The following is an email that Human Coalition received from a staff member at one of our affiliated life-affirming centers.

March 2013

The client’s husband called last week to make an appointment. They came to the life-affirming pregnancy resource center (PRC) hoping to receive pre-abortion teaching and counseling so they could get “signed off” to go have an abortion. We were under a time constraint because they needed to leave in about 20 minutes to pick up their son.

I was able to have some one-on-one time with the client, and I found out that she’d had one abortion already and believed she “would be just fine” if she had another one. I explained the physical and mental risks of the procedure, but she insisted that it was fine and this was their decision to make. I then shared with her the importance of adoption and a booklet filled with profiles of couples who are unable to conceive.

While the client was in the bathroom giving her urine sample, I spoke with her husband to help him understand that we don’t do abortions at the PRC; we share educational information about childbirth, parenting, abortions, and adoptions. He insisted once more that we “sign them off as having completed the pre-abortion coaching.” I reiterated my earlier statements.

The man, his pregnant wife, another nurse (Kathy), and I met in the hallway to continue the discussion about what the PRC does. I noticed the client was looking at the model of a six-to-nine-week-old embryo, and I held it up for her to get a closer look. I read aloud the changes that take place at seven weeks of development, and I told her that this is what her baby looks like now. She kept staring at the model. I then read aloud the changes that occur at eight weeks of development, letting her know that the baby has a spine, a heart, and will soon have a digestive tract as well. The client’s eyes filled with tears. I reminded the woman and her husband that if they feel they are unable to provide for another child at this time, someone out there is praying for this baby.

Kathy said a prayer, and then we sent them off with adoption resources, a Bible, and an abortion-minded packet.

I called the client a few days later just to encourage her to stay strong if she wants to have this baby. And that’s when she told me, “We are keeping the baby.” She also talked about moving her parents from China to the United States to help take care of their family.

Thank you to all of the HC staff and volunteers for your continued support. You are all in my prayers every single day.

— Suzy

Scientific evidence has shown us that life begins at conception. Between weeks three and eight after conception, also known as the embryonic stage of development, all of the baby’s major body systems (circulatory, digestive, reproductive, and so on) develop. And from weeks nine through twelve, the beginning of the fetal stage, the baby’s brain develops, external features such as the face, limbs, fingers, and toes are well formed, teeth begin to form, the liver produces red blood cells, and the fetus can even make a fist. An unborn child is not just some mass of tissue during those first 12 weeks in the mother’s womb—the same number of weeks during which it’s considered a woman’s legal right and acceptable in our society for her to terminate the pregnancy via abortion.

As Human Coalition kicks off a new series called Proof of Life: First Trimester, this true story powerfully demonstrates the profound impact that something as simple as a timeline of embryonic developments can make on an abortion-determined person. We hope you’ll join us this week as each day we’ll be illustrating the various milestones in an unborn child’s development during the first trimester of pregnancy.