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June 2004
Passion for babies, compassion for moms:
a firm foundation for two decades of ministry
Outrage quickly turned to compassion when God motivated a small group of Christians to establish LifeSavers Ministries in early 1984. Long before "Love Them Both" became a motto for the pro-life movement, the hearts of Steve and Stephanie Hanson, Carlotta Fondren, Sharon Johns and others were independently moved to step out in faith and follow God in a new ministry venture to save children from abortion while helping their mothers.
Close to home
The brutality of abortion hit very close to home for Stephanie Hanson, because her own mother had considered abortion when she was pregnant at 40 with Stephanie. Stephanie's mother had already given birth to two children, a boy and a girl. "She was done with raising kids," Stephanie said. When she learned that she was pregnant again, she fainted from shock.
In the abortionist's office, Stephanie's mother had a vision. Years later, she told Stephanie about the vision that saved her life while she was still in the womb: "She saw a butcher knife, and she heard a voice tell her 'you have your son, you have your daughter; which of these two lives are you going to choose to take?' All of the sudden she realized that the life she was carrying was just as much a person as her son and daughter that she already knew."
Stephanie's mother ran out of the abortionist's office so fast that she left her girdle in the office.
A very difficult pregnancy caused Stephanie's mother to believe that Stephanie would be born "dead, deformed, or retarded somehow," but she gave birth to a healthy 8 pound 12 ounce baby girl.
When Stephanie's mother needed care later in life, Stephanie took her in. "I could see how God gave her my life to be a blessing throughout her life," Stephanie reflected.
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Steve and Stephanie Hanson, co-founders of LifeSavers
Ministries and the Bakersfield Crisis Pregnancy Center
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In 1983, Stephanie read about an abortion procedure in Franky Schaeffer's book A Time for Anger. "I was horrified. It bothered me so much I actually had nightmares about it," she recalled.
In January of 1984, Stephanie decided to voice her opposition to abortion by participating in a pro-life march outside the courthouse led by Rachel Kennedy, leader of Kern County Right to Life.
When Stephanie learned that Bakersfield's abortion center was just down the street from her home, she urged her husband Steve to join her at a Right to Life picket outside the "Family Planning Associates" abortion mill. That first day as Steve and Stephanie protested with about a dozen other people outside the killing center, they encountered a young pregnant woman, distraught because her husband wanted her to abort her baby.
"We saw her go in, but we really didn't know what was going on that day," Stephanie remembered. "When she came outside, she sat down on a low brick wall, and she started crying."
"Her tears really moved us, and we thought 'somebody really needs to do something.'"
As people in the group prayed with the woman, Steve and Stephanie became convicted with the need to not only speak out against the slaughter of innocent children but provide real help to pregnant women. After praying about the situation, Steve and Stephanie decided "the least we can do is get some information out" to the women entering the abortion center.
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Return to June 2004 issue of In Touch With LifeSavers Ministries
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