predator without any hope of change. In either case, whether we judge a person capable of change or not, Our Lord has said we should go to them. We should have empathy even if they do not.

The brilliance of Jesus’ plan is that when we invest ourselves in people whom society would rather forget, the entire picture changes. His love extends all the way from the innocent unborn to those who are guilty and in prison. And his loves makes all things new.

The great majority (94%) of offenders will be released back into society. Prison ministry is an investment in healthy communities. If you think you can’t afford to make that investment, consider what we are already paying for warehousing crime. The price tag in taxes is 60 billion dollars a year. We do this because of the concern for safety, which is a valid one. People are in prison for a reason, and I don’t discount the victim and community needs for justice to be served. But I also know that unless we take Jesus heart to go and help people learn how to live a new life now, nothing will change.

Here’s what outsourcing this task to government has done: the Federal Bureau of Justice found in 2008 that close to 60% will be rearrested and reconvicted within 3 yrs of release, and 52% will be returned to prison. The Bureau of Justice reported that in 2009 the US prison population topped 2 million—1% of the population. Including the 5 million on probation or parole, 3% of people in the US, one out of every 30 adults is either in prison or on parole. World Prison Brief estimates close to 6% of all incarcerated people are not citizens--total deportation would make only a tiny dent. 93% are male. According to the Department of Juvenile Justice, there are also 90,000 juvenile offenders behind bars—most of these rates are higher than anywhere in the developed world.

And all those prisoners can only mean one thing—an ever-increasing number of victims too. Prison growth isn’t really making life in the US safer.

The parallel with abortion comes to light here. Abortion is not an acceptable solution to a problem pregnancy because it always harms a child, just as prison can never fully solve the problem of protecting the weak from the strong. Hearts and minds must be changed as women and men decide to live a life of love rather than victimizing others to make their way in life. If you're in Georgia, join us at HeartBound and learn firsthand what God can do!

Repentant women and men suffer after making their children a victim of abortion, just as penitent men and women suffer after making others a victim of their crimes. This godly sorrow is the beginning of our hope. The scandalous love and grace of Jesus Christ forgives and redeems us all. Through him we find a better chance to rebuild our lives than our broken system can ever provide.

Sharing the love of Jesus Christ in prison is part of my new life now after abortion. God's justice is served as I share his love with those he loves and give of myself to those he died to save. Prison ministry gives people the choice to simply continue as convicts or whether to become contributors.

When you accept Jesus’ invitation to visit him in prison (Matthew 25:36), you will learn, as I have that the church behind bars is filled with those who are authentically living the transformed life.

Kim Ketola addresses Selective Reduction on KFAX

2011-08-26T13:08:01Z

I was a guest on Lifeline on KFAX/San Francisco recently (select the podcast for August 17) to discuss abortion's newest wrinkle, selective reduction (full story here). Here's a dilemma posed by host Craig Roberts during our discussion on "selective reduction"--a euphemism for the practice of aborting one or more child conceived by reproductive technology:

What if a mother selectively reduces a twin, and gives birth to the other twin, only to have the surviving twin die. How will she handle the choice to have destroyed the other child now?

What a painful scenario! It is not as rare as you might think, though, for women to abort and then regret the choice due to the death of another child, or even the death of a spouse. One woman told me her story of raising and launching her family, and then when she and her husband were poised on the brink of retirement, she got pregnant. In order to protect their plans, she chose to abort. Her husband died within the year. Just like the child God tried to give her, this woman's particular heartbreak goes so far beyond remorse and regret that it simply has no name. This dilemma makes me wonder:

What if we as women began to believe it is more important--and in our own best interests--to protect our children than to protect our plans.

Selective reduction is extremely rare, and only a problem for the handful of families who can afford the procedures leading up to and including the choice to destroy a child before birth. We're talking about a few hundred women facing such a choice every year. But the women who have gone through this are conflicted, grieved, distressed and vulnerable to post-partum depression.

I want you to consider that this distress is not simply because these women and families are on the leading edge of reproductive freedom without any ground under their feet, which is certainly also true.

The reality is that every woman who loses a child before birth is subject to emotional conflict, guilt, grief, distress, and possibly post-partum depression. PPD is a serious medical condition, recognized by the CDC as a life-threatening risk women face after miscarriage or stillbirth.

An equivalent number (about 25% each) of pregnancies end in both abortion and miscarriage every year. Although the CDC ignores the postpartum distress of the mothers of aborted children, the selective reduction grief proves that "choosing" abortion does not protect our hearts from knowing we have lost a child--and the guilt and grief which follow. Would a postpartum warning tend to reduce the number of women who might be likely to choose abortion for any reason in the first place? Would such a warning put the CDC in the uncomfortable position of taking a stand on the public health implications of making abortion available throughout all nine months of pregnancy for any woman for any reason?

What if we began to tell women, "This pregnancy may seem to be threatening your future, but you're going to make it. This can be done. Love your child, and let us love you." The message is already out there--from the pregnancy help movement and groups like The Caring Foundation. Many of their ads convey the message: You're pregnant, but you're not alone.

This is what women and families of all sizes need to hear--both to prevent the pain that abortion naturally brings, and to welcome women to a caring community after we've made this fatal mistake.

What a woman hears when a man says, "It's up to you"

2011-08-25T20:29:44Z

Please take a few minutes to watch a faucet drips (hat tip Brian Walker). This is a brilliant depiction of the problems for everyone involved when a culture decides to make abortion "a woman's issue."

What a poignant, heartbreaking tale--this is the story of what abortion does to the majority of young people and their relationships. Most are a million miles away from any political or social debate.

What if every young man knew there is somewhere he could go and get help to do the right thing?

I would love this film even if it weren't from students from my alma mater! Please share this with your friends--with everyone. Oh, and tell them about Your Options too.

(From you tube: A short film produced as a senior project at Northwestern College (St. Paul, MN) in Spring 2011.The story follows a young couple through the decision to abort an unplanned pregnancy and examines the results of relational passivity.Director Laura Hoffman. Producer Erin McGregor. Editor Mel Magnuson. Director of Photography Micah Murray. Starring Zach McClellan & Ashley Young.)

Only one leg but more heart than millions

2011-08-23T16:49:35Z

Parents facing a difficult prenatal diagnosis are often advised to abort a child with a "poor predicted quality of life." NCAA wrestling champion Anthony Robles proves the problem might not be the imperfection of the unborn life--just a faulty ability to predict how much quality each person is actually capable of bringing into the world with them.

He recently retired from wrestling and launched a new career as a motivational speaker--and one who deserves to be heard. This young man is one of the strongest arguments for the value of every life I've ever witnessed. He came into the world in a surprising package---and he's been surprising people ever since. Sports Illustrated reports his mother cried on the day he was born, when she saw his left leg was missing up to the hip. She said her tears were not shed because he was imperfect, but because she was in shock. She also said that in the years which followed, the doctors have not able to explain what happened to his leg.

He got a prosthetic leg at age three, but he grew impatient with it when he was seven and has either used crutches or hopped ever since.

When Anthony was poised on the edge of the 2010 NCAA championship, his mother said of his missing leg, "It's something that was just meant to be, and now we see it as a blessing."

The Kansas City Star shared a portion of his message:

“Every soul who comes to Earth with a leg or two at birth must wrestle his opponents knowing it’s not what is, it’s what can be that measures worth. Make it hard, just make it possible, and through pain I’ll not complain. My spirit is unconquerable. Fearless, I will face each foe, for I know I am capable. I don’t care what’s probable, through blood, sweat and tears, I am unstoppable.”

Amen.

Yet every year in the US 92% of babies with a prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome will be aborted. In the UK there is a controversy over whether doctors need to report aborting babies late in a pregnancy because the unborn child is found to have cleft palate. At the center of the debate is whether such a prognosis represents a "serious handicap."

I have not walked a mile in their shoes, but I offer this story as a bracing bit of clarity in the eye of the abortion storm. And since I have no idea where Anthony stands on the question of abortion, I certainly don't want to put words in his mouth.

I just wish every reluctant physician and every shocked and crying parent could meet Anthony and let him teach them how to wrestle with their fears--and win.

Abortion and the "ghost in the room"

2011-08-18T12:30:32Z

Selective reduction is the latest spin on the abortion conversation—but we’re still talking about the death of a child, each and every time.

The New York Times Magazine story “The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy” by Ruth Padawer details anguish and heartache for parents who choose to abort children they chose to conceive through reproductive technology. The reporter notes dryly this happens because, “doctors often generate more fetuses than they intend.”

This is truly an uncharted frontier—a dilemma affecting only 101 women last year at Mount Sinai Medical Center, one of the largest providers of the procedure (compare to over 3000 abortions performed daily in the US). This is the upper economic datapoint--the rationale why women of means "need" abortion, just like women of poverty "need" abortion. In this case, the dilemma seems to be for families who can afford to "design their future" with any and all means possible--and who are now feeling pressure to kill to "build" the right size family. I can only imagine what these mothers must have felt to read of the doctors injecting the lethal dose directly into their child's heart so they can achieve the perfect family. How can such self-inflicted harm ever lead to peace?

ABC News also has a story this week featuring a mother of triplets who chose not to selectively reduce.

Taken together these reports and the people quoted expose and reveal the larger problems of abortion. And this procedure is placing women at risk in at least the following ways:

Mental Health:
ABC News quotes an expert from MOST a national support group for families of triplets or more noting that women who have had challenges getting pregnant are already at an increased risk for post-partum depression, so women undergoing reduction may be more likely to suffer psychologically after the remaining child is born.

The Centers for Disease Control says women who experience the death of a child before birth due to miscarriage or stillbirth is at greater risk for post-partum depression—how can this not also be the case when a pre-born child is aborted? In medical terms a miscarriage is also known as spontaneous abortion vs. elective procedures such as a D & C or prescription med methods. But the net resulting loss of the child is the common experience.

This story of depressed and distressed parents is a huge blessing—it finally exposes the truth that abortion leads to parental grief, something the American Psychological Association has yet to uncover among the parents of over 50 million children who have died due to elective abortion (see NEJM Jan 2011 as reported in HealthDay). In fact the CDC takes the problem so seriously their information on depression among women of reproductive age and postpartum depression includes this quote: “If you are thinking about harming yourself, or know someone who is, tell someone who can help immediately..." followed by instructions to call 911 or a Suicide Hotline.

Moral:
The moral questions to me are relational. How do we treat one another and what is the right way—the kind and empathetic way to treat one another, vs. the wrong way, the self-centered and uncaring way.

Here’s a quote from Dr. Ross the mom of triplets who did not choose to reduce, “At the time parents make the decision to reduce, they don’t know what the future holds. Some of the families go on to experience a lot of grief. At every milestone for the child they decided to keep, there is this ghost in the room this feeling that there should have been [emphasis added] two of them.”

Reduction is child loss, and the parents will at some point be forced to come to grips with the fact that they signed the death certificate—and that it was something that they should not have done, because it was not morally right or justifiable.

Spiritual:
From the NY Times: “That idea—that one’s gone and one’s here, it almost like playing God. I mean, who are we to choose?” This quote comes from a woman in a homosexual relationship who was so isolated by the experience that she refused to even give an initial for the story. The women told no one in their families, no colleagues, and only one friend.

People who are in favor of making this procedure available to women need to ask—why are the ones who have experienced it so silent?

Stigma cannot be the answer. These women have already withstood the societal storm of same-sex partnership and adoption. I believe the answer is that we know in our hearts that every abortion is rivalry with God, and we are ashamed. Somehow the pro-choice lobby has convinced people that shamelessness is better than being ashamed before God. This is their idea, not God’s.

I thank God this is not the end of the story! But every true case of redemption in Jesus Christ after abortion begins with our owning up to our shame so that He can remove it and give us a new life in exchange for His life laid down on the Cross.

Ethical/Deceptive Rhetoric:
The use of the phrase “women building families” is used as a euphemism for destroying an existing child.

The NY Times also uses the phrase “Constructing the lives we want” to mean “eliminating the children we don’t want.”

Family Dynamics:
Families do not operate based solely on our whims as parents, as much as we may want them to. Imagine what such thinking does to the surviving children who grow up in these families. The pressure for perfection and performance must be off the chart. I wrongly chose abortion as a young woman under pressure to preserve my social and economic future, and later went on to marry and have children. I finally came to grips with the abortion, and shortly afterwards one of my teenaged kids learned about it secondhand. It was extremely painful for this child to know that her mother had done this to one of her own children. And it has taken many years for our relationship to recover. The surviving siblings are always affected by a parent's abortion. Always.

Legal:
Gynecologist/politician Ron Paul makes the point that, as a physician he has been trained to bring life into the world, and if he does harm to the baby, he gets sued. He rightly concluded that the baby is alive and has rights.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an endorsement of Ron Paul or any candidate. His appearance on The View in December 2007 is however a priceless archive of the shallow and hollow arguments of those who continue to support abortion while objecting that they are not "for" it. And I admire his demeanor as he puts away the distinction between a one-month-old fetus and an 8-month-old 8 pound baby. In response to his question about destroying the 8-month-old fetus, Joy Behar declares, "that would be murder!"

Finally,

Even abortion supporters are against selective reduction

William Saletan reporting at Slate writes, “Across the pro-choice blogosphere, including Slate, the [NY Times] article has provoked discomfort. RH Reality Check, a website dedicated to abortion rights, ran an item voicing qualms with one woman's reduction decision. Jezebel, another pro-choice site, acknowledged the "complicated ethics" of reduction. Frances Kissling, a longtime reproductive rights leader, wrote a Washington Post essay asking whether women should forgo fertility treatment rather than risk a twin pregnancy they'd end up half-aborting.”

Well, yes. They should. If this procedure was not allowed no one would be considering it. It is folly to choose something, anything, simply because we can.

Bioethicist Josephine Johnston is quoted by the NY Times sounding a clear warning: "In an environment where you can have so many choices, you own the outcome in a way that you wouldn't have, had the choices not existed. If reduction didn't exist, women wouldn't worry about that by not reducing, they're at fault for not making life more difficult for their existing kids. In an odd way, having more choices actually places a much greater burden on women, because we become the creators of our circumstances, whereas, before, we were the recipients of them. I'm not saying we should have less choices; I'm saying choices are not always as liberating and empowering as we hope they will be."

I hope we take her conclusions to heart--if not for our children, at least for our own well-being.

Abortion as child loss

2011-08-15T14:25:31Z

Abortion is child loss.

That's why it matters that we acknowledge the truth about abortion. Withholding the truth may mean we are extending the grief of mothers trapped in their confusion and pain as the shock of the abortion begins to recede.

That's why it matters what we call an aborted baby.

That's why we must be clear that a fetus is a living human being and every abortion takes a human life.

If there is no child, there is no reason to grieve. But if abortion takes a life, there can be no relief without our grief.

Pastor John MacArthur understands the issue of child loss better than any other preacher I have heard teaching or speaking on this subject.

Here is his sermon series on the loss of a child. Be sure to follow the link for the transcript and the other messages in the series.

If you have had an abortion, you have lost a child. Your grief is real. My experience has taught me that the mourning will not end until you have dealt with your own accountability in the experience. Not blaming yourself or others, but fully accepting the part that you and others have had to play in bringing about the death of a child through abortion. The truth of abortion as child loss is unacceptable to those who have believed that abortion "helps" women whose "difficult" circumstances leave them without any other "good" choice. They may refuse to hear that abortion is child loss here.

But in the same way that we would never promote terminating the life of an older child in the midst of difficult circumstances, we cannot decide to do so before a child is born. A child is a child, before and after birth.

In order for grief to do her perfect work in our hearts, we must first acknowledge that we have done irreparable harm to the life of a child.

This is by no means the end of the story.

But this is where true hope and peace after abortion must begin.

NY Times: a 7-week fetus is a baby

2011-08-10T19:59:04Z

The NY Times today reports on DNA testing which can detect a baby’s sex as early as 7 weeks after a new life begins at conception (the stage of human development when the female ovum is penetrated by the male sperm).

The language in the article is a stunning breakthrough in the abortion conversation in America today. This story provides an answer to one of the most common questions young women ask when considering abortion: "Is it a baby?"

Part of the fancy footwork in the abortionists' dance with death is to sidestep this question with the deceptive idea that abortion destroys a fetus, not a human life. Hence terminating a pregnancy has no moral component whatsoever—it is a procedure for a woman to decide, since she is the only person involved. A fetus, they argue, is not a baby—not a person who should be granted rights. Abortioneers thus exploit the ignorance of those who are not familiar with the terminology of the human development process to convince women that abortion doesn't involve an actual child, and to lobby lawmakers to sanction the destruction of the children's lives. After they finish with the politicians, the abortion proponents then attach political labels to people who assert that the unborn actually are children, and charge them with aggressively violating women’s rights.

Yet, the language in the New York Times clearly denotes that a 7-week-old fetus is a baby, that such a baby has parents, and that decisions entered into by these parents affect their children.

The implications are monumental.

By forgoing the medical terminology and writing in simple terms, the story affirms what we know in our hearts to be true. And what has been proven scientifically beyond doubt.

National Geographic documented the earliest stage of being human in their 2006 special In the Womb. (Due to a technical glitch with the embed code from the NatGeo online channel, I've posted from youtube).

Pregnancy means the presence of a brand new human life, each and every time. There is no confusion on this reality in the medical textbooks. The word fetus is a medical term used to describe the stage of human development after conception, when the new life. The “zygote” grows to an "embryo", when implanted into the mother’s womb, thus becoming a "fetus". “Fetus” is a Latin word which simply means “little one” and is used to describe a human being during gestation, or pregnancy—the time before birth. After birth occurs, many words can be applied to stages of development including infant, toddler, child, youth, adult, elderly adult, etc. But there is no separate medical term for a 12-week fetus (the most typical age at abortion) and a 25-week fetus (when we become increasingly horrified at the prospect of aborting a pregnancy since many children this age live if born prematurely). At full-term, a fetus is 36 weeks.

What all of this means is that the stage of development is not the essential aspect of being human. This new DNA testing shows that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. The sex organs may not develop for several months as the unborn child grows, but certain aspects of our essential human identity are fixed from the very beginning.

Why did the Times, which to my knowledge has not been accused of being anti-abortion, risk revealing the truth? My guess is the writer was striving for clarity, simplicity, and to appeal to the audience for the story—pregnant women and men who recognize that they are already parents even though Mom is only 7 weeks along.

We can't have it both ways. If a fetus is a baby, a brand new human being, it is wrong and unjust to take its life.

All pregnant parents need our help, not abortion. And the babies, our little ones, our little boys and little girls deserve our support, our protection, and our care.

"Celebrating" abortion?

2011-08-02T22:19:15Z

More on clergy who are leading people astray.

Huffington Post features a post this week by Reverend Tom Davis, of the United Church of Christ, defending abortion in a strange and repugnant twisting of Scripture.

Davis writes:
"During this past spring more than half of America's fifty state legislatures have ignored people's economic problems [emphasis added] and instead become obsessed with passing legislation to defund, harass, and block the work of Planned Parenthood. In Biblical terms, what is being done to this 96 year old organization is "cursing." In scripture to curse a person or a group is to bring condemnation upon them, to put them outside the protection of God and/or the community."

Davis uses his office as Minister to appear to be defending the poor, whom he concludes need abortion as a solution to their plight, against “religious powers” refusing to recognize women’s rights. Since everyone is called by God to be generous to the poor, his argument seems Biblical and compassionate, and reasonable in light of our cultural sense of fairness to women. Therefore, anyone against Planned Parenthood must be against the poor and against women.

This is the same argument hinted at by Rev. Carlton Veazey of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (from NPR and Tell Me More posted here). But Rev. Davis gets very explicit in this article, “Planned Parenthood helps the poor, the alienated, and women who have nowhere else to turn for health care.”

Apparently Davis fears God enough to stop short of telling his readers to bless Planned Parenthood, although later in the article he calls instead for everyone to support and “celebrate” the organization—and states that Biblical standards mandate we do so.

But is this statement true? Does God say choosing abortion—early child death instead of giving birth--is something to celebrate? Or has God said exactly the opposite?

Davis' invocation of "curses" brings up Scripture which is clear on this question. In Deuteronomy 30:11-20 God said, “I have set before you blessings and curses” as He promised blessings to those who choose life.

God even prefaced the command to choose life by anticipating our objections, “This is not too difficult or beyond your grasp—it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”

Then, to clear up any lingering confusion, God added, “. . .if you are not obedient. . .I declare to you this day you will certainly be destroyed.”

There is no ambivalence in this text; nor can there be any doubt after reading the preceding chapters of the same book of the Bible; humankind brings God’s curses upon ourselves when we go against God’s law for how we are to treat one another.

Further, Planned Parenthood is not now, nor has it ever been America’s lone champion of the poor, nor are they designated by God to be. Our Lord says that we, His people, the church are to care for the poor and to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves—in order to help them live--and save them from destruction. To interpret God’s love for the weak and His command that we care for them as a call to legislate and pay the government to destroy them and their children as a solution to poverty is wrong, and such a view does not reflect the truth of what God has said in His Word.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus did not call for a tax on all citizens to fund the kindness of the stranger who helped the man who had been mugged by the side of the road! Nowhere in the gospels did Our Lord suggest government or non-religious non-profits are the answer to the ills of the world or the problems of the poor. Davis and his ilk should cease and desist.

Better yet--abortion-advocating and abortion-celebrating clergy should rally people toward the church and the pregnancy help movement which every day is offering love in action to women and families through Christian ministry in Jesus' Name.

Most importantly, if you are suffering after abortion, especially because of spiritual confusion caused by Christian leaders who defend it as public policy, please seek help today. Call 1-800-395-HELP and celebrate the true hope we have of new life now.

Kim Ketola Guests on Lifeline with Craig Roberts on KFAX

2011-07-27T14:57:49Z

Many thanks to Craig Roberts and Lifeline for the chance to talk about the moral problem of abortion on KFAX last night! Roberts was especially interested in what happens when moral leaders miss the truth and mislead as a result.

I'm working on posting the podcast, so check back. Or go directly to the KFAX podcast page and select the podcast for July 26. My interview is just over half-way through the podcast of the two-hour show.

Abortion Sense and Non-Sense

2011-07-21T21:57:54Z

My primary calling is to share the love of Jesus Christ with those who are broken over our participation in abortion.

Part of this task is bringing moral clarity to the question of whether abortion is wrong, and whether there couldn't be some way that it is acceptable in God's sight. That question haunted me for more than a decade after my abortion in 1978 as I tried to reconcile my choice in light of my dormant conscience and my guilty heart.

I landed in a place of saying, "Well, I'm opposed to abortion, but I can't tell others what to do."

I now recognize this former position as so morally bankrupt that I want to help you to refute this idea if this is your current point of view. This is for those still stuck in a moral morass, especially those who have been listening to spiritual leaders who are defending abortion. Reverend Carlton Veazey of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the defender of abortion in this exchange from NPR's Tell Me More broadcast on July 18, adds to the moral confusion by employing poor logic and reasoning:

Here are just a few flaws in Reverend Veazey's abortion defense:

• The most glaring logical fallacy is that two wrongs make a right. This is the heart of Rev. Veazey's defense of choosing abortion: he charges that born children are being "aborted" by governmental neglect. In the aftermath of my abortion, while I wandered the spiritual wilderness of self-justification, I would sometimes repeat this idea, “If I am not willing to raise a woman's child, I should have no say in her abortion decision.”

But the suffering of poor children is not pertinent to the loss of life of aborted children. This logic only works if you follow it to its conclusion—which means you believe poor children are better off dead than living in poverty. That is the opposite of the position of our Lord Jesus Christ who poured out his life for the poor. Every life has value in his sight. Christ called his people to love the poor, not to place our hope in the state to do so. Nor to advocate for their elimination.

• Veazey’s logic is based on a false premise. There are literally thousands of ministries and hundreds of thousands of volunteers helping pregnant women and their families every day in the pregnancy help movement. If Rev. Veazey is not aware of this fact, he should call 1-800-395-HELP and join in.

• Veazey also throws in a red herring. His trump card is the "moral agency" of women. Of course pregnant women are "moral agents," that's a basic condition of God's design for all humanity---not some special pass designed to waive our moral obligations to others. But it sounds good, if your primary value system is feminist ideology over truth.

The merciful love of Jesus Christ has helped me see and accept that abortion--including my own--is deeply, deeply wrong, especially as an answer to poverty or the fear of poverty or other lifestyle concerns which drive abortion decisions.

As to Veazey's idea that women "need" abortion because political forces have denied them health care, Bomberger pointed out that the same facilities aborting black babies in disproportionate numbers are there to dispense contraceptives and other services as well, clearly exposing another false premise. Bomberger was perhaps too polite to point out the political nature of Veazey's accusation.

My favorite moment of moral clarity is when Bomberger said, "I think death as a solution to any social ill is a really poor approach."

No one can argue away those consequences. As the photo here (hat tip Therese O'Toole and Please Consider Life) so eloquently states: We will always remember the child we never knew.

Yet we can be grateful that through the gifts of godly sorrow over the sinfulness of abortion, and the gift of repentance and faith, God’s grace is greater still.

Major kudos to Ryan Bomberger for his triumph in this interview. Read Ryan’s comments on NPR's biased editing of the interview on his blog here.

Bomberger doesn't need me to defend him, but it's disappointing to think we're all paying for NPR to broadcast such shabby treatment of this man. As I understand it, he is an adoptee and the father of adopted children. For NPR and its guest to create the impression that he, his family, or his work on behalf of black families equals neglecting poor children is absurd and an insult. Bomberger's parents went out of their way--15 children adopted--to provide for the lifelong needs of children; he is also doing the same. His grace to withstand such an onslaught of hostile and dangerous non-sense from NPR and its guest is nothing short of heroic.

Abortion truth and lies

2011-07-16T00:56:55Z

Because of my background in broadcasting current events, and my work as a writer and speaker, I've spent the last ten years searching out the facts about abortion. Finding comprehensive trustworthy data is more of a challenge than you would think. The reasons for a lack of objective information are complex and can be frustrating. One big obstacle is the abortion industry itself, which promotes lies, deceptions, and half-truths to stay in business. The government adds to the problem by relying on the abortion industry for information, thus abdicating both reporting and oversight to the abortionists--turning "privacy" into a license to harm women with impunity, as witnessed by the horrific Kermit Gosnell case.

The hosts summarize abortion industry lies as falling into three areas of deception:
1) "We care about women"
2) "It's not a baby, it's just tissue (a clump of cells, a missed period, etc.)
3) "It won't hurt"

The truth is:
1) Abortion is a business exploiting women in need for the purpose of making a profit
2) Their product is the death of a child. Each and every child's body is catalogued following every procedure
to assure that the entire body has in fact been retrieved
3) Abortion is painful in the short term and always harms everyone involved

I applaud this program and hope you will watch and take it to heart if you have been suffering after abortion, or if you still believe another lie from the sidelines: "Women need abortion." Del Tackett's excellent summary of the comfort of the good news of God in Jesus Christ is a great place to begin healing. However, I would amend what he had to say about "taking back that freedom" when we continue to carry a burden after abortion.

Often our grief is the unnamed problem which refuses to go away. I know the grief you feel. I have felt that way. Jesus Christ is also the hope I have found that our children are not lost to us forever. I pray that you know Him as your Comforter as you begin to face the truth. Please browse the links here to helping organizations, and reach out for your new life now.

Kathy Ireland Explains It All

2011-07-15T19:10:41Z

Kathy Ireland is a beautiful woman inside and out.

What an articulate and compassionate understanding this lovely woman has of the issue of abortion!

Check out Stand to Reason--an organization which can equip you to think through the ideas so clearly presented here, so that you can be confident to believe and stand on the truth our hearts have taught us after abortion.

Abortion truth that sets us free

2011-06-30T12:35:11Z

One of the biggest lies is that women "need" abortion to improve their lives, to be economically sound, to protect from the harm of an "unwanted pregnancy."

The truth is that abortion harms everyone involved. Abortion truth and lies are documented here by Pro-Life Action League at a conference where former abortion workers spoke out about what goes on behind closed doors. This sobering and wrenching video series proves that abortion can never be a pro-woman procedure or policy, abortion always destroys the life of a child, and abortion harms women in every possible way.

There can be no doubt that a life is lost with every abortion, therefore participating in abortion is deeply wrong as the ultimate transgression against an innocent child. Our grief may threaten to overwhelm us as this truth begins to dawn in our hearts. My grief lasted for over twenty years. All those years, I listened to abortion proponents continue to deny the damage abortion does to women and children. And each time I would conclude that, if I did nothing wrong in choosing abortion, something must be wrong with me since I continued to experience such ongoing sadness and shame.

But there is redemption, there is healing. There is hope. While we cannot change the fact that abortion has ended our child's life, that need not be the end of our story.

This short video with Theresa Bonapartis from Lumina beautifully captures common obstacles to healing after abortion and the value of knowing the truth--although abortion is a terrible sin, there is hope for every sinner.

I avoided this truth for all those years out of fear that I would be severely punished by God for what I had done. Although my knowledge of God was incomplete, I am grateful my heart was still soft enough to exhibit guilt over wrongdoing. Never allow your fear of punishment to keep you from accepting the truth. Instead, let that fear lead you into the light of the love of Jesus Christ whose death has justified us before God (Romans 5:1-5). To be justified means that our case has been dismissed and our record is now clear. Not because we deserve it, but because Jesus Christ is our hope, as foretold in Scripture: "God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103: 10-14)

Choose today to agree that no one "needs" abortion. And don't take on the new fear that your little one is forever lost. God has not abandoned us--nor our children. Choose today to trust He will provide. Just as He indeed has provided for each child abandoned and destroyed by abortion. God in his mercy has made a way.

"He is the love of God"

2011-06-30T11:46:28Z

Praise Break "We All Bow Down" by Lenny LeBlanc

Jesus said, "Whoever has my commandments and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

Obedience is not burdensome, it is the way of love leading to the personal revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Someone said, "Faith is not believing in God--faith is believing God will do what He has said, for you." That is worthy of our obedience, our gratitude and our praise.

Beautiful Black Babies Billboards

2011-06-24T19:44:00Z

In a story in the Oakland Tribune this week, Race specific anti-abortion billboards arrive in Oakland, NAACP California President Alice Huffman expressed concern that the campaign is racist. What do you think? From the billboard sponsor website, the Radiance Foundation:

The billboard image and message strike me as a compelling, even loving, exhortation for black women to rethink the idea of abortion, and let their children live. Since the billboard campaign is sponsored by blacks for blacks (co-sponsor is Issues 4 Life) in defense of black children, how is it possible that this is a racist message? What if the subtitle is true? Are too many black babies aborted?

Abortion's racial disparity--higher rates of abortion among women of color--is an undisputed fact, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 2008. Yet black leaders use of this data to sound the alarm is somehow racist. The pro-abortion rights researchers at Guttmacher Institute published an article in the Guttmacher Policy Review (Summer 2008, Volume 11, Number 3) which may have started this ball rolling. Here's the opening line of the report Abortion and Women of Color: The Bigger Picture,

"This much is true: In the United States, the abortion rate for black women is almost five times that for white women. Antiabortion activists, including some African-American pastors, have been waging a campaign around this fact, falsely asserting that the disparity is the result of aggressive marketing by abortion providers to minority communities."

The report contained all the data to support the claim of racial disparity--a much higher rate of blacks aborted in proportion to the number of whites aborted. Yet Cohen went on to conclude that the real problem was,

"...antiabortion pastors who appear intent on trying to protect minority women from themselves."

With all respect, no. Black pastors and others are trying to protect women from....abortion.

Bravo to my friends Reverends Brian and Denise Walker of Everlasting Light Ministries who stated the problem and solution so poignantly at the 2011 Walk for Life West Coast rally.

By the way, I am not an "antiabortion activist."

I am a woman who needed protection and help at a vulnerable time in my life who was not presented with any true alternative to abortion. I felt I had no choice. So I feel obliged to tell the truth about the harm abortion does to women, men, and children. And to expose the myth that women "need" abortion providers as their only available advocate. The idea that they alone stand to help minority communities is absurd.
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The reality is that organizations sponsoring these billboards (and many others) are aiding women in Oakland and throughout the US to find help, encouragement, and support to choose life--even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances. Follow the links provided above for the Radiance Foundation and Issues 4 Life, visit the National Black Prolife Coalition or call the Option Line at 1-800-395-HELP to find the love you need.

The Black & Beautiful billboards represent a strategic solution to raise awareness, to educate, and to reduce the rate of abortion in the black community.

So, what is really racist--encouraging and fostering new life among black families, or turning black women against their pastors and offering "help" to destroy their children who already exist?

How do you react?

Bestselling Books Abuzz with Abortion, Pregnancy, Loss

2011-06-15T20:37:24Z

Glancing at the New York Times bestseller list, I see three out of America’s current top ten nonfiction books featuring personal stories of pregnancy loss, choice, and abortion. While the political debate has raged for almost forty years now, our actual experiences have only been a whisper until this recent rash of books.

I hear deeply personal stories of abortion, pregnancy loss, and exercising choice with increasing regularity in my line of work as I help women and men draw the connection between their present problems and the buried pain of an abortion in the past. People open up to me. But these bestsellers are breaking taboos by disclosing details of an abortion, candidly addressing questions of career vs. children, and answering our deepest questions about the death of a child.

#1 Heaven is for Real was reviewed for me by a woman I had just met in a coffee shop. Early in our conversation she disclosed having an abortion as a young woman 40 years earlier, while relating how Todd Burpo’s book comforted her grief over that lost child. Simply reading the truth about the eternal nature of life before birth changed the course of the life of my coffee shop friend. She is now energized to help others avoid the pain which has defined her adult life.

Meanwhile, American Idol judge, Steven Tyler’s autobiography (#8 on the list) bravely and brutally brings to light what abortion does to the heart of a man who is not bound by any social restraint as he acted out his pain after sponsoring an abortion for his young girlfriend. I read the young woman's story in the news. She is now speaking out about the devastation she suffered as well.

A People magazine article about Tina Fey’s memoir Bossypants (#3 and a former #1) quotes her internal debate over whether to have a second child. The happy ending punch line, of course is Fey’s trademark self-deprecating wit about her career ambitions and the later announcement on Oprah of the happy news. How many women like me, who destroyed a child for the sake of career, will read Tina’s story and weep over their lost opportunity for motherhood? How many others will regret delaying their decision until infertility makes the choice for them?

Now that we're reading these stories, I just wonder how we’ll deal with the critical mass—one out of every three American women has had at least one abortion by the time we reach age 45—when the millions of women who need help begin to seek out care.

Abortion providers and their advocates coming alongside the broken and wounded women who got sold a “right to choose” would have to admit they’re causing harm. To do so would be to radically revise their agenda, and their agenda is all they’ve got. There is no heart at the heart of the abortion rights movement. In fact, right now the abortion lobby group, NARAL is engaged in a concerted effort in many states to close down pregnancy resource centers, which are non-profit community outreach efforts offering compassionate, effective after-care.

These centers deserve our support as they offer tangible help through Option Line. Call 1-800-395-HELP to receive assistance with a pregnancy decision or get help after abortion. Lend a hand if you're not in need of help--get involved today.

As someone said, “No one grows up dreaming of having an abortion.” Abortion is a losing strategy for life, as so many of us now know firsthand. And if you’ve been hurt by abortion, as I was, someone is listening, and someone does care.

Making men bystanders to abortion

2011-06-08T19:47:00Z

Forbes ran a short article this week on privacy concerns related to billboards protesting abortion--one by a group trying to raise awareness about abortions among people of color, and another by the New Mexico man who wanted an equal say in a woman's right to choose.

I'll look at the issue of abortion targeting racial groups in a future post, but today's question relates to men.

I am not endorsing this man's billboard tactic, nor the man himself, about whom I know nothing. Vengeful public anger is never an acceptable way to gain credibility for your cause.

But the message of the billboard raises some pressing questions for women and our choice to abort a pregnancy. What do you think? Is a pre-born child also part of "his" body since the baby's DNA is formed from his raw material as well as the mother's?

What recourse should men have when abortion laws make them a bystander to their own children's lives?

There hasn't been much research done on the impact of abortion on the father. But as I have listened to their stories and interviewed those who help these men I have seen firsthand the great sadness, anger and spiritual pain men experience after abortion. According to research posted on the website Men and Abortion:

"....as many as 60% were troubled by the irrevocable ending of the life they had helped set in motion" (p. 162). Of those men surveyed, 11% stated that they were opposed to their partners' decision to abort and were described as experiencing a very profound sense of personal loss."

These statistics point to a hidden groundswell of men who were willing to step up and father their child, but deferred to women who silenced their voice in the choice.

And what of those men who do not wish to parent? The government will force a man to pay if a woman decides she wants to give birth and parent his child, even if he doesn't wish to do so. His income will no longer remain private--and rightly so. But this lopsided granting of rights to women over the interests of men and children is based on the premise that pregnancy takes place in her body so she alone decides. Isn't every child conceived from the body (the seed, the DNA) of a man? Doesn't that mean his body is also involved? And what about the body of the baby?

By framing this complicated situation as a women's issue and granting women a private right to treat human life as her own exclusive property, we have violated the natural law in ways that harm men and children irreparably. Women cannot help but be harmed as well. And men cannot be silent forever.

No individual woman deserves to lose her privacy as it appears has happened in New Mexico with this billboard; libel and slander are not protected speech. But if we as women will ever recover from the pain of abortion and the destruction of so many relationships in its wake, we have to begin to acknowledge in the privacy of our own hearts the harm it does to everyone involved.

Yes, even the men.

What do you think?

Encouragement after Abortion Tip #16 Your turn

2011-06-03T19:12:00Z

Abortion is a conversation stopper.

The experience is deeply personal and often just as deeply painful. You just want to forget and put the past behind you. Yet you also want to remember, sometimes even dreaming of what might have been. We wonder if anyone could possibly understand. How can we speak about it and share what's in our hearts?

I lived that way for so many years after abortion. Then faith came. And after several more years, the healing and hope I hold out to you today.

We are more, you are more than what happened because of abortion.

What would it take to begin a conversation today?

Encouragement after Abortion Tip #15 Something Beautiful

2011-05-26T12:36:00Z

Abortion interrupts our lives and then leaves a part of us mired in the past, regretting what we have done and missing what might have been.

But the Lord has been showing me lately that even the smallest moment of frustration (or in this case years and even decades of distress) is a God-given opportunity to go to Him in prayer.

If we take Him at His word that He works all things together for the good of us who love Him and are called according to His purpose, then we can praise Him right now for being able to bring something beautiful out of the mess we make of our lives. Even after abortion we can make a new start—a fresh beginning is yours for the taking by faith in Jesus Christ.

Something beautiful. It is there, in the midst of your mistake. It is there, at the end of your sorrow. You only have to take the time in prayer to find it.

Encouragement after Abortion Tip #14 Praise God anyway

2011-05-25T13:58:40Z

Abortion overshadows faith.

We may feel we were abandoned by God when he permitted an abortion we did not want. Or we may fear he will not forgive our choice. Few of us easily believe we are in God’s good graces after abortion.

Yet there is always one sure way to get God’s positive attention and for your spiritual healing to begin, and that is to give him praise.

I’m not talking about thanking him--of course we should have grateful hearts for all that he has done and continues to do for us in sharing his assets each day as our blessings. Are you breathing? Thank the Lord! And I’m not talking about flattery. If you tell him he’s wonderful just hoping to appropriate some of those assets, he will see through you before you even begin.

Praise is an affirmation of God’s unique and valuable attributes which eternally exist apart from us.

Praising God affirms his holiness, his glory, his majesty, his faithfulness, his power, his love, his wisdom, and his everlasting unchanging merciful goodness. We can never run out of ways to praise him. The paradox is that praising God revives us when we feel our hearts and spirits have run dry. Take the effort to think about God until you arrive at something to truly feel good about, and share those good feelings with him. Praise changes your outlook in an instant.

The time to praise the Lord is when you feel like it the least. Praise him in the midst of your season of sorrow—for being the God who created times and seasons and who knows the beginning from the end. Praise him as you look beyond your fear—for being mighty to save and willingly facing a tortured death to rescue us from death. Praise him when you sense how very far you are from him—because he is holy and above all earthly cares.

Praise him.

Praise him now.

Encouragement after Abortion Tip #12 The Hope Giver

2011-05-24T17:11:00Z

Abortion takes away our hope.

We look back and wish that we had done things differently, but nothing can change the past. We look ahead to the future where there will always be someone missing from the important moments in our family life, but nothing can bring them back. We look to our faith, but we struggle to see God’s plan and sense his hand.

Look to Jesus Christ. His astonishing, almighty, powerful, merciful love will give you hope.

I saw the incomparable Tony Melendez at the Heartbeat Conference on Friday night. He is known as The Hope Giver after growing up as a boy who was taunted and mocked because he has no arms. Watch him play guitar and sing and in his story you will find new hope. He is a living testimony to the value of every life. Tony teaches that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loves us (Romans 8:37) and who looks on our hearts, not our past mistakes or shortcomings or weaknesses, when we trust in him to take away our sin and heal us in body, mind, and spirit.

Encouragement after abortion Tip #10 There is a lifeguard

2011-05-18T12:43:00Z

Abortion caught us up in a riptide of overwhelming consequences after we set out to enjoy the pleasures of a sexual day at the beach.

Not every abortion happens to young unmarried women playing at love. But when it does, there is someone who can rescue us from the deepest water of doubt and fears over faith. Jesus Christ is at the center of the pregnancy help movement, which is the center of the post abortion help movement.

I’m attending the annual conference of Heartbeat International this week, and meeting with people who are dedicating our lives to imparting the life-giving love of our Lord after women and men have been hurt by abortion. You can call 1-800-395-HELP right now to find support and care in your local area no matter where you live, no matter when you call. The online outreach is www.optionline.org.

Along with Care Net and other groups, Heartbeat is sharing Jesus’ powerful love to see people through any, and I mean any pregnancy problem—before, during, and after—even after abortion. Help is on the way--the ultimate life guard exists to keep watch over our need for rescue, and he cannot fail.

Encouragement after Abortion Tip #9 It’s not about us

2011-05-17T22:44:00Z

Abortion is an isolating experience.

You can easily access the data which points to abortion being commonplace in America--and with privacy laws shielding abortion providers from reporting their cases, the percentage may even be higher. Yet many of us feel completely alone after abortion. Few of us feel we can openly discuss our experience at church. Some of us swear our parents or other close family members will never know of this pivotal event which forever marks our hearts.

But God knows.

He is fully aware of all that happened, including all that led to the decision and all that was taken out of your hands that day.

Instead of fearing what may happen if others find out, what if you were to open your heart to God who loves you and sent His Son as a sacrifice for all sin? What would unconditional love from God look like to you? Do you have any faith at all that God's love and mercy is true and can be a reality in your life? What if you began to turn your heart to God’s thoughts toward you, and away from thoughts of self-condemnation, doubt, or fear?

Jesus is the lover of our souls. It’s not what we have done, but what He did for us. His love is available to you right now, even after abortion. Look at the Cross today. See His love in action.