LIFE DIGEST: Court blocks parents’ effort at forced abortion
- Oct 26, 2010 -
A court in Texas’ Travis County has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the parents of a 16 year old from forcing her to have an abortion.
The girl’s mother took her to two different Austin abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region, in an effort to make her undergo the lethal procedure. Neither the girl, who was not identified, nor the baby’s father wants an abortion, but her parents have continued to say they will force her to have one, according to a report from Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).
Also in this edition: Day of Silent Solidarity reports 34 children saved, Mildred Jefferson, pro-life champion, dies, 458 babies saved so far in 40 Days campaign, and Man given 30 years for killing girlfriend who refused to abort
The girl, who is three months pregnant, became even more convinced she did not want an abortion after she received information from a pro-life advocate who was praying outside one of the clinics, ADF reported. She continues to live with her parents.
The court’s Oct. 18 decision to issue a restraining order came in response to a motion filed by two ADF-affiliated lawyers — Stephen Casey of Round Rock, Texas, and Gregory Terra of Georgetown, Texas – and Allan Parker, president of The Justice Foundation in San Antonio.
“No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life – especially one that belongs to someone else – is worthless,” Casey said in a written statement. “The right not to have an abortion is protected by law, and this right isn’t relinquished just because someone else considers the child to be an unwanted burden.”
Day of Silent Solidarity reports 34 children saved
Thirty-four unborn children reportedly were saved from abortion through this year’s Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity.
Students on more than 3,800 campuses in 29 countries participated in the annual pro-life event Oct. 19, said Bryan Kemper, president of Stand True Ministries, the sponsoring organization.
The event, which was observed for the seventh consecutive year, gives young people the opportunity to identify with the victims of abortion by fulfilling a vow of silence for a day. Students wear red duct tape on their mouths and/or red armbands. They have informational handouts available to give those who ask about the observance.
A student wrote Kemper with the following report on the day of silence:
“Today was a true blessing; I signed up my school yesterday and today me and my brother both had the duct tape on our mouths. Well this girl came up to me and said I was wasting my time that [no] one would listen to me and all I did was nod and give her the paper, then she threw it at me when I walked away I saw her pick it up and put it in her pocket later that day I saw her but her eyes were puffy then she hugged me and said I was making a huge difference to a lot of girls and that she was scheduled for an abortion later this week and that she will cancel it. I feel happy to know that not even saying something made such a difference.”
Mildred Jefferson, pro-life champion, dies
Mildred Jefferson, a leading advocate for unborn children and the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, died Oct. 15 in Cambridge, Mass.
Jefferson, 84, helped found the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and served as its president from 1975 to 1978. NRLC is the country’s largest pro-life organization. She participated in other pro-life groups as well and testified before Congress in an effort to provide legal protection to unborn children.
“She probably was the greatest orator of our movement,” said Darla St. Martin, NRLC’s co-executive director, according to The New York Times. “In fact, take away the probably.”
In a 2003 profile in the pro-life magazine The American Feminist, Jefferson said, “I became a physician in order to help save lives . . . I am at once a physician, a citizen and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged and the planned have the right to live.”
458 babies saved so far in 40 Days campaign
The 40 Days for Life campaign reported Oct. 26 that 458 unborn babies have been saved from abortion with five days left in its fall effort.
The pro-life campaign, which has occurred twice a year since the fall of 2007, consists of 40 days of prayer and fasting to end abortion, as well as community outreach and peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion clinics. This fall’s effort will end Oct. 31.
Among those participating in the international effort are women who regret their abortions.
A post-abortion woman, Linda, wrote in a blog post, according to 40 Days for Life, “I myself had four abortions. 1976, 1979, 1982, 1985. This year — 2010 — in June, I only have begun to feel the release of guilt, blame and shame for what I have done.”
Linda has prayed in front of the facility where she had three of her abortions. “I always deeply wish that there had been someone there for me in 1976 or any of my other desperate days,” she said. “I may have listened. And my children would have lived.”
Man given 30 years for killing girlfriend who refused to abort
A Maryland man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing his pregnant girlfriend after she refused to have an abortion.
Bernard Bellamy, 21, of Oxon Hill was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a Prince George’s County court, according to The Gazette, a weekly newspaper in Maryland.
Bellamy’s girlfriend, 19-year-old Valicia Demery of District Heights, Md., died in May while she was four months pregnant. Her body was found after having been run over by and dragged beneath a car, The Gazette reported. Demery had received threatening text messages from Bellamy on the eve of her death.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. Our free, downloadable Impact resource is also available online. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com
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