I was looking forward to quietly settling back
into a normal schedule after the January events and catching up with phone
calls, meetings, and the regular business of serving the Church for Life.  But the Lord had other plans for me!

When my friends at the Susan B. Anthony (SBA)
List asked me to testify at a hearing related to H.R. 2975, the “Women’s Health
Protection Act”, which would overturn state and federal laws designed to
protect women from abortion, my first thought was to say “no!”  I hate the political side of this issue.  But then I thought: who else could I send, especially
knowing how mean-spirited pro-abortion people can be to people who think babies
in the womb should be protected?  So, I
said yes and began praying. I also immediately started working on my
testimony. 

To
me, it was especially important that I be a voice for women—for those who were
emotionally and spiritually damaged by abortion and later sought help, for
those who were physically harmed during an abortion, and for those who lost
their lives to this “safe and legal” procedure.

I
wanted to tell the committee members:

• That hundreds of thousands of women and men who have had abortions
  or been involved in an abortion decision have sought help and recovery from
  their experiences.  One organization we
  work with has helped over 326,000
  individuals alone.  Clearly, abortion is
  hardly a harmless or beneficial experience.
• That from 2015 to present, there have been a total of 384 reports of
  medical emergencies at abortion facilities.  In 2019 alone there were 104.
• That there have been 28 abortionists
  in 15 states whose medical licenses were revoked or surrendered
  under threat of revocation and that there have been 51 clinic closures in 18 states in the last 10 years due to
  regulatory/licensing issues. 
  Almost all clinics that have been subject to inspections (and 18 states
  don’t inspect at all) have failed at least one inspection.  Some of the most cited deficiencies are: dirty
  conditions, cross-contamination, failure to monitor patients during surgery and
  recovery, expired drugs and supplies, and inadequately trained staff.
• That, according to the CDC, 439 women have
  died from “safe and legal” abortion since 1973. 
  And, because there are no mandatory reporting laws, only some data
  concerning abortion related medical emergencies exists.  Most of what we know comes from reports from
  sidewalk counselors or 911 records.

I
knew I wouldn’t be facing a friendly crowd, nor one that was particularly
interested in hearing facts like these. 
But God opened the door—and so all I could do was obediently walk
through it.

At
the four-hour hearing were three abortion supporters – Nancy
Northup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, military veteran Holly
Alvarado who had to travel out of state to abort her child, and Alabama
abortionist Dr. Yashica Robinson – who spoke in favor of the bill. Law
professor Teresa Stanton Collett and I testified against the bill.

Questions
were then posed to us as witnesses by the members of the subcommittee, and
their determination to hear only what they wanted to hear was never more
evident.  One representative was
especially angry with Professor Collett for daring to suggest there were
similarities between the biased research presented years ago in defense of
smoking by the tobacco industry and the studies authored and paid for by the
abortion industry, which they keep citing as proof concerning the benefits of
abortion! Other committee members asked both the doctor and Ms. Alvarado to
repeat their comments multiple times, the doctor focusing on how cumbersome it
was to require informed consent and Mrs. Alvardo on how difficult it was for
her to access abortion services in her home state of North Dakota.  No one asked me any questions about the women
who died by abortion.

After the hearing, I felt a good deal of anger. I felt the same
the night I stood alone at the Supreme Court at the end of the March for Life
in 2002. I had been holding my homemade sign that read: “I Regret Choosing to
Abort My Baby.”  The pro-aborts were
gathering for a candlelight vigil, and I stood there, hoping they would reach
out to me and offer me help – but they didn’t. One woman said, “I’m sorry you
feel that way,” but the rest of them looked at me with disdain. As a woman who
regrets her abortion, I was invisible to them. Similarly, at the hearing, facts, just like women and babies
when they are inconvenient, are dismissed by abortion supporters.  The irony came full circle as I thought about
a comment made by one of the Congressman. 
He said, “Anti-choice people have an ideological bias in what facts they
choose to address!” The reality is the pro-aborts have an ideological bias in
the people and testimonies to which they choose to listen!

And yet there is hope. 
After 47 years of fighting, polls are now showing that people don’t love
abortion. More folks are describing themselves as pro-life or that they support
limiting abortion to the first trimester. 
That is why we as the Church must intensify our awareness efforts. We
must increase our ministry outreach programs to pregnant women, so they reject
abortion.  Finally, we must advocate
before God’s throne for those in need of forgiveness because of past abortion
experiences.

But we need your help to do this!   Look back at the bullet pointed items from earlier in this post.  Please memorize one or two points and share them with people you meet with, friends and family members, fellow church congregants, and social media followers. We at AFL are working to develop a fact sheet, derived from my written testimony from the hearing.  Using this resource and working together, we can get the truth about abortion out into the public, regardless of pro-abortion bias, so that the facts survive ideology! 

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the fact sheet, email our Administrator directly.

Written by AFL President Georgette Forney