We chose life when our doctor advised death

Editor’s note: Friday, Jan. 24, the annual March for Life will take place in Washington, D.C. This column tells the story of one couple who rejected their doctor’s advise and instead chose life.

While abortion takes the life of another human being, Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ former running mate, on a CBS News interview, called abortion “a basic human right.” It’s demented to think that killing your baby is “a basic human right.” It was true in the days of Ahab and Jezebel when people sacrificed children to pagan gods, but today, people trying to kill their children are considered wicked and in need of being locked away somewhere … unless that person is getting an abortion, or, excuse me, “reproductive health care.”

Sometimes medical procedures are necessary to save a woman’s life, like in the case of an ectopic pregnancy. In those cases, it happens so early in the pregnancy, medical science is not able to save the baby. To save the mother, the child is removed; otherwise, both would die.

The Democratic Party seems intensely occupied with encouraging mothers to kill their children. Before the 2022 election, the party spent $31 million on television ads concerning inflation, $140 million on spots concerning crime, but a whopping $320 million on abortion ads. How sad that the Democratic Party thinks killing babies is their best selling point.

Our first baby was ectopic, which ruptured, sending our child to heaven and nearly sent my wife there too. Afterward, we suffered two miscarriages. My wife and I wanted children. After 10 years, she became pregnant. Having learned some things about faith, the first thing we did was to purchase baby clothes, because we set ourselves to having this baby. At six months the doctor told us there was a problem and asked if we wanted to have an abortion. For us, that option was not on the table.

When our baby girl was born, I realized I had purchased the wrong color clothing – but when my daughter smiled, I saw she had my wife’s million-dollar contagious smile. I loved that baby and still do.

I determined no one was going to speak evil over our child, or her future. The doctor we had, before we fired him, told us all the things she would never do. Then we’d take our baby home, and she would do them. We believed God for our child and spoke God’s blessings over her.

In Denmark, 98% of the pregnancies with the problem we were fighting, are terminated. In France, it is 77%. In the United States, 67%.

Did we have to fight some issues? Yes, but we also saw God’s intervention in our lives, the lives of our new doctors and in the life of our beautiful daughter.

I’ve had many experiences where I learned so much from my daughter. When she was 3 years old, wild dogs came into our backyard and killed about 20 chickens in an enclosure. When the dogs came back, my wife fought them with a broom handle until they left. So, I decided to put up a fence.

I purchased 5-foot dog-wire fencing and posts, which had to be driven 2 feet into the ground. Here I was, in hot July, standing on a 6-foot stepladder, with a three-pound sledgehammer, trying to drive the first of 30 metal posts into clay ground after work.

Hitting the first post with the sledgehammer, it wobbled all over the place, and I could hear a voice speak to my spirit saying, “If you hit your hand, you are going to break every bone.” Thinking I was by myself, in frustration, I let something fly out of my mouth that I should have never said.

I then heard a small voice say, “What’cha doing up there, Jesus?” (Look, I am not confused in thinking I am God, for I know the job is taken and there will be no openings, and no one has called me “Jesus” before or since.) To my horror, I looked over and saw my precious 3-year-old daughter sitting in the shade of a tree, watching me.

I came down the ladder realizing that all that my daughter had ever seen me do is preach and teach Bible studies, yet here I had said this awful thing. She walked over to me and said, “Do you think we ought to pray?” Embarrassed, I had not even thought about prayer. I said, “yes,” and we held hands and prayed.

I heard a voice speak to my heart and say, “Richard, put out a soaker hose and have your wife put it on an hour before you come home from work. Then put in three post a night and quit.” That is what we did, and it worked. People at my work made a steel cup to go on the top of the post, so I wouldn’t mangle the tops. It took around 120 hits per post, but we got the job done.

At 8 years old, my daughter could quote more King James Bible verses than I knew when I was 23. She also has this amazing ability to memorize music, not just the first verse of a song, but all the verses. It is amazing. We sing in the car all the time, and she usually starts it.

When she was 10 years old, we were doing one of our campground services with an amphitheater somewhat full. I could smell alcohol at the podium. As I was preaching, an intoxicated woman became very disruptive. Her continual disruptions were causing a problem, and I thought of asking her to leave, but then my daughter walked over, put her arm around the woman and prayed for her. The woman began to weep. I felt so convicted. Here this 10-year-old little girl showed more of the compassion of Jesus and knew better how to express it than the minister … me. The woman was calm the rest of the service and encouraged us in our campground work as she left. I learned something very important that day from a 10-year-old full of the Spirit of God.

Today my daughter is in her 30s, and there are many more stories. She’s funny too.

So, should we have followed the 67% of Americans who would have aborted our daughter? The answer is definitely, “In Jesus name … No.”