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June 2004
A step of faith
A few weeks before that protest, Carlotta Fondren had woken up in the night,
distressed about someone she knew who had been pregnant. Becoming concerned
about the possibility that her friend's child could have been aborted,
Carlotta began researching the resources which were available in Bakersfield for pregnant women. "I had never thought about abortion before," Carlotta confessed, "it wasn't even something I was interested in, but I guess it was God; He motivated me to look into this." Carlotta sensed God leading her to reach out directly to women who were considering abortion. But she had never heard of anyone trying to do something like this before.
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Carlotta Fondren, co-founder of LifeSavers Ministries.
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On Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in January 1984, Carlotta looked in the newspaper to see which local pastors were preaching against abortion. She found only one: Milt Cole of Fruitvale Community Church (now Riverlakes Community Church). "I thought that was terrible," Carlotta said, "because I thought that all of the pastors should be doing sermons on abortion that Sunday."
When abortion became legal, Kern County Right to Life had established a local Birthright office offering help and free pregnancy tests, but Carlotta learned that the Birthright office received only a few calls per month. Somehow pregnant women weren't getting the message.
Carlotta's research and the prompting of the Holy Spirit led her to the conclusion that "the best way to reach these women was to go to the abortion clinic." So Carlotta prepared a flyer with hearts on it that said "God loves you," offering help to pregnant women. After praying with her pastor, Carlotta planned to begin offering help to women at the abortion center.
On Valentine's Day of 1984, Carlotta went out to the FPA center, intending to reach out to women all by herself.
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Return to June 2004 issue of In Touch With LifeSavers Ministries
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