OCTOBER 5: Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have brown hair and brown eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers. And thus begins the anonymous letter titled “Diary of an Unborn Child” published in Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s AWAKE! Magazine in 1980. The haunting and soul-stirring narrative continues from the voice of the unborn child.  OCTOBER 19: Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am. In the September 1st issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry following a study analyzing data on 877,000 women – 164,000 of which had had a abortion, “Results indicate quite consistently that abortion is associated with moderate to highly increased risks of psychological problems subsequent to the procedure.” The women who had experienced an abortion were “34% more likely to develop an anxiety disorder, 37% more likely to experience depression, 110% more likely to abuse alcohol, 155% more likely to commit suicide, and 220% more likely to use marijuana.” (Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018) OCTOBER 23: My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: MAMA. In an article from a physician in 2016 she recalls volunteering as an abortion counselor in 1973 as an undergrad. She remembers being told that abortion was “risk-free”. It was many years later she learned about abortion-related distress. Distress such as severe depression not unlike PTSD, nightmares, thoughts of suicide and self-harm, insomnia, substance abuse, anger, and feelings of guilt and worthlessness. More – relationships with abusive partners, and various self-destructive behaviors. And these stresses are long lasting and relentless.  Dr. Shuping says, “In my clinical experience, I have worked with women ranging in age from teens to more than eighty who continued to have distress they attributed many years later to the abortion.” (Shuping, M. (2016). Counterpoint: Long-lasting distress after abortion. (pp. 153-177). NOVEMBER 2: I am growing a bit every day. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those little legs will raise me to my mother’s arms, before these little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father. And what about the father? “In a national web-based study of 135 men who have experienced an abortion, 48% of men stated that they opposed their partner’s abortion and 69% reported moderate to very high stress following the abortion (Rue, Coyle, & Coleman, 2007).  Yet no state requires a husband or boyfriend to be informed of the  impending abortion.“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”— Billy Graham DECEMBER 13: I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When mom brings me into the world it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to see my mom. How do you look, mom? No woman can forget the child within her womb. No woman truly wants to have an abortion. And no one woman is ever the same following one. The profound effects of an abortion fill her heart and mind. Sometimes loud and garish causing every movement to be harsh and tiresome. Other times quiet and isolating. An endless frost. DECEMBER 24: I wonder if mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the world a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly: tup-tup, tup-tup. You’ll have a healthy little daughter, mom! The heartrending end to this poem I am sure you know. According to various sources some 619,591 abortions were performed in 2018. There is no readily available data up to the present at this time. That is not only the approximate number of precious blood spilled but also the number of souls torn in half and left empty and broken from having taken the life of their child. She still needs us. Our prayers. Our compassion. Our help. Pray for those whose lives are damaged by this horrific crime and pray for and help bring about her the healing she needs. Support Pregnancy Care Clinics and our efforts to “Love them Both”. ~Heather Vasquez

Dear Friends of Next Step,

It is cold, bright, and at times dismal and we are bombarded with news, numbers, opinions, anger, and changes daily. It is enough to make one put their head back underneath the pillow and desperately try to get back to the blackness of sleep.

But we cannot hide our heads, Netflix and chill, or hideaway in our homes until this all passes. That is not what we are called to do is it?

There is an enemy, not a new one, but one that has until recently resided in stark clinical rooms and discussed among the list of ‘offerings’ to those finding themselves ‘in a pickle’. But with the human connections getting fewer and fewer and venturing from our homes discouraged it is now a very real and a dangerous ‘service’ being foisted upon our community.

The abortion pill, also known as RU-486, has been circling the U.S as early as 1994 under the Clinton Administration.

So, what is the Abortion Pill?

The Abortion Pill is “a chemical compound that, taken in pill form, can induce abortion in women up to nine weeks pregnant.” (https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/ru486/)

In the United States it is sold under the name Mifeprex, also known as the “Early Option Pill”. It operates as an artificial steroid that impedes the action of naturally occurring progesterone (a hormone essential to early pregnancy progress) in the woman’s body.

“Progesterone stimulates the proliferation of the uterine lining which nourishes the developing child. It also suppresses normal uterine contractions which could dislodge the child implanted and growing on the wall of the mother’s womb” (https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/ru486/).

The Abortion Pill takes the place of the progesterone. Without that hormone to begin the natural process of pregnancy the women’s body shuts down the preparation of the uterus and normal menstruation begins. The baby, whose heart has already taken its first beats as early as five weeks and is about 2mm long, deprived of necessary nutrition starves. He or she detaches from the uterine wall and is swept out of the body with the decaying uterine lining.

That is, it in a nutshell. This is all very researched and laid out factually in many places. I found the most helpful information on the National Right to Life website (nrlc.org).

Over the last several months – or year is it now? – since the countrywide pandemic has taken over, those who push abortion as a basic human right have taken the opportunity to reach even further into our homes than before by offering to send the abortion pill to pregnant women to take in their homes without the basic monitoring of their health and well-being. The argument being that due to COVID and “out of an abundance of caution” women are being asked to “stay home and stay safe” and they will send the ‘abortion’ to you!

But that is not the only pill the woman is sent. Alone RU486 can induce an abortion only between 64% and 85% of the time. “Therefore, two days after taking the RU486, a woman is given a prostaglandin, usually misoprostol (trade name: Cytotec), to induce powerful uterine contractions to expel the shriveled corpse.” (https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/ru486/).

During the clinical trials in France, prior to the FDA deciding the process was “safe and effective” in 1996, the Abortion Pill was administered typically within or adjacent to emergency facilities. Why? Because some of the women in the trial began hemorrhaging (in other words bleeding out). In addition, women were screened for several health conditions that may have ruled them out from using the drug due to some severe short- and long-term effects.

“After women are given prostaglandin (e.g., misoprostol), they are monitored on site for approximately four hours so that allergic reactions, cardiopulmonary “events,” hemorrhaging and the like can be treated promptly before they become life-threatening.” (April 12, 1990 letter from the French Republic, Department of Solidarity, Health and Social Protection, reprinted in Child & Family 21:102-103, 1990).

A 1990 directive jointly signed by the French Republic’s Director General of Health, Director of Hospitals and Director of Pharmacy and Medication, states that “whenever prostaglandins are given in association with RU 486 the following technical conditions … are indispensable and are to be followed”

And the article goes on to describe having a defibrillator handy, resuscitative cardiopulmonary equipment as well as blood pressure checks every 30 minutes. The most common side effect being bleeding extensively and excessively. “Women taking RU486 usually bleed for at least a week or two, with 9% bleeding for 30 days or more.” (https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/ru486)

Today, in the world of COVID, there seem to be little precautions taken.

According to an article in ViceMediaGroup from February of this year, the new thing is to perform a “self-managed abortion”.

“Though it’s a violation of the Food and Drug Administration’s rules to sell abortion medication online—the agency’s restrictions on mifepristone require it to be administered in person at a hospital or clinic—there are several websites where people can buy the drugs online.” (ViceMediaGroup, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/884m9x/how-to-do-your-own-abortion-with-pills, Maria Solis, February 17^th, 2020)

And thus “perform your own abortion” in the relative comfort of your own home. Away from physicians or nurses or any medical personnel or monitoring. If anyone watched the 2019 film “Unplanned” based on the life of pro-life champion Abby Johnson, you will see what I mean.

The nonchalance with which this procedure is marketed saddens us greatly. That the killing of an unborn child is relegated to the equivalent of an amazon package. The patient is encouraged to have herbal tea, a blanket and Netflix ready.

Luke 1:41

And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.