“Don’t give me that ‘age of viability’ *******!” my pregnant client exclaimed. “I know: yes–it’s a baby!”

Surprised and a bit startled, I voiced my agreement. “Don’t worry, I agree with you: it is a baby,” I reassured her. “So, you’re pregnant… How are you feeling about this?”

“I’m going to get an abortion,” she replied.

Now I truly was startled: she had just told me this was a baby…and yet she wanted–she planned to get–an abortion?

“Oh-kay….” I replied slowly. “I am a bit confused….you just told me that you believe you are pregnant with a baby…”

“Oh, I know abortion is killing a baby.” She didn’t look fazed by my question at all. “And, I know it sounds selfish, but I just got ‘my life together!’ “

My client proceeded to explain how she had just gotten a new apartment, a new job, a new boyfriend – and a child would just make things too complicated right now!

I began to offer suggestions. I tried to show her that there might be a way she could continue her progress along this new “together” path for her life and have her child.

We discussed adoption, but there was no way she said she would “give her child” to another person.

I informed her about government benefits that she was likely eligible for (WIC, TANF, Food Stamps, subsidized housing, and daycare vouchers).  I told her how this pregnancy resource center could help her “fill in the gaps” with extra formula, diapers, baby clothes, etc., as well as offer emotional support.

My client listened openly to my suggestions but remained closed off to any other solutions to this unplanned pregnancy. She was adamant that she was getting that abortion.

I had a couple other similar conversations to this one when I worked at a pregnancy resource center. It was shocking to me how some clients would acknowledge that they were “killing a baby,” but get an abortion anyway. Many of these women did feel pressured by economic or relational circumstances or just”did not want to be pregnant again.”

It was through these experiences that I realized that scientific knowledge isn’t enough. The belief that every person has inherent dignity and value from conception has to be in the heart and so deeply ingrained that no stress or strain can overcome it.

If a mother knows in her head that ‘it’s a baby’ but does not believe in her heart that a baby’s life is just as important as her own, she will not choose life.

If somebody does not believe that preserving a child’s life is worth significant personal sacrifice, she will not choose life. 

If somebody believes that a baby born into poverty or born with a disability negates the value of life, she will not choose life.

In other words, the pro-life movement also has to win over HEARTS. And, we need to win over those hearts before they are so hardened that not even what is known in the head can soften them!

That’s why it especially important that we teach our children’s hearts that every person is made in the image and likeness of God – no matter what his or her race, sex, socioeconomic status, ability, or developmental level is. This can be a difficult lesson to teach our children – many lives are regularly cheapened by our society.

How can we do that? With the wonder of babies developing in their mothers’ wombs and identifying such development with a child’s own development–and the development of Jesus Himself in His mother’s womb!

Nothing is more attractive and joyful to children than…other children!

And the prayers of little children have great power in Heaven.

That’s why several years ago my college roommate and I helped create the Holy Heroes Spiritual Adoption Prayer Adventure!  It’s FREE online!

It brings all these powerful ways of touching a young heart into the all-powerful love of God’s heart through the prayer of (soon-to-be-beatified) Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

This prayer “adventure” for the whole family teaches your children about the development of an unborn baby and about their own humanity and development. They learn how much God loves unborn children, too, and that God Himself became an unborn child–just like every other baby ever born!

Almost as amazing as that: another unborn child was one of the first to recognize Jesus, and that unborn baby leaped for joy (Luke 1:41-44). Children will wonder what might have happened to make them leap inside their mothers’ wombs–the first time and every time thereafter as they grew and grew!

And as your child learns through the Holy Heroes Spiritual Adoption Prayer Adventure!, they pray every day for their spiritually adopted unborn baby and his or her parents! Those prayers are not only heard by God, but they sink the love of the unborn deep into your child’s heart–forever!

You can learn more by watching the video below or click HERE!

PS This program is FREE online, but for more flexibility, Holy Heroes just released a complete Spiritual Adoption Activity Book and DVD set (which includes a free prayer card, too!)–so you can do this on your own away from the computer, tablet, phone, whatever. Also great for October Respect Life month in a parish, classroom, school. (Psst: And the quantity discounts automatically apply when you select the quantity you need!)

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Virginia

Virginia has her M.A. in Counseling and currently works as a therapist at a Catholic counseling agency, specializing in working with children (and their parents), teenage girls, and mothers. She also gets some very "hands-on" experience parenting her two young children - who have become Holy Heroes fans! As the eldest of the "Adventure Guides," she has played a big part in developing so many Holy Heroes products and adventures. She wrote the scripts for lots of "Adventure" videos, as well as writing and directing the first "Inside the Sacraments" video (The Holy Eucharist). She wrote Glory Stories Volume 8, "Best-loved Catholic Prayers and Prayers of the Mass," and Volume 13, "Secrets from Heaven - The Story of the Children of Fatima" (her favorite!). Most recently, she co-created the Holy Heroes Spiritual Adoption Adventure with her former college roommate. She continues to enjoy blogging for Holy Heroes.

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