Yolanda called from Oakland. She wanted to talk to a counselor, she said. She then confessed to a sexual relationship in Chicago in which she had picked up gonorrhea and chlamydia - two serious sexually transmitted diseases. She discovered she had cylamydia when she had been tested in Chicago and just recently found out she had gonorrhea when the Dept. of Health called long distance from Chicago

     Yolanda now has a boyfriend in the Oakland area she has been seeing for four months. She said they both go to church. "We’ve had sex only three or four times, and we both realize it is wrong," she said. She also said they plan to marry on New Year’s Eve.

     Then Yolanda told me about going to Planned Parenthood and getting a DepoProvera (DMPA) shot. Now she is bleeding profusely and doesn’t know what to do. She asked whether or not it was possible to die from it. I assured her that the bleeding wouldn’t cause her to die but that she could eventually die from cancer if she didn’t stop taking it. I told Yolanda about all the dangers of DMPA. I mentioned the Food & Drug Administration’s refusal to bring it into this country because of its bad side effects. Yolanda told me that Planned Parenthood had given her a booklet to read on DepoProvera which minimized the dangers. There was absolutely no mention of the fact that it is an abortifacient. (When Yolanda heard DeProvera causes an early abortion, she was shocked and said she would never have consented to it if she had known. The shot she had would last for three months.) I told Yolanda that DMPA causes irregular bleeding. It will eventually (in about a year) cause the complete cessation of periods (amenorrhea), a source of worry for women in Third World countries who view fertility as a badge of honor. It also causes breast cancer, blood pressure and heart problems and sterility.

     I asked Yolanda if she believed in Jesus. She said she did. "Yolanda, you must start praying to stop what you have been doing. There is a built-in punishment for everything we do that is against God’s Law in this life. If you want a happy marriage, make a pact with your boyfriend to wait until you’re married to have a sexual relationship." (I also told her if she kept having sex with her boyfriend, that he may not be willing to marry her on New Year’s Eve.)

     I told Yolanda to call immediately to get treatment for the gonorrhea (Planned Parenthood had tested her for STDs but did not mention the gonorrhea) and to see a doctor about the bleeding. I gave her some suggestions on where to call. Yolanda thanked me in a sincere tone of voice as she hung up.

It was the first call I received from Oakland which saved a life after we had placed an ad in the yellow pages of the Oakland phone book in June. (Within five weeks there were five more babies saved.)

     Linda was calling for an abortion from a convalescent home in Oakland where she was working. She told me her boyfriend definitely wanted an abortion. She had not told her family (her mother, two brothers and a sister.) "Do you think your boyfriend really loves you?" I asked her, "if he wants you to kill your baby?" I told her that over 70% of couples who have abortions split up afterwards because of the tremendous guilt they feel. Each one wants to blame the other. I began to emphasize prayer to Linda, telling her that abortion is against God’s plan.

     After speaking to her for about 15 minutes, Linda began to show signs of changing her mind. Since she was already living away from home, I told her that I knew about a wonderful place where she could stay in Oakland run by the Catholic Church. "It is called ‘CASA VINCENTIA’, Linda" I said. She startled me by saying she had already been there. Then she went on to explain that she had been to the home and made arrangements to stay there and then changed her mind. This was Wednesday and she should have been there two days ago. (I could see the hand of God working.) "Are you too embarrassed to call them, Linda? Do you want me to call and pave the way for you?" I asked. "Yes," she answered. She gave me her address and phone number, and I immediately called CASA VINCENTIA. They were delighted to receive my call. They were wondering what had happened to her and had no way of getting in touch with her.

     A few days later Linda was happily esconced at CASA VINCENTIA with five other girls

     Lorena called - said she just wanted to talk to someone, saying she had an abortion just a year ago that day. She began to cry. I asked her whether she was taking the full blame for her actions. I said that women tend to blame other people. I told her she must take the full blame and say she would never do it again.

     I asked her whether she believed in God - she said "yes." I told her about the love of Jesus - how He forgives all sin. We must do our part and give Him our complete sincerity. If there is some other sin in our lives, we must stop doing this so that Jesus can forgive us. I gave the example of fornication. I asked Lorena if she had a Bible and if she read it - she said "yes." I told her she should set aside a time for prayer every day and that the key to her happiness was in her relationship with Jesus. "We start our heaven here with Him" I told her, quoting II Corinthians, Chap. 4, Verses 6-8 about God commanding the light to shine out of darkness. "When Jesus comes into our hearts, He is saying, ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT!’". I quoted Matthew 11, 28-30: "COME UNTO ME ALL YE THAT LABOR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. . ." Lorena said, "That was beautiful!!" Lorena was responding in a positive way. She stopped crying. She thanked me for helping her.

     John called me from Modesto on a Tuesday afternoon in August - approximately l:00 PM. He told me his girlfriend had already started an abortion (lamanaria)* and he was now worried about the risks to the mother. When I explained to him all the reasons why abortion is wrong, he seemed to be agreeing with me on everything. Finally, I read excerpts from a book entitled Every Woman Has A Right to Know the Dangers of Legal Abortion which gave references to the lamanaria abortion, a high-risk procedure.

     I then suggested that it was possible to stop this abortion by having the lamanaria removed. John told me he would discuss it with his girlfriend. He called me back a few minutes later and said they had decided to have the lamanaria removed. A Modesto doctor was contacted and by 3:30 that afternoon the couple were in his office and the abortion was reversed.

     *WHAT IS LAMANARIA? (ABORTION - QUESTIONS & ANSWERS by Dr. & Mrs. J. C. Willke)
This is a small bit of dehydrated material which is inserted into the cervix one day before the abortion. It absorbs water and swells up to many times its size and, in the process, dilates the cervix. . .

     Sixteen-year-old Jane called me on a Thursday afternoon as I returned from distributing literature in Tracy. At first I thought it was a call from Tracy, and then she told me she was five months’ pregnant and lived in Modesto. "WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT TELLING MY PARENTS?" she asked. "WELL," I answered, "IN JUST A SHORT WHILE THEY’RE GOING TO KNOW ANYWAY. I KNOW IT’S DIFFICULT TO TELL YOUR PARENTS, BUT, BELIEVE ME, EVEN IF THEY BECOME ANGRY WITH YOU, THEY USUALLY GET OVER IT." I asked Jane what she thought her parents’ reaction would be. "OH, MY MOM LOVES CHILDREN," she said. "SHE’LL PROBABLY BE WILLING TO HELP ME TAKE CARE OF THE BABY. I’M JUST SCARED TO TELL HER."

     "JANE, THERE’S SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL REALLY HELP. ASK THE LORD TO TAKE AWAY THIS FEAR. JUST KEEP SAYING, ‘JESUS, TAKE THIS FEAR AWAY’ AND HE’LL DO IT. JUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND THAT YOU’RE GOING TO STOP PUTTING THIS OFF AND THAT YOU’RE GOING TO TELL YOUR PARENTS TONIGHT. WAIT UNTIL THEY’RE IN A GOOD MOOD, LIKE AFTER DINNER, AND THEN SAY, ‘THERE’S SOMETHING IMPORTANT I’VE GOT TO TELL YOU.’ THEY WILL TAKE IT FROM THERE. JANE, IF YOU WANT ME TO COME OVER TO YOUR HOUSE AND HELP YOU TELL YOUR PARENTS, I WILL, BUT I THINK YOU CAN DO IT WITH GOD’S HELP, DON’T YOU?" "YES, I THINK I CAN," SHE SAID.

     As we talked, Jane told me about the impact the materials we distributed at DOWNEY HIGH SCHOOL in Modesto made on her. She said she was "pro-choice" until she saw the literature and then changed her mind completely. She mentioned the DIARY OF AN UNBORN CHILD in particular. "THAT LAST LINE - ‘TODAY MY MOTHER KILLED ME’ - REALLY GOT TO ME." she said. "YOU PEOPLE HAVE TOTALLY CHANGED EVERYONE’S OPINIONS ON ABORTION AT DOWNEY," she said. "NOW EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE AGAINST IT."

I was sound asleep around midnight when the LIFE LINE phone rang. The woman at the end of the line, Pam, was asking questions. "I GOT YOUR NUMBER FROM YOUR LITERATURE," she began. "MY SISTER DROPPED IT OFF AT MY FRONT DOOR A FEW HOURS AGO. CAN I DO SOMETHING ABOUT AN ABORTION I’VE ALREADY STARTED?" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" I asked her. "WELL, I WENT TO FAMILY PLANNING IN OAKLAND AT 4:00 THIS AFTERNOON, AND THEY INSERTED THESE RODS FOR AN ABORTION, BUT I’VE CHANGED MY MIND AFTER SEEING YOUR LITERATURE." (We had been to the Oakland schools the previous week.)

     Shaken by her story and never having experienced this situation before, I was uncertain about what to tell her. I could remember reading about a case where lamanaria had been inserted in a young woman for a late-term abortion who later changed her mind. It was removed and nothing happened to the baby. I told her this. We then discussed her going to an emergency hospital to have it removed. I suggested she go to EMERGENCY right away. I told her I would make some phone calls and call her back. I was in for a rude awakening. The private hospitals I called adamantly refused to have anything to do with it. One emergency doctor said, "I DON’T CONSIDER THIS AN EMERGENCY!" By then I was really frustrated. I felt that I had to do something to save this baby, but everything was working against me. By then Pam had been talking to the nurses working at EMERGENCY in other hospitals and began to get scared about having the rods removed. One nurse told her she would hemorrhage; another told her she would misca rry anyway. "I WISH I HAD TALKED TO YOU BEFORE THIS HAPPENED," she said with desperation in her voice.

     When Pam arrived at her appointment at 9:00 the next morning, it was not difficult to talk her out of her decision to remove the rods and finish the abortion. When I called Pam back two days later, I counseled her on asking God’s forgiveness for what she had done. She surprised me by saying that she knew she had to ask God’s forgiveness. She said she had read this in our literature. Sounding like an instant replay of our article, ABORTION IS WRONG BECAUSE GOD SAYS IT IS, she went on to say, "I CAN’T BLAME MY BOYFRIEND, JUST MYSELF. I HAVE TO STOP HAVING SEX WITH HIM IF I WANT GOD TO FORGIVE ME." (During the course of our conversation, Pam discussed the fact that she had to sign a consent paper at FAMILY PLANNING SPECIALISTS in regard to disposal of the "fetal tissue." They spoke of "refrigerating the tissue for a couple of months."

     Sonia had just moved from New York. She called me for a doctor referral on the FOURTH OF JULY, probably calling from a phone booth. She said her phone hadn’t been connected yet. When I suggested sending her literature, she said simply that she didn’t want it and hung up abruptly. (I then suspected she was planning an abortion.) The next day Sonia called back for more information. Happy to hear from her, I felt I was getting a second chance to stop her from having an abortion. I immediately got down to the nitty-gritty and asked her if she was a Christian. She then started to cry (which really surprised me - her voice had been so hard in our previous conversation) and said she "had been one who believed in Jesus," but things were going bad for her. She wanted to get a job in a few months and now she is pregnant.

     I told Sonia that Jesus could see the whole picture in her life, and He knew what was best for her. Quoting from the Bible (Psalm 91), I told her that God said He would give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. I told Sonia the baby was a blessing. She then startled me by quoting from the Bible: "THE FRUIT OF THE WOMB IS A REWARD. . . " Sonia then asked me to pray for her and I said I would. "KEEP SAYING THE NAME OF JESUS IF YOU’RE TEMPTED, SONIA, AND GET BACK TO READING THE BIBLE." This time she gave me her address so that I could send her our pro-life literature.

Penney called on a Sunday evening in late February. Her first tearful words were, "I NORMALLY DON’T THINK ABORTION IS RIGHT, BUT . . ." She went on to explain that she had just found out she is pregnant. She had left her husband and went to a battered women’s shelter in Orange County for a few days. She was now staying with a friend in Fremont. I asked Penney if she believed in God. "OH, YES," she answered. "AND JESUS - DO YOU BELIEVE IN HIM?" "YES." "WELL, YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE TO TRUST IN HIM NOW, DON’T YOU?" She tearfully agreed. I told Penney that she had to be careful not to be influenced too much by the women at the shelter, because they often urge women to divorce their husbands, not being too strong on marriage. Penney assured me that her husband had been beating her for years and that she was afraid for her life "TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME, PENNEY," I told her. "JUST KEEP IN MIND GOD’S PROMISE THAT ‘ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD FOR THOSE WHO LOVE GOD." I told her she could either make up her mind to be happy or unhappy in her situation, and that the Lord knew what He was doing when He gave her the baby she was now carrying. "THIS BABY COULD BE THE LIGHT OF YOUR LIFE," I told her.

     At the end of our conversation, Penney had stopped crying, and she repeated my words to her that "she should take it one day at a time." I told Penney she was eligible for Medical (she was unaware of this - most people think you must be on Welfare to qualify) and gave her the name of the CENTER FOR LIFE in San Jose where she could meet some wonderful pro-life people who would help her in having the baby. Penney thanked me for my advice and said she was now feeling much better. Apparently, she had forgotten all about having an abortion.