About Those "Safe" Abortions...

In the relatively recent past, it was possible to 'google' "Abortion Injury Reports" and access reports that were written decades ago about women who were injured in abortions. One that was particularly horrific pertained to a young (then) woman named Lillian Lawson of Dallas. As recently as a year or so ago, it was possible to obtain the newspaper report of what had happened to her. She had her abortion in 1990. I guess it's not possible to obtain that report about her now, but there are numerous other more recent reports about other people that can be obtained, including those who have been injured by medical abortions, if one desires to do the research.

Nonetheless, I'll relate what happened to Lillian Lawson, so that it can serve as a warning of the kinds of things that can happen to young women in abortion clinics. While Lillian was on the abortion table, the doctor lacerated her uterus, then, with forceps, went through the laceration, latched onto her intestines, and pulled them through the laceration, through her womb and vagina and out into the open air. (I presume, otherwise, how would he know what he had done? I'm also assuming the doctor was "he" and a medical doctor.) After that horrible injury, Lillian was left on the table with her feet in the stirrups for seven hours before she was transported to Presbyterian Hospital where the damage to her uterus was repaired, and where a colostomy was performed. That means, of course, that her waste henceforth went into a bag that she had and has to wear at all times, and empty and clean, rather than going directly into the toilet as it had before her "safe, legal" abortion. Lillian still may be considered one of the "lucky" ones who survived such injuries resulting from abortions, though. After all, she sued and received a $5,000,000 settlement. Many others have died.

A similar case was reported in another of the same "Abortion Injury Reports" of a 14-year old girl from the Atlanta Area. The report was made by a "nurse" (?) who assisted the abortionist. The same thing happened to her that happened to Lillian Lawson, except that, rather than having her transported to the hospital, the "doctor" poked her entrails back through the hole he had made in her uterus and sent her home!

Naturally, the "nurse" didn't know what happened to the girl after she left the clinic, but Atlanta did report the death of a 14-year old girl as a result of abortion. Was it the same girl? Only God knows.

A matter of interest related to this is that, at that time, the parents of the girl might not have had any idea that their daughter was even pregnant, much less getting an abortion, because, though the school nurse couldn't have given her an aspirin without their permission, she could, at that time, have transported her to have an abortion without their knowledge or consent. They might have come home from work that evening to find their daughter dead or dying and not known what had happened to her that day! Moreover, it is still possible in many states for any adult to accompany a minor girl to have an abortion without the knowledge or consent of the parents. Furthermore, whenever state legislatures attempt to pass laws requiring parental consent or informed consent so that a woman can know what kinds of things could happen to her in an abortion, organizations that favor "a woman's right to choose" fight tooth and nail to keep such laws from being passed!

In recent years, however, the cloak of secrecy in the abortion industry is slipping a bit and people have become more and more aware of the injuries and deaths suffered on the part of young women as a result of botched abortions, and laws are being passed, such as the recently passed law in Texas, which was famously filibustered, requiring doctors who do abortions to have hospital privileges within 30 miles of their clinic. This has resulted in the closure of numerous abortion clinics in Texas, and howls of protest on the part of feminists.

There is an organization that is attempting to raise money to film a movie about one of the more grisly cases that have come to light in recent years. Inspectors were sent to inspect the clinic of Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia (after an absence of inspections for many years). They were shocked at the sights that met their eyes: baby feet in jars; babies in freezers; dried blood on tables and floors, cat litter on floors and dirty litter in boxes, evidence of roaches, etc., etc., etc. (Surely it's not too late to read those newspaper accounts if desired. He was arrested and tried only a couple or so years ago.) One would be tempted to believe that his was the only clinic in the world that was that gruesome or unsanitary, but that is not the case. In Kansas City, Kansas, inspectors found just such an unsanitary sight, and the "doctor" failed the Medical Board test more than 10 times before being granted his license to practice. (Of course, that was a number of years ago, and that doctor may have been forced out of the practice altogether, but who knows what kind of individual may have taken his place?)

Prior to 1973 when the Supreme Court mysteriously found a "Constitutional right" to abortion despite the guarantee of our "right to life" in the Declaration of Independence, deaths resulting from pregency were relatively rare. Those pushing for "legal" abortions drew a number "out of the air" to sell the "need" for legal abortions. The number the abortion advocates quoted was in the thousands. The actual number was something like 39. Now, deaths resulting from abortions are hidden in medical language that can be mistaken for causes other than abortion so it is difficult to know how many women are dying of abortions today.

When dealing with those in the abortion industry (and it is a very lucrative industry), one is not dealing with the "cream" of society. In truth, though it is never dealt with in this way, abortion is, in reality, murder for hire. Beware!

About Those "Legal" Abortions...

What, exactly, constitutes legality? Do mere humans have the authority to make any kind of behavior "legal," or is there a higher authority whose laws cannot be transgressed without consequence?

Investigation into the matter reveals that "the state" does not have the authority to declare something "legal" that is not legal according to that higher authority, whom I shall refer to henceforth as "God."

There are numerous places in the Word of God - the Holy Bible - where the laws and wishes of God with regard to pregnancy and birth are made clear. The most obvious, of course is in the Ten Commandments, which are located in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. "Thou shalt not kill." Bible scholars indicate that the Hebrew word for "kill" in the Ten Commandments means "murder" and the implication is that we should not kill innocent people. (It does not pertain to execution of those guilty of capital crimes - which execution is also commanded elsewhere. "You must purge the evil from your midst." Deuteronomy 19:19b)

There are places in the Bible where the killing of unborn babies and little children is also referred to - always as an abomination punishable by law. Exodus 21:22 - 25: "When men strive together, and hurt a wonan with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." Exodus 23:7 "Keep far from a false charge, and do not slay the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked." (Who can be more innocent than an baby that is yet to be born?)

"You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord." Leviticus 18:21.

It has recently come to light that the bodies of aborted babies were being burned as "medical waste" in Great Britain to heat hospitals. More recently, it was discovered that the same thing was being done in Oregon to heat homes! In his book, Deliver Us From Evil (p. 135), biblical apologist, Ravi Zacharias quotes Bible scholar, Cunningham Geike, who described in detail the rite of sacrificing babies to Molech:

The hideous image of Moloch, the god of the Ammonites, once more rose in
the valley of Hinnom, and Manasseh himself led the way in consecrating his own
children not to Jehovah, but to the grisly idol, or as the phrase ran, making him pass through the fire to the god; as if the flames, burning away the earthly impure body, let the freed soul pass through them, cleansed from all taint of earth, to unite with the godhead . . . Human sacrifice became common at the "high places of Tophet" in the valley of Hinnom; the stately central mound, on which the idol towered aloft, rising deep and large in the midst.

Night time seems to have been the special time for these awful immolations. The yells of the children bound to the altars, or rolling onto the fire from the brazen arms of the idol; the shouts of hymns of the frantic crowd; and the wild tumult of drums and shrill instruments, by which the cries of the victims were sought to be drowned rose in discordance over the city; forming, with the whole scene, visible from the walls by the glow of the furnaces and flames, such an ideal of transcendent horror, that the name of that valley became, and still continues, in the form of Gehenna, the usual word for hell.

In reading that description of human sacrifice of little children and babies by the ancients of the Kindom of Judah, we can have little wonder that The Lord would send the Babylonians to conquer them and take them into captivity. Yet, how is it more barbaric to do as they did than it is to pull the tiny bodies of babies apart limb from limb and discard them as trash to be incinerated to heat hospitals or homes? Dr. Bernard Nathanson had done thousands of abortions before deciding to film one via ultrasound. He named the film he made, "The Silent Scream," because he was able to see the baby open its mouth in a scream in the womb as the abortion instruments invaded the baby's space to rip it apart. He never performed anothe abortion and, in fact, became one of abortion's most ardent foes.

I am struck by the similarity of the rite of idolatry to Molech and the burning of babies as "medical waste" to heat hospitals and homes. Fire in both instances. Perhaps abortion is idolatry to Molech without its practitioners ever knowing it.

Those who practice abortion in this nation, and those who have received one or more, may never have to face an earthly judge for having committed a crime for their taking of innocent life, but we know that it is truly against the will of God for us to take the life of babies whether in or out of the womb. In fact, God said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; . . ." Jeremiah 1:5a-b That was true of Jeremiah; it may be true of all of us, including the babies that have been aborted and will yet be.

It is important to know that, if you have already had an abortion, there is redemption through the blood of Jesus. "If we say we have fellowship with him [Jesus] while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  I John 1:6-9

It is also important to know that if one remains unrepentant in this life for sins, we will face the Judge of all judges in the future. Best to repent before it's too late.

Why Black Americans for Life?

Why Black Americans for Life?

When coming face-to-face with the name of the organization "Black Americans for Life," many people have wondered why there should be a separate organization for Black Americans.  There are, after all, numerous pro-life organizations which were already in existence before Black Americans for Life was organized.

In truth, Black Americans is, more or less, an arm of the National Right-to-Life, but it is directed specifically toward black women of child-bearing age, their mothers, and those youngsters who soon will be of age.  The reason for this particular organization, and others around the country like it, is to educate black women about the harm abortion is causing to them and to the black population in America.

A disproportionate number of the babies who are aborted are either black or bi-racial.  For example, in New York City, roughly 60% of the black babies who are conceived are aborted.  The estimate of the number of black babies who have been aborted in this country since 1973 is about 17,000,000!  That number very likely only includes the babies of black mothers - not the babies of women of other races whose fathers are black.  

A sister organization is called "Black Genocide."  In fact, this is truly genocide!  The babies who are aborted are not only lost to this earth, but so are the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., that they likely would have had had they been permitted to survive the womb.  So, the 17,000,000 figure represents only the babies who have been aborted; not the babies they would have had.  This means that, while, at one time, the black population of the nation was the largest minority group, it has become only the second largest minority group.  If abortion continues at the present rate, eventually, it's rank will decrease further.  This means a great loss to the world when one considers the contributions many black people have made to this society, whether in the field of medicine, of sports, of music, of entertainment, of business, or whatever.

No doubt one of the reasons for the high incidence of abortion in the black community is that people are not marrying in the large numbers they once were before the advent of the Great Society programs that penalized women for having a husband with her children by having tax dollars pay for expenses far more than an "ordinary" husband could, while denying them those benefits if the husband stayed with the wife and children.  It is difficult for a woman alone to rear a child, so the child is seen as a detriment to the woman's life, meaning that self-interest "demands" that the child be aborted.  In other cases, no doubt a woman who wants to keep her child is pressured into abortion by the father of the child or a parent of the woman.  

Nevertheless, abortion is rapidly depleting the population of young black Americans.  Black women need to take into account that, by aborting their babies, they are not only killing the babies and doing physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational damage to themselves, they are participating in reducing the entire black population. 

Nothing More Than USED GOODS

"USED GOODS." That is all that I was. Bad decisions and past mistakes hung heavy over me. I was "used goods" not realizing that I could be anything more. From that perspective, choosing a "good man" was blurred. I settled for what I thought I was worth. Even though I saw all of the RED FLAGS of anger, belittlement and abuse that would come, I settled for him, desperate to not be alone. After all, who else would want this?

Through that relationship, I saw my once good upbringing ripped to shreds. I longed for love, any kind of love, even if it was one that was tainted and overshadowed by drugs and alcohol in a man. I did the typical thinking of, "I can change him". I never dreamed that I was the one that was going to be changed, and it wasn't for the better. Time went by, the abuse got worse. Where was my "happily ever after?" I started compromising what I believed,  acting out in ways and doing things that brought shame, confusion and fear. I stopped living and started surviving on a day to day basis. I longed for a healthy marriage. I lost my hope and reason to laugh. I lost my reason to live. 

It wasn't until I found myself pregnant with my beautiful daughter that I knew I needed to build a better opportunity for her. I guess you could say that having this baby saved my life. Though any hope for my own "love life" was shot, the love that I had for her, had to be greater. I learned one of the most valuable lessons on this earth: to  love someone else greater than I loved me. For the first time in a long time, I had something to live for. We left when she was 6 months old and we never looked back. With $500 in my pocket and nothing but our clothes and a trailer full of stuff, we moved. Scary. I was going to be a single parent, but the alternative to stay and potentially die was no longer an option. 

It was not easy. Working whatever jobs and however many hours, to make ends meet and create a home for my child was grueling. We went to church, sought God and allowed healing to come and put back the pieces. I stopped chasing after flighty relationships. I was content to let God make me whole, not a man. That's when it happened...

I was praying with a friend about our "future spouses" and for the first time in almost 8 years, my heart opened up and dared to long for what I thought was completely lost. November of 2010, in he walked into my life. I was scared, convinced he wrong for me in every way. However, for the first time, I was hopeful. And there begins one of the greatest love stories ever written, to me anyways. It's a story of hope, life and second chances. A story that shows, with God, anything is possible- even for those labeled "used goods".

Stay tuned.

Perhaps you can relate to this story. In so many ways, she is like so many women; So afraid to be alone that she settled for counterfeit love and lived in mistrust, abuse, fear and strife.  The most beautiful part of the story is that it took a child to teach her what true love was and enabled her to break free from her chains. This baby girl could have easily been aborted due to the circumstances, but in the end, she brought new life, hope and courage. 

If you find yourself in a situation like this, know that you are not alone. Black Americans 4 Life is dedicated to provide help in "hopeless" situations.  If you feel helpless, hopeless, or scared maybe it is time to reach out to someone. We'd love to help.  

Here's how:

www.BA4L.org    816-721-5050    info@ba4l.org 

Stay connected with Black Americans 4 Life:

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Longing to be Loved

I know we all have a story to tell. Some seem more gruesome or horrific than others. The bottom line to them all, as our miss-placed passions rule us, we all are desperately attempting to fill a void within the center of who we are. That void that we've tried to soothe, though temporarily fulfilled, has gotten bigger. It's now more aggressively demanding of our attention, trapping us within and making us helpless to break free. So where does that leave us? For Jasmine, it left her feeling guilty, convicted, confused and hopeless. Any chance of a "normal" life was gone. Or was it? This is her story.

"October 13, 2005, I had an abortion that resulted from a relationship that I had with a relative. Before you gasp in disbelief or disgust, know that it came about, not out of lust that we had, but out of a love that we didn't have.

I would like to say that I had an "ah-ha" moment quickly; That my relationship with him was only a one time thing. It wasn't. What started as innocent hearts longing to be loved and looking basic affection from those closest to us, turned into the selfishness of our flesh, compensating to fulfill ourselves. Twisted. We lived in this dark place, hurting, broken and in desperate need of restoration, destroying everything and everyone that was good for our lives. We felt trapped within the guilt and shame. Out of a desire to have more, in the end, it caused us to be so much less.

Somewhere in the midst you try and make it okay. You try and convince yourself that this is good and right. You do whatever you can to stop yourself from dreaming of something more because you don't believe you deserve any better. Those voices start sneering, screaming, "This is how you will be forever!" and "You are too far gone to change who you are now! Even if you tried, if anyone REALLY knew who you were and what you've done, no one would want you." So you stay. I stayed, off and on for 5 years.

What got me to the place where I let down every defense? Where every sound judgment that I had went out the window? Where my choices and actions led me into a place where I was convinced I had no other choice but have an abortion? Why? For the countless reasons why so many others allow themselves to go where they never said they'd go: out of a vast void inside my life that longed to be filled.

Perhaps you can relate to Jasmine's story. At its core, It is not unlike many stories out there. Although the way the story plays out may vary, the same consequences remain: unrelenting emptiness. Is there a way to satisfy those tormenting forces that drive us so far away? Is there a path back to a full life, free of torment, guilt and shame? There is, but Jasmine didn't know it at the time... That's where we come in.

Black Americans 4 Life (Missouri) is an organization that helps women just like Jasmine. Through collaborative efforts with various organizations around Kansas City, Black Americans for Life is helping women in crisis in an effort to stop the cycle of abortion. It is our goal to enable women to break free from mental, spiritual, emotional and circumstantial enslavement allowing them to live healthy, productive lives.

Learn more about Black Americans 4 Life

So what became of Jasmine? Subscribe to find out. Comment if you can relate to her story. Share if you feel her story could help someone.  Need someone to talk to? E-mail us at info@ba4l.org

What's All This Nonsense About "Chastity Belts?"

By: Mary Jefferson

A long, long time ago (ca. March 15, 2012) the spotlight of the news media was shining on the reaction of the Catholic Church and other sympathetic Christians and politicians to the news that church institutions (hospitals, schools, colleges, adoption agencies, etc.) would be required, in opposition to their religious convictions and despite their First Amendment rights to freely exercise their religion, to provide their employees and students with "free" contraceptives, including "the morning after pill" which is, in reality, not a "contraceptive" (a substance that would prevent conception) but an "abortifacient" (a substance that prevents an already formed embryo from implanting in the womb, thereby causing a very early abortion) or IUDs, which work similarly to "the morning after pill."

On March 15th, Maureen Dowd wrote in her syndicated column, "The attempt by Republican men to wrestle American women back into chastity belts has not only breathed life into President Barack Obama, it has roused and riled Hillary."

Huh?  Who, exactly, is trying to "wrestle American women back(?) into chastity belts?"  Who even knows for sure what a chastity belt is or what it looks like?  It's my understanding that they went out of style with the last of the Crusades or some other time during the Middle Ages.

On "Ruckus," that evening (a Thursday evening program on KCPT), Mary O'Halloran was indignant because women's "right" to have contraceptives "paid for" was being questioned.  Having contraceptives paid for by taxpayers has never, to my knowledge, happened before - unless through Medicaid.  Up to this point, most women took care of their own expenses along these lines, most probably receiving assistance from their "significant other."  How did having contraceptives paid for in insurance policies suddenly become a "right" that was being questioned?  What gives any person the "right" to reach into the pockets of others to subsidize their habits that they don't want the public to control?  If their business is their business, why are they asking others to pay for it?

And what, exactly, is wrong with being chaste anyway?  How did that become an imposition?

I was listening to Focus on the Family several years ago.  The speaker was a black woman who was addressing a room full of other women.  She was talking about God breathing new life into her "dead" marriage, but in the course of her talk, she made a statement about sex that I considered profound.  She said that sex was God's "wedding present" to couples.  She pointed out that too many of us "open it too soon," and, in doing so harm the special relationship with the opposite sex that God intended for His children to have.

Consider how different life would be in this nation and world if people were obedient to the plan that God had for Mankind.  If people did wait until marriage before entering into a sexual relationship and remained faithful to one another afterward, the couples involved would have no worries about giving to or receiving from their spouse any of the myriad STDs that have become so commonplace today.  (More about that later.)  They would know that their spouse was the only person on earth with whom they had such an intimate relationship.  There would be no doubt that any children born to the marriage were biologically related to both of them.  (None of this "Mama's baby; Daddy's maybe.)

In another program on Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson pointed out how premarital sex is so injurious to women.  He said, "Women play at sex to get love; men play at love to get sex."  When the sex is over, the man has gotten what he wanted, but many times, the woman is left without the love she wanted.  He talked about a hormone that bonds a man to his wife (that might require that she be his "first"), but causes him to despise other women to whom he has made no such commitment.  The story about Amnon and Tamar in II Samuel 13 illustrates such a phenomenon.

Premarital sex does not only lead to concerns about unwanted pregnancies, but, as I mentioned above, it can lead to a host of STDs.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that there are 19,000,000 new STD infections every year!  These cost the healthcare system $17 Billion!

Getting more particular, there were 300,000 reported instances of gonorrhea in 2010.  That is evidently a smaller number than reported previously, but, these cases are resistant to the only available treatment option.

Chlamydia has been increasing steadily over the past 20 years.  There have been 1,300,000 cases reported, but the CDC suspects there are many more unreported cases because half the female population does not get health screenings.  Chlamydia does not have a lot of symptoms, but because it doesn't have many symptoms, it can grow undetected for quite awhile and can cause sterility among other problems.

Syphilis is down 1.6% overall, but increased dramatically since 2005 in young black men who have sex with other men.  There is also a sharp increase in HIV in that population.  We were warned by Paul nearly 2,000 years ago that such relationships can lead to disease  (Romans 1:26-27).

If we seek God's best for our lives, He blesses us.  If we stray from His path, we are often left with several unsavory choices and plights.

Many women consider abortion to be a "cure" for an unwanted pregnancy, but it can present a host of unforeseen problems.  More about that next time.

Are We Headed for Another Civil War?

By Mary Jefferson

In pondering the beginning of the Civil War in America, it is impossible to ignore the proximity in time of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War.

There are those who would like to disparage the memory of Abraham Lincoln by "pooh-poohing" the idea that Abraham Lincoln was "anti-slavery," but any research into the matter would show that, of all the candidates for office in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was the most vociferously opposed to the institution of slavery.

One of the legal matters that most aroused the ire of the Abolitionists was the passage of the "Fugitive Slave Laws," whereby people who lived where slavery had already been outlawed were "drafted" into aiding slave owners in "recovering" their fugitive slaves or face legal action.  (Many of the black people captured and "returned" to the South had been "freemen.")

It seems the slave owners were not content to merely own, work, and profit from slaves; they felt the need to enlist the aid of their countrymen who were opposed to the institution of slavery.  Moreover, they were not content to keep it legal where they lived, they wanted to expand it to western territory.  There would not have been a Civil War if those opposed to slavery had not stood their ground in opposition to the pressure from the slave owners to go against their consciences and simply give in to the pressure to allow the entire country to become dominated by slavery.

A similar thing appears to be happening in this country again, but with abortion being the issue today.  There are those who favor abortion.  They prefer to call themselves "pro-choice" but the choice they favor always seems to be abortion as can be witnessed by their strenuous opposition to "informed" choice when legislators attempt to pass laws telling women exactly what is happening when a baby is aborted, or what kinds of physical threats they may face as a result of abortion, or to give women time to ponder the effects of abortion, or to escape pressure from boyfriends, husbands, employers, or parents to have abortions.

Now legislators of one stripe are attempting to force druggists who oppose abortion to carry and fill prescriptions for "abortifacients," such as RU486 or go out of business or employment; to force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions or lose federal funding or possibly licensing; and now to force churches and para-church agencies such as hospitals, colleges, etc., to pay for insurance (whether self-insured or not) to cover "contraceptives" including abortifacients and abortions despite the fact that the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution  guarantees freedom of religion and the free exercise of religion and to people who believe that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," abortion is tantamount to murder.

A huge smokescreen is being erected to change the issue from First Amendment rights to the availability of contraceptives.  Contraceptives have been available for at least 50 years, and no one, NO ONE is attempting to come between a woman and her choice of contraceptives.  But, for as long as contraceptives have been available, it has been the woman's choice whether to purchase them or not.  Now certain legislators are attempting to scare women into believing that choice will be entirely removed if it is not funded entirely by taxpayers!

The question today is whether the people of this nation who are pro-life today will stand their ground in opposition to such infringement on our civil rights or whether we will be cowed into co-operating with the pro-abortion forces to permit such coverage on the national health "insurance" that is being imposed from Washington.

Where will you stand when it is your time to be counted?