Reaching Abortion-Minded Women In NC

This is family policy matter program is produced by the North Carolina family policy Council of profamily research and education organization dedicated to strengthening and preserving the family, and often the studio hears John Rushton, president of the North Carolina family policy Council for joining us this week.

Profamily policy matters. It is our pleasure to have Amber Lehman with us on the program.

Amber is CEO of first courage pregnancy solutions in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

The organization's mission is to communicate accurate and truthful information to women and men who were affected by unplanned pregnancy and to provide them with spiritual, emotional and physical support. Amber is with us to share her testimony and to talk about the lifesaving work of first choice pregnancy solutions as well as other pregnancy resource ministries across North Carolina before we begin our conversation, I do. I do want to disclose that Amber is an alumnus of the North Carolina family policy Council. She was gracious enough to lend her skills and talents to us a number of years ago. As we were developing our video series family policy perspectives, and we greatly appreciate her work with that I am a welcome to the program is great to have you with us. John waiver you really bring a unique perspective to your work at the pregnancy resource Center start if you will with your personal testimony, which includes a history with both unplanned pregnancy and abortion share with us your personal experience if you will.

John at some time, but I would say 15-year-old girl when I found myself pregnant just before my 16th birthday I went home to my mother was a churchgoer and I expected her to tell me I had to have the baby in.

She disclosed them personal history about herself and then told me that whenever I chose, she would support me and so, not time living with her as a single mom and just cannot keep their teeth on, I made the decision to abort and suggest after my 16th birthday my mother dropped me off at the abortion clinic.

My boyfriends mother picked me up pick up my prescriptions and dropped me off at home and I sat there and I thought wow the skills pretty yucky and so I consciously hardened my heart is how I can describe it now that I'm a believer know what to call that I had consciously hardened my heart to the feelings until about eight years later, when Christ got a hold of me and my eyes were open to the fact that I had not just had an abortion procedure that had taken the life of my baby and my baby had organs and heartbeats and things like that.

And so began my journey with Christ does becoming healed and then through the years. He grew my compassion and passion for both the mother and any unborn in the fishing must be something that has really impacted your life in very significant ways.

Imagine that that experience in him having gone through about yourself enables you to really communicate and to reach out with a real compassion but just a good having had that experience yourself, you can really reach out to young women who are going through similar circumstances lead my team, the merciful.

When you look at the situation.

She can see why they are leaning towards abortion without a conviction for life and abortion so readily on demand and and really promoted. I even heard of radio commercial this week for abortion clinic.

You can see why they would not run towards abortion as the solution and so there's been the ability for me to put my staff in the shoes of abortion minded women and they all come to me with compassion already works big hard work on my staff that that's really promoted a judgment free zone zone where girls can come and have no room in the space to really figure out what they want to do and when things we say to them before you come in here everybody in your life as an opinion of what you should do their happy to tell it to you in here were not share our opinion were not lead you through a process where you can figure out what you really want to do lunch the resources available to you. Talk some about the development of your faith after the experiences that you have a 15-year-old.

How did you first get involved with the pro-life movement in general and also with first choice pregnancy solutions seminary. I will actually work and family policy Council little bit and volunteering at the local pregnancy center and some in my resume for 10 hours a week of fundraising and I got hired as Executive Director.

That's all I got into it. Then they basically charged me with rebuilding the pregnancy center from the ground up, and that's what we've been doing for the last eight years were spent really put your word and action is very difficult experience to manage a lot of young women services first was pregnancy solutions will switch gears now and talk more about the ministry of first choice pregnancy solutions. As you know abortion advocates often accuse pro-lifers of being solely focused on stopping abortion and then sort of leaving women back to figure out what to do next pregnancy resource centers or about so much more than just saving the lives of unborn children tell us about the services that you all for that help address the real needs of women and men, for that matter, who were facing an unplanned pregnancy years within our gears a little bit to really let the churches take back a key role in the process of ending abortion center we want to serve as a hub and cut up in kind of a hub and spoke type model where we can intercept girls and help them choose life stabilize their Christ, the and figure out where they need to go next. And so we have an in-house program called next steps and not next steps program puts them with a weekly mentor and some classes that will exceed 30 years is that there's a program on every corner and they don't need another program. They really need the body of believers to come around them and support them day-to-day woman with an unplanned pregnancy has some level of worry and crisis every day and no organization can support that in the way that she needs, for she needs people in her life for the past two years with inch creating what we call the next that's community when people join the next that's community they can go through some training and learn kind of how to be ministry minded and how to meet day-to-day needs woman's life and then be connected to when we actually are in middle or late part of their pregnancy and they host the baby shower and take meals when the baby comes in. They just become a community around her cheerleaders been amazing to see the success of people who have engaged with those trained individuals from the church and so we have been transitioning that next that's community how to the church community and work in the middle of that so it will not be, but we had such a groundswell of people who wanted to engage that we that we saw that we could not actually handle it out first choice as being a medical clinic and these are more of a social service type thing that we want to do with people and and that really it is the churches job and we want to empower the church to take back the abortion issue by loving the mother's day-to-day most exciting and important services you offer at first choice pregnancy solutions is a mobile clinic tells more about this powerful outreach and how it's helping to transform and save lives? Carolina well. Jonathan, 31, but mobile medical clinic manufactured. For that reason, we take this mobile clinic out and few neighborhood shopping centers. We basically insert our services into the day-to-day activities of women who would likely be considering abortion we determine where to take the mobile clinic by looking at some data point. The first one is the county abortions by residents so we can get that state statistics and look at where they're coming from and so can generally where they were coming from last year is where they'll likely come from this year so we can tear it down into ZIP Code area of the high need area numbly can go out scour around by the demographic of those statistics and we can pinpoint various neighborhoods and places that people are coming and going inside of that ZIP Code. We can do is apply what's called an abortion algorithm on the female population of an area and from doing that we can estimate how many abortions are coming from that area. Let it out. The county and city school and things like that.

It's pretty neat. It's very strategic our planet have three mobile units for wake County.

I know that PRC Charlotte is just launching their first mobile clinic as well.

It's really the age of tomorrow and a delivery service mentality of the age group that were primarily serving that they would they would respond well to this.

It does not replace pregnancy center is just a frontline strategic way to intercept people who otherwise would not come into our brick-and-mortar pregnancy center will sounds like a great tool to have dysplasia limit targeting that you all are doing in the knowledge that you have really hard to reach out that it is driving tremendous needs no camera know that ultrasound technology is an integral part of what you do first choice how his ultrasound technology really transformed the world of pregnancy resource centers and how important is this technology to go centers. 40 mother and crisis to make her decision as to the first firm that she really is pregnant to understand how far along she is somewhat ultrasound technology allows us to do with the nurses on the front line providing professional services, whether track to do is confirm that the pregnancy is in the uterus that confirm how far along the pregnancy is to confirm that there is a fetal heart rate that we would see consistent with that gestational age and that is the first step for any woman to make an informed decision. From the information. The nurse is going to be able to educate her on the field development of her baby. She's going to be able to let her know what abortion procedure she would be looking at what risk goes along with that and honestly how long she had before that procedure changes and not allow the nurse to pull her out of crisis. The byproduct of pregnancy centers doing ultrasound is that yell at first choice, every woman has to sign a form stating that she wants to viewscreen but when she finds that form then we have the liberty to show her ADM fit to help her understand that the heartbeat started 21 days after conception before she ministry. She had a heartbeat and her baby and and that is obviously life changing for the mom. In fact, last week we had a girl on board the mobile clinic and she was there with her mother and she and the nurse measuring from the topics your babies had to tear baby's bottom and she said oh my baby has a bottom and ahead, and she did not realize that this wasn't just a blob that there was a formation of a baby at the stage that she was at the same time her mother looked and said oh my gosh I had an abortion is three months and I had no idea and said there was two generations of women to have their eyes open to the truth of what is happening in the womb and pregnancy are you going to so much for all that you do personal investment in the lives of these women and men, and these children thank the Lord and thank you for your involvement in their lives really out of Tom for this week were listeners go to learn more about first choice pregnancy solutions and to support your ministry how we can send them to WW W.1st choice NC as a North Carolina.org that's first choice MC.org and we currently have a matching grant more nurses on the mobile clinic and so every dollar given. Right now the nurses out in the field is match dollar for dollar by a generous supporter of ours. Thank you so much for all you do every day to save the loves of women and children in return, to make such a positive impact for the kingdom of Christ and for taking time out of your busy schedule return usually with us on family policy matters like someone John, thank you family policy matters. Information and analysis, family policy Council join us weekly discussion on policy issues affecting questions or comments. 919-0708 visit our website.1