The Family Planning Associates abortion mill in Bakersfield was extremely busy last Monday and Tuesday, as abortionist Kenneth Wright killed many children. Wright finally left after 6 pm on Tuesday. Across the street, the LifeHouse pregnancy help center was relatively quiet most of the time. Nevertheless, four babies were apparently saved! Here are a few selected reports from last week's ministry activities:

Late Tuesday afternoon, when she was about ready to close the LifeHouse for the day, Terri* received a phone call from "Melinda," 27, who accidentally called the LifeHouse instead of the abortion clinic. "Is this the clinic?" Melinda asked. "You mean the pregnancy help center?" Terri replied. "Do you do abortions?" Melinda asked. "No," Terri said, "but we give information about abortions and offer free help."

Terri invited Melinda to come to the LifeHouse to see a video about abortion, but Melinda needed a ride, so Terri sent Tim* to pick her up. Melinda cried when she saw the video, and told Tim and Terri that she really needed to get out of town, primarily to get away from her step-father. Tim helped Melinda look at information about a maternity home in another city on the internet, and Melinda said she would like to go there. Terri contacted the home, and they have room available, so hopefully Melinda will be able to go there soon.

"Beatrice," 18, and "Ballerie," 19, came to the LifeHouse on Wednesday afternoon for a pregnancy test. Ballerie said if she were pregnant, she would keep the baby, but Beatrice said she wasn't sure. While they were waiting for the results, Terri showed them a video about abortion. Beatrice's test was positive, but Ballerie's test was negative. "There's no way after seeing that video, that I would have an abortion," Beatrice said, "but I may consider adoption." Beatrice said that her boyfriend will probably want her to abort, so Terri encouraged her to bring her boyfriend back to the LifeHouse to see the video.

As a teenage couple started to go up the stairs to the abortion chamber on Tuesday, Terri and Chuck (an independent volunteer) tried to talk to them. The boy paused, and then continued up the stairs. As they walked across the balcony, they could see a large picture of an aborted baby on the sidewalk below, and Terri continued to talk to them. After they entered the waiting room, he slowly closed the door. No more than 10 minutes later, they came out. The boy said "we're keeping the baby!" Chuck gave them a Bible and a baby gift.

Two young men and two young women entered the abortion chamber on Monday. After a few minutes, three of them came down the stairs, leaving the women inside. Chuck talked them into coming across the street to the LifeHouse to watch a video. After seeing the truth about abortion, they went back across the street to the abortion chamber. After a while, all four of them came out. The three friends brought the pregnant woman back to the LifeHouse to watch the video. After seeing the video, she went home with her friends, without aborting her baby.

"Shari," 27, came to the LifeHouse on Tuesday afternoon for a pregnancy test. She attends a local Catholic church, and is not married. At first she told Amber* she was undecided about her views on abortion, but after Amber showed her a video about abortion, Shari said she was no longer undecided, but that she was now pro-life. She was happy when she saw that she was pregnant.

"Polly," 16, came to the LifeHouse on Tuesday for a pregnancy test, along with her friend "Lani." Polly is engaged, and attends a local Catholic church. Her test was positive, and she was happy to be pregnant. Lani is a Pentecostal, and she aborted a baby in January. Lani watched a video about abortion with Polly as she waited for the test results. Lani said "I thought that abortion was ok until I saw that video." Terri encouraged her to get back in church.

Update: On Monday afternoon, Chuck saw "Johanna" (see Weekly Ministry Focus #38 and 39) entering the abortion chamber with her mother. Chuck and Terri tried to talk to her. "We'll do whatever we can to help you," Terri said. After a few minutes, they left. They did not return on Tuesday.

A North Dakota abortionist is being sued for distributing literature which claims that there is no medical evidence linking abortions to breast cancer or that abortions endanger future child-bearing. "This is clearly a false statement and misrepresents the weight of the evidence, so we sued to require them to stop using that language and also to start warning people," said attorney John Kinley, who represents the plaintiff.

"The constitutional protection for abortion in no way permits doctors, nurses or other health care providers to deceive women into believing that something that could be life-threatening is in fact safe for them," noted Judie Brown of the American Life League.

- Focus on the Family CitizenLink, October 26, 2000