Wichita, Kan.

I GREW UP in a conservative home — no premarital sex, no babies until marriage, and I believed in all of it. But at age 17, I found myself in an abusive relationship. The night he hit me, I left and went to the house of a friend, a man a few years older than me. I drank the pain away, so much that I blacked out. Fast forward six weeks. I missed my period and knew I had been raped.

When the pregnancy test was positive, all I could ask was how much an abortion pill cost. I was only 17 and was terrified of what my parents would think of me. My family would disown me and the police wouldn’t believe me. But the counselor at A Better Choice reassured me that life is beautiful and my baby is a part of me. She helped me believe things were OK and that I wasn’t alone.

When it came time for my first sonogram, it was an emotional moment, and I cried because I was terrified. Then the sonographer showed me the baby’s heartbeat, and I cried happy tears. The beating of the heart is what changed my mind completely. At that moment, I knew I needed this little human in my life. That first sonogram was an amazing experience — something I would never have expected in my entire life.

Link here for a pdf of the article quoted on this page, appearing in the January 2019 issue of COLUMBIA, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus.

Birmingham, Ala.

JALEEN AND I MET in high school. After we got our associates degrees, we both came to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Last March, a positive pregnancy test interrupted our life and plans. Our minds were racing with conflicting thoughts. How will we finish school? How could we afford a baby? We were afraid and did not know where to turn. I was also in denial, so I Googled the nearest place to get a test and ultrasound, so we would know for sure. The first place that came up was Her Choice.

When the day of our appointment arrived, we were emotional wrecks. We met with a nurse, Jan, and shared our story. The first thing we thought about was abortion. We feared judgment, but received grace, and Jan educated us about the facts of abortion.

Then an ultrasound was done. He was too small to see, but we could hear a tiny heartbeat. I was like, “Wow!” It moved us in a different direction.

Link here for a pdf of the article quoted on this page, appearing in the January 2019 issue of COLUMBIA, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus.

South Bend, Ind.

TWO YEARS AGO, I found out I was pregnant, and I had a choice to make that was going to affect the rest of my life. I did not want to talk to anyone about my situation before I made a decision. I had heard about Women’s Care Center from a friend, and I knew someone there could help me.

When it came time for an ultrasound, I did not know what to expect. I knew what an ultrasound looked like from media and pictures on the Internet, but it is something that you have to experience for yourself.

The only way I can describe it is that it changed me in the blink of an eye. The moment I saw my child on the big screen in front of me, I knew I was going to be a mom. It did not matter what I had thought before — all that mattered was loving my child and caring about her safety. I saw her little feet and little arms. I heard her heartbeat as I watched her in front of me. I still have the pictures of the ultrasound that were given to me that day — the day that changed my life forever.

Link here for a pdf of the article quoted on this page, appearing in the January 2019 issue of COLUMBIA, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus.

Miami

I WAS A 28-YEAR-OLD MOTHER of two young girls when I suffered a miscarriage on Mother’s Day in 2016. I soon became pregnant again, but I feared another miscarriage and waited until I was 10 weeks to see my OB-GYN.

At my first trimester screening, the tech kept scanning and measuring the same area over and over. Because I work in the medical field, I instantly knew something wasn’t right. I was scheduled for an amniocentesis to rule out any genetic disorders. The results came back negative, and I was ecstatic to hear my baby girl was healthy.

Two weeks later, I received a call to go in for an emergency ultrasound with no explanation. The tech scanned me and then quickly left to get the geneticists on the line. The computer screen read: “Positive for Noonan syndrome. Mother doesn’t know.” My world stopped. Then, as I walked out of the clinic the receptionist handed me an appointment card for an abortion.

As I decided what to do, my sister, Joann, arranged for me to have a 3D ultrasound done at Heartbeat of Miami. I remember praying to God on the ride there: “If you want me to bring this child into the world, just let me see her smile on that screen.”

After meeting the wonderful staff, I was taken to the ultrasound room. The moment the tech switched to the 3D setting and zoomed in, this big smile appeared on the screen and I knew she was my Destiny.

Link here for a pdf of the article quoted on this page, appearing in the January 2019 issue of COLUMBIA, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus.

June 7, 2020

Parents of a baby girl born just a few hours prior left her safely at a fire station in Crosby, Texas, thanks to a law that allows parents to surrender infants with first responders within a designated period of time after birth.

The mother of the child will not face charges because she did not abandon her baby, but left her child at the fire station in accordance with the state’s Baby Safe Haven or Baby Moses law, and notified an employee of her child’s location.

Each state has its own version of this law, which can be found here. The time frame in which an infant may be left with first responders varies from state to state, ranging from three to 60 days.

When parents cannot care for their newborns, those stories don’t have to end in tragedy. Thanks to Safe Haven laws in every state, no child should be left for dead. Every child deserves to have a chance, and every parent deserves to live knowing that they protected the life of their precious child.

The foregoing paragraphs are excerpts from the June 7, 2020 article appearing on the website of LiveAction.org. Here is a link to this article on this site: Safe Haven Law Success