“Pamela” came into my office at 16 weeks pregnant. Her boyfriend, a heavy beer drinker and a member of a motorcycle gang, browbeat her for several months to obtain an abortion. She was a waitress at a restaurant, barely surviving financially. Her father was a Baptist preacher and, although he was very disappointed in her, he encouraged her to do the right thing, which was to keep the baby. Her father promised to support her financially. He encouraged her to break the ties with her boyfriend, whom he considered to be unworthy of her affection. She was too far along to obtain an abortion at the local abortion clinic and realized that to obtain a late-term abortion she would have to go to Atlanta.

I met with Pamela every week for about four weeks for counseling and prayer. I also referred her to the local crisis pregnancy center, where she received additional counseling and prayer. It was evident she wanted an abortion about as much as a bear wanted to put his paw into a bear trap, because she had grown up believing abortion was murder. Yet she desperately wanted to keep her relationship with her boyfriend. She was afraid if she did not abort the baby she would lose him. I shared with her the very real statistic that most unmarried relationships break up after abortions, terrifying her even more.