This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on Jan. 17, 2023. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, hello everyone. I’m Jamie Mitchell, director of Church Culture at the American Pastor’s Network. Today with me, Pastor Steve Harrelson. This coming Sunday, January 22nd, we will again remember the Roe v. Wade decision, which took place in 1972, but this year’s Sanctity of Life Sunday will be much different. For nearly 50 years on Sanctity of Life Sunday, we prayed and hoped for the overturning of Roe and the stopping of unnecessary slaughter of children. However, in an amazing turn of events and in answer to all those prayers, in June of this past year, the Supreme Court, in what is now known as the Dobbs decision, turned the issue of abortion back to each state to determine its own rules and guidelines concerning in regards to life.
We rejoice with that Constitutionally correct decision. One would have thought that there would be universal celebration for the sparing of the lives of the unborn. Yet, there has been mixed response, even among the evangelical community. Although Dobbs was a significant win for pro-life efforts, the battle of life is not over. In some ways the battle will now become even more intense. Just so we are crystal clear, abortion was not eliminated. Women can still walk into clinics and Planned Parenthood across the nation and make the choice to end the life of their baby. What occurred with Dobbs is that guidelines and restrictions concerning abortion and its availability are now determined through their state legislation. The community conscience of each state will determine how they will handle the abortion issue.
I think it’s important to make sure that we all understand this truth, because if you listen to mainstream media and the pro-abortion activists, you would be led to believe that the days of back alley procedures and immediate imprisonment of both woman and the doctors are going to happen the day after Dobbs went down. With that in mind, the battle to rescue and spare the lives of these children is very much in play and we must arm ourselves even more with the right information and a courageous attitude to live out our pro-life convictions as believers.
That’s why today’s program, in anticipation of Sanctity of Life Sunday, is a voice for the unborn, a time to stand up and speak out. To help us today, I want to welcome a new friend to Stand in the Gap, Dr. Tara Sander Lee. Dr. Lee studied heart development as a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, and for many years directed a medical college research laboratory investigating congenital heart disease in children. She now serves as the senior fellow and director of Life Sciences at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an organization that advises and leads the pro-life movement with groundbreaking scientific, statistical and medical research. She has written, she has gone before educators and policymakers defending life, and she is well versed in this subject.
Dr. Lee, what a privilege to have you on Stand In the Gap today.
Tara Sander Lee: Thank you so much. It is really a privilege and an honor, and I look forward to our discussion.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, let’s jump right into this issue of being pro-life. I have found we can no longer just assume people believe that or really understand the issue. When someone asks you to explain what does it mean to be pro-life, how would you describe it and explain it, and specifically when it comes to the unborn in the womb?
Tara Sander Lee: I would actually start with God’s words. God’s word makes it really clear throughout scripture that every human being is a valued human being made in the image of God. We see it throughout scripture, but I’m just going to point out Psalm 139, “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful.” Throughout scripture, God reminds us of the inherent value and worth and dignity of every human life that he has created no matter how old, young or regardless of their ability.
We know that the Webster’s Dictionary describes a person as a human being that is separate and distinct from another. Personhood is not governed by age, stage of development or level of dependency on another or capacity to do certain things. If that were so, then newborn babies, the disabled, elderly, and those suffering with debilitating disease that are not maybe fully functional would not be considered a person, and we know that that’s not the case. The truth is that every pre-born child is a human being from the very beginning with intrinsic value and worth. Every child in the womb is a precious, unique life, handcrafted by God in his own image, a person in every sense of the word, deserving of respect, dignity in life and protection.
Some may consider when they hear pro-life that this is a political issue, and in some respects it can be because there are going to be states, like you explained, that are now going to move forward to really enact policies and protections that are going to help save these babies and protect them from the harms of abortion, but this goes deeper than that. To be pro-life, this is really a heart issue. This is changing hearts and minds, recognizing that the unborn are some of the most vulnerable among us that deserve protection and that abortion ends the life of an innocent human being every time, a human being created by God for a purpose.
Steve Harrelson: Amen, amen. Dr. Lee, you are a champion who defends the rights of the unborn and you have lots of different occasions to interact with people when it comes to research and medical evidence that points to a pro-life position. Where do you think we are right now, first of all, as a nation, and then beyond that, what do you think the general attitude is right now within the evangelical community?
Tara Sander Lee: I think the general attitude right now within the evangelical community is concern, I think concern for both mom and baby, especially for when a mom maybe who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, there is concern that they do not want to see that mother abort their child, but I think what happens is that there’s confusion and uncertainty about what to do. I think part of this stems from two problems. Problem one is misinformation and there’s this fear, there is a lot of misinformation going on right there out there, especially post-Dobbs, the fear that you have to choose between mom or baby, you can’t help both, that somehow if you try to protect the baby that somehow you might be refusing a mother care, like the life of the mother, that in some cases it’s absolutely going to be necessary to deliberately kill that child in order to save the mother. I think there’s confusion that you can’t help both at the same time, that you have to choose.
I think there’s also a problem within the Church that many don’t feel properly equipped to defend life of the unborn child. I think many times they’re surprised to learn that science actually confirms the truth revealed in scripture about the unborn. That’s really our goal then, is to help to educate and equip those within the Church with facts so that they can share the truth and help to change hearts and minds, and so that abortion really becomes unthinkable.
Those I think are the two major problems that we are facing right now. Hopefully our discussion to today will help to equip people so that they can boldly stand forward and express the truth about the humanity of the unborn child and that it doesn’t mean that you somehow have to put the mother at risk.
Jamie Mitchell: That’s exactly why we’ve chosen this subject today, to give people the right information. When we come back, we’re going to get back into the basics of life and what exactly are we fighting for. Come back and join us for a second segment of Stand In the Gap.
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Jamie Mitchell: Well, welcome back to Stand In the Gap. With Steve Harrison and myself is Dr. Tara Sander Lee, the director of Life Sciences at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Tara, one of my goals with this program today is to inform believers and pastors with enough knowledge about life and abortion so that they can both be motivated to fight for the unborn, but also be able to persuade those who are considering an abortion.
If statistics are true, a large percentage of women in evangelical churches have had abortions. An even greater number of millennials and Gen Zers have no problem considering taking the life of an unplanned pregnancy or a child. One of the issues that pro-abortionists will throw up to confuse people is the idea of when does life actually begin. Dr. Lee, would you say that life begins at conception? What evidences are there to help bolster that statement?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah, I would absolutely scientifically say that life begins at conception. This is based on centuries of scientific discoveries and technological advancements that have provided indisputable proof that from the moment of conception, when the sperm fertilizes the egg, there is a creation of a new, totally distinct integrated organism, a human being, a person, biologically distinct from all other life forms on the planet. What’s interesting is that not only does it tell us this in all the textbooks, but we can see this. The dynamics of fertilization and human development are well established. In fact, the very first stage of human development is called Carnegie Stage 1. They use what’s called these Carnegie stages, there’s 23 stages, to describe the first eight weeks of development from the moment of fertilization. That very first stage, when life begins, to describe human life is at the moment of conception.
It’s not just these Carnegie stages that provide evidence that are used by all embryologists to describe human life at the very beginning, but we know that a survey was actually completed and published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2021, showing that the scientific consensus among biologists is that a human life begins at conception. They surveyed over 5,000 biologists from over 1,000 institutions across 86 countries, 95% of them were PhDs, and over 96% of them that were biologists agreed that life begins at conception.
I just want to point out, as I mentioned earlier, the scriptures reveal how important life is from the very beginning, but even biologists can’t ignore the fact, because when they surveyed them, over 60% of them were not religious and when they answered that, yes, life begins at conception. It’s an indisputable truth and fact that that life begins at conception.
Jamie Mitchell: Dr. Lee, I know you’ve done a lot of research and even testified to the fact that the use of fetal tissue in science is a problem. When we hear that, what is meant by fetal tissue and why should it be a concern for somebody?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah, it’s a great question. When we’re talking about fetal tissue, we are describing the practice of performing science experiments using the body parts from aborted babies. There is this very ugly side of science in which there are researchers that want to acquire the body parts, the brains, the livers, the eyes, the kidneys, immediately after abortion. They want to collect these body parts and then take them back to a lab and then perform experiments.
What happens is that you’ll have an abortion clinic, such as Planned Parenthood, that will perform the abortion. It can be anywhere during pregnancy, the first, second, and third trimester. We have evidence from articles, from documents, showing that they are definitely collecting these organs from late-term babies sometimes. Once the baby is aborted, then the body goes to what’s called a tissue procurement organization. Sometimes the dissection can happen immediately, but basically the baby is dissected immediately right after the abortion because basically the fresher the tissues, the better the experiments, that’s what their hope is. Then they collect these tissues and then take them back to the lab and then perform the experiments.
We know that money transfers, these researchers have to pay for these organs. There was a federal investigation and they have evidence, they showed an invoice, that there was actually a 24-week old baby in which the eyes were immediately dissected and then sold to a researcher for $680.
Jamie Mitchell: Wow.
Tara Sander Lee: It’s very controversial, unethical and horrific, quite frankly, because these babies are abandoned and killed and unwanted, but yet it’s like the automobile industry. There worth more as parts than they were as a whole. There’s several concerns, and I know just because of time I can’t get into all of them, but I’m going to just hit on some of the main concerns. Concern one is that it’s never justified to do this and it’s unnecessary. Over a century of fetal tissue research, there’s actually been no treatments or therapies produced or manufactured using human fetal tissue. Some people might point to vaccines, but there’s a lot of, again, misunderstanding when it comes to vaccines, because these are actually fetal cells that do not require the ongoing destruction of aborted babies. I’ll describe that a little bit more. Vaccines are a very different story. It’s wasteful, the fetal tissue research is unnecessary and wasteful. There’s better, more modern ethical alternatives that are saving lives every day, such as adult stem cells that come from living consenting adults that donate their blood to save other lives.
Another concern is the health and safety of the mother. We have evidence that women have been coerced and misinformed during the informed consent process for fetal tissue donation, in which they’ve been coerced into thinking that if they donate their tissue, that somehow it has been used in the past to cure AIDS and cancer. Well, to the best of my knowledge there is no cure for AIDS cancer. Women have been deceived. We also know that women’s safety is at risk. There is evidence that abortion procedures have been modified by abortionists at the request of a researcher to mitigate tissue fragmentation and to acquire better quality tissue. That puts the women at direct risk. Women’s privacy is also at risk. We know of violations from HIPAA and privacy rules that were committed when the abortion clinics disclose patients individual identifiable health information to companies.
The concern three is really that this incentivizes abortion, because I want to point out that any time that those organs or body parts are collected to do these experiments, it requires the ongoing destruction of unborn babies to continue their studies. Once they use all of the aborted tissue and organs in their experiments, if they want to continue their studies, they need to go back and purchase more body parts from new abortions. That’s where it’s different from the fetal cell lines that are used in vaccines, we still don’t condone it’s still, but the actual use of these organs and body parts really keeps the cycle going and incentivizes the abortion.
There’s lots of concerns, very unethical and very concerning.
Steve Harrelson: Very good. Dr. Lee, there are many states that have what is called a heartbeat law and they actually write legislation on restricting abortion when you can actually hear the pre-born’s heart. When does that actually happen, and why should that be important to me as a pro-lifer?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah, the heartbeat is really important. The scientific facts are clear. The heart is actually the very first functioning organ in a developing human being, with the first heartbeat just 22 days after fertilization. That is during what’s called the sixth week gestation. The heart forms really early in embryogenesis because the embryo survival requires the pumping of that oxygen carrying blood through the rest of the body to develop the rest of the baby’s organs. We know that the embryonic heartbeat can be detected very early, as early as the sixth week of gestation. It’s actually beating as high as 110 beats per minute. The heart is a marker of health because the presence of a heartbeat indicates the baby has a very high chance of surviving, sometimes as high as 98% there’s a live birth rate associated with a heartbeat.
This is significant because every living human being has a heartbeat, and abortion ends the beating heart and life of every unborn baby. This is why states are introducing bills that protect a baby once a heartbeat is detected, such as Nebraska. Nebraska just introduced a bill that is going to hopefully ban abortion once a heartbeat is detected. This is very important for a pro-lifer because it protects babies once a heartbeat is detected very early on in pregnancy.
Jamie Mitchell: This is why, Dr. Lee, it is so important for crisis pregnancy centers to have things like ultrasounds. Isn’t that why it’s so important in trying to convince the gal who comes in to have the abortion?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah, absolutely. Ultrasound is amazing what we can detect now. Not that long ago, ultrasound was grainy black and white dots, you could barely see the unborn child. Now we can see the clarity of that beating heart at six weeks, in addition to all these amazing other facts. We can see that a baby is going to be left or right-handed, because by 10 weeks they can actually suck their left or right thumb and that correlates with their handedness after birth. We can see that the baby responds to touch and pain because of ultrasound. We know that the baby has fingerprints starting to form at 12 weeks and are fully developed by 19. It’s amazing how much ultrasound has really created this window into seeing the humanity of the unborn child with absolute clarity.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, I hope that you are gaining both boldness and clarity and the information needed to bolster your opinion that you need to speak up for the unborn. That’s what we’re talking about today, being a voice for the unborn. Come back and join with us as we continue to go deeper into the subject of life and abortion.
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Jamie Mitchell: Well, thank you for staying with us today on a most important topic, being pro-life, defending the unborn, speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves, but also being compassionate and persuasive to the woman facing the decision to keep or abort her child. Tara Sander Lee has joined us and provided a wealth of knowledge and experience from the medical and research side of this debate.
Tara, as we defend life and enter into conversations with people, even evangelical born again Christians, there are arguments and issues that get thrown up. Sometimes we say that these issues, at least in my case, sometimes they’re above my pay grade, yet we need to give an answer. Let’s discuss some of these more difficult issues. One of them that we hear a lot of is it will be said, something like this, that the life of the mother or in an event of rape, abortion is acceptable. How do we answer this issue, and what really is the issue here?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah. I think first to talk about the life of a mother. I think it’s important to understand that I’m not an OBGYN, but I’ve looked at the data, I’ve talked to colleagues. Life-threatening situations requiring a separation of a mother and her unborn child occur far less commonly than one may assume. It’s important that an induced abortion, that you deliberately go and kill the child, should not be confused with a medical indication for separating a mother from her unborn child, where you try to save both lives. The goal is try to save both lives, not to end one to save the other. I think that’s why it’s important to understand that abortion is a violent act that kills an innocent human being with a beating heart who sucks their thumb and can feel pain, and that this act of violence also puts women at a serious risk of harm from the abortion procedures, which can include uterine perforation, cervical laceration, infection, hemorrhage, death and the like. That’s not including even mental health disorders that increase, the risk of mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety.
But induced abortion, which intentionally kills the unborn child, again, should not be confused with separating a mother from her unborn child. In any high risk pregnancy, the fact is that state pro-life laws have exemptions to save the life of a mother and specifically allow for treatment, like of an ectopic pregnancy, but actually, this is a medical procedure that is different from an abortion, because an ectopic pregnancy, if you look at ectopic pregnancy in which the baby implants in fallopian tube outside of the uterus, we know that in many of those cases actually the baby has already died by the time it’s detected. There are no pro-life laws that are going to prevent a physician from helping that woman and taking care of that woman. There’s no legal or medical question that her life can be protected in life-threatening situations such as an ectopic pregnancy. That’s just one issue.
But also, going back to rape or incest, rape is a tragedy and it should be punished to the full extent of the law, but circumstances of conception don’t change the fact that that is a new human life. For what other crime do we punish the child for the crime of a parent? Abortion doesn’t erase the trauma of a sexual assault, it’s just another act of violence and this time it’s going to be on the unborn innocent child. We really encourage communities to rally around moms who choose life for their children and pregnancy care centers, especially in horrific examples of rape, and to help provide the support that they need during that time.
Steve Harrelson: Very good. Dr. Lee, there’s another issue that we hear a lot about. It’s the issue of chemical abortions. A lot of us are familiar with the term morning after pill. What exactly is that? How does it work, is it still considered abortion, and is that different than so-called Plan B?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah, great question. Chemical abortion is very different from Plan B, or often referred to as the morning after pill. Let me just talk to you about the morning after pill very briefly, because the morning after pill or Plan B, that is very different because it delays ovulation and it is often taken the morning after intercourse with the hopes that this pill will prevent fertilization if ovulation. The idea is delay ovulation so that you hopefully prevent fertilization.
The difference is that a chemical abortion is also considered an abortion pill. Another name for it is RU486. Chemical abortion is a two-drug process, very different from the morning after pill. It involves two drugs, primarily mifepristone and misoprostol. The first drug, mifepristone, is the real abortion pill that does the action of blocking progesterone. It’s a hormone that’s necessary for sustaining the pregnancy, taking that first pill results in the death of the unborn baby. Fertilization has already occurred, the baby is already growing and developing. The FDA has authorized the use of the abortion pill, or chemical abortion, up until 10 weeks pregnancy, but we know that it is sometimes even going into 11 weeks and sometimes even later.
After that first pill is taken, the baby dies. Then the second pill is taken, which induces contractions to expel the unborn baby that has died and other pregnancy tissue from the uterus. But what’s happening is that the FDA has been reducing the restrictions, has been stripping back on the restrictions that help to protect the mother. Now, basically, a woman can receive these abortion pills at her doorstep through the mail, at a pharmacy, and she can do this abortion at home, alone, without any interaction or contact with a physician. It’s very dangerous, because we know that the FDA has actually even listed side effects from taking this. We know from studies that there is a serious risk of actually fatal infections, bleeding, there’s even been deaths reported. One of the best studies actually found that women that took chemical abortion had four times the complication rate than a surgical abortion. It’s really dangerous, we’re very concerned about the increased use of chemical abortion within the United States.
Jamie Mitchell: Dr. Lee, I know you testified to the Wisconsin legislation about prenatal testing to determine the viability of a baby. With the Dobbs decision now sending the power to write laws back to the states about abortion access, what was Wisconsin attempting to put into law and how should believers be on the watch for this kind of legislation occurring in their states?
Tara Sander Lee: Wisconsin was attempting to put into law, it was called a discrimination ban against unborn babies. They were hoping to prohibit abortion solely based on the race, color, national origin, ancestry, or sex of the unborn child, or solely based on the fact that the unborn child had been diagnosed with, or had a potential diagnosis of, Down syndrome or another congenital disability. Basically, the bill was trying to say you cannot abort an unborn child just because the baby is suspected or has been diagnosed with a potential diverse ability, such as Down syndrome.
What I testified on was I focused on the science of how do people actually find out when a baby has a risk or is carrying a risk or diagnosis of Down syndrome. I described how these screens that are done prenatally for Down syndrome, such as what’s called these non-invasive prenatal screens that use fetal DNA found in the mother’s blood, have very high rates of false positives. That means that when you find out that you’re pregnant and that your baby may have a risk of Down syndrome, it’s wrong 50% of the time. That’s especially concerning because we find that’s mostly the case in women that have a low risk of having a baby with Down syndrome to begin with. What’s happening is that healthy babies without any risk of disease are actually being aborted. Not only is this happening with Down syndrome babies, but this is happening with several other babies that are diagnosed with Trisomy 13, 18. It’s really becoming a modern day form of eugenics.
Over a dozen states are now prohibiting discrimination against these unborn babies based on these unreliable prenatal screens. You really want to keep an eye out for this in the states because it’s a really important form of legislation.
Jamie Mitchell: What we must keep doing when it comes to all of these very dicey issues is remember that God is the giver of life from the time of conception, God stamps value and uniqueness upon every child and each child is worth protecting. When I went into ministry in the early 1980s, it was the beginning of really the whole crisis pregnancy center launching, and we had concern and issues and passion. We didn’t know a lot, we didn’t have ultrasounds and those kind of things, but we wanted to protect children. There should be no excuse made in the baby’s life. What you’re hearing today on this program is data, facts, up-to-date medical research to help you to be thoroughly pro-life. When we come back in our final segment, we’re going to wrap things up and ask the question, where do we go from here? Come back and join us for the last segment of Stand In the Gap.
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Well, we have had Dr. Tara Sander Lee with us this hour, and we’ve been looking at the issue of what it means to be pro-life and how to prepare ourselves to stand up and speak out for the unborn. Dr. Lee, would you just take a moment and tell our audience what the Lozier Institute is about and what kinds of ways that you are fighting for life?
Tara Sander Lee: Yeah, absolutely. The Lozier Institute, it’s an education and research arm. We lead the pro-life movement with cutting edge scientific and statistical research that underscores the dignity of every human life that starts from conception until natural death. Through scientific and medical research, data analysis and legal and legislative testimony, our goal is to educate everyone, policymakers, the public, on the value of every human life. We do this in many different ways. I have been blessed to participate in a new website called the Voyage of Life, voyageoflife.com, where it’s an easy-to-understand resource to understand the humanity of the unborn child all the way from conception up until birth. That’s one of the exciting projects that I’ve been involved with. As we talked earlier, I also provide testimony and I do presentations and just really talking and helping people to understand the humanity of the unborn child and how we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and how they deserve protection.
Jamie Mitchell: I want to encourage you to go to the Charlotte Lozier Institute website. There are some fantastic resources, articles, just a plethora of information to bolster up your ability to speak on pro-life issues.
Steve, as a pastor, I want to ask you this and bring you in on this. As we move towards Sanctity of Life Sunday, how can we encourage pastors to be more vocal and more aggressive in regards to pro-life efforts? What ways can pastors mobilize and energize their congregations to stand up for life?
Steve Harrelson: Oh, brother, that’s a great question. First of all, local pastors lead their flocks as spokesmen for Christ. To answer your question, first of all, I think that, as pastors, we need to stay on top of the latest research and medical happenings as well as what’s going on legally so that we can do number two, and that is to inform our people and to help prepare them to engage their world in the marketplace of ideas with the pro-life arguments that we talked about today. Number three, we need to, ourselves, and encourage our flocks to get involved with our local pregnancy care centers, whether it be a fundraiser, like a walk for life or a dessert reception, or having our church members use their spiritual giftedness as volunteers or counselors, and then perhaps go beyond that and then actually engage with the men and the women that need help at these care centers.
I think doing these three things will go a long way in helping not only pastors to understand what’s at stake here, but also to help our people to go out and engage.
Jamie Mitchell: For sure, they need to speak up on the issue. We have seen, sadly, a reservation by pastors today to speak up on the issues of life and to educate and to inform. I did a very simple survey the weekend after the Dobbs decision on how many pastors actually said something on that Sunday, and I was shocked to find just a very small percentage took time, and even some apologized for it.
Dr. Lee, this has been a great joy to have you on today. In the few moments that we have left, what would you say to pastors and believers as we head towards Sanctity of Life Sunday? What word or exhortation would you have for them regarding fighting for the unborn?
Tara Sander Lee: I would start by saying, pray, pray, pray for guidance and discernment on how God wants to use you to be a voice for the voiceless. I would say don’t be afraid of speaking up. Arm yourself, as Steve’s mentioned, arm yourself with the facts so you can share the truth boldly with love and compassion. Don’t forget what the Holy Spirit revealed to King David when he wrote Psalm 139, how we are fearfully and wonderfully made inside our mother’s womb and woven together, science has further confirmed and validated such truths. We talked about those today, but as you mentioned, go to the Lozier website, we do a lot of the science and statistics to help people understand these truths about the humanity of the unborn child.
Just also, just to remember that these young individuals inside the womb are equally valued human lives with beating hearts, they feel pain. They are made by our creator, our redeemer and king, for a purpose. Eliminating them is not the answer to eliminating disease and disability, especially in the case of Down syndrome or a baby has been diagnosed inside the womb. This is not the answer to if a woman has already faced a tremendous painful experience, such as like rape. It is not the answer to even an unplanned pregnancy, as scary as that might be. The message is really do not fear and to trust in God and that he has a plan. Pregnancy care centers are just amazing resources to provide that help and to meet that woman where she’s at and provide her with the help that she’s needed. I encourage people to stand forward boldly in the Lord.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, thank you, Dr. Lee, for your expertise, for your passion for the cause of life. There’s so much more we could touch on, would love to have yourself or others from Lozier back with us.
Friends, this issue of pro-life and sparing babies is very personal to me. It was 30 years ago my wife and I were faced with the issue of not being able to have a child. We had attempted, we had a number of miscarriages and we were told we couldn’t have a child. We put a call out to pastors across the country and said, “Listen, if you have somebody in your church who’s facing an unwanted pregnancy, direct them our way.” In 1992, a 15 going on 16-year-old girl walked into her pastor’s office and said, “I’m pregnant and I want to give my baby up to a pastor and his wife. Little did she know that was us. 30 years ago, there was a young gal who spoke to a pastor, they spared the life of that child, and we have had the joy to raise Alex these last 30 years. He today is a dad himself. This issue of being pro-life is important.
Beloved, remember there are women who are involved in this situation. We need to care for them, we need to encourage them. We need to come around them and love on them. It’s not just enough to spare the baby, but to redeem and restore and to help these women who are facing this issue.
Steve, we have about a minute left. Would you pray for Sanctity of Life Sunday as we close today?
Steve Harrelson: Absolutely. All right, let’s bow and pray.
Father, we thank you so much for Dr. Lee and for Pastor Jamie and for this discussion today. Father, it is something that is extremely important. I confess that we, as pastors, are not as bold as we need to be. We simply let the world go by and often don’t engage. Father, it is so very important to the pre-born, to the mothers that are involved, and oftentimes with the men that are involved as well. I pray that you would fill us with boldness, that you would give us compassion, that you would help us to see these individuals as you see them, as individuals that are worthy of respect, people for whom Christ died, and that for the babies, these are lives worth saving.
Father, please empower us to do this, help us to have the conviction. We commit this matter to you. Help us on the Sanctity of Life Sunday to speak up for the glory of God. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Jamie Mitchell: Hey, thank you for joining us. God bless you. Have a great rest of this week. Thanks for joining us on Stand In The Gap today.
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