Last week (Nov 7, 2018), pro-life organization Created Equal released a video taken outside a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, MO. The video begins with a young woman walking towards the facility for an abortion. But after learning one fact, she changes her mind.
“Say that again,” the woman says after a volunteer from Created Equal explains that a baby’s heart begins beating at 16 days. “My baby’s heartbeat is available right now?” she asks after a few moments. “My baby has a heartbeat?”
Sam, the volunteer, informs the woman that there’s a pregnancy resource center just down the street.
“And if you went and you got an ultrasound here,” he says, handing her a pamphlet, “they could show you your child and they could show you the heartbeat as well.”
The woman goes on to explain she really doesn’t want to get an abortion, but had been planning to because of financial reasons.
During the conversation, which appears to have lasted less than three minutes, Sam explains the local pregnancy resource center was free and would even continue to help for up to two years after the baby was born.
“They’ll give you maternity clothes, they’ll give you diapers, all kinds of things like that. And they can connect you to people that will give you adoption referrals, if you want, as well.”
“Well, I’m going to go down the street and talk to these people,” the woman says in the end.
Just by initiating a friendly conversation and providing a few simple facts, Sam very possibly saved a life that day. But one has to wonder, would the abortion provider have offered her any of this information? By Missouri law, they should have.
According to the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services, an abortion provider is required to inform the patient both orally and in writing of the “anatomical and physiological characteristic” of the baby at their present gestational age and of provide information for alternatives to carrying out the abortion. If something so simple as knowing the baby has a heartbeat and a pamphlet to a local pregnancy resource center was enough to convince this woman to forego abortion and choose life, it seems fair to question how many women are actually being given this information.
Short and powerful, this candid video demonstrates the power of truth. It is also a reminder that despite how common many of these talking points are in the pro-life movement, there are still a lot of people who need to hear them. Women need to know abortion is ending a life, there are better options for them and the baby, and that pregnancy resource centers are available to help.
