By Guest Author: Andra Owen, Administrative Assistant, Logos Research Associates

Our hearts often seem to break over what should not break them. We should not be devastated when our goldfish dies. That fish really was not very valuable, nor should it have created a strong sentimental feeling. Other times, what should break our hearts enters our minds as a simple fact, a mere thought, with no accompanying emotion and no additional feeling. We hear of children dying of starvation in Africa, and, often, that fact is received as just another news item, devoid of any actual compassion for those children. Here is a story that broke my heart.

Katherine walked out of Planned Parenthood on a chilly December morning, still carrying her unborn, 12-week-old child. She had visited this clinic for an abortion, and her unborn child had been scheduled to die that day. Leaving an abortion clinic as she did, still pregnant, was not normal. Countless cars drive into the parking lot of Planned Parenthood not to leave until the death of the unborn has been achieved.

Through God’s intervention, Katherine’s path crossed with mine that morning as she exited the clinic. I stood on the sidewalk, along with a team of other pro-life Christians, ready to talk with those entering or exiting. Katherine seemed eager to converse when I stopped her. Only an hour or so before in the waiting room, she told me, she had broken down into tears when she came to realize that her unborn child was a gift from God. Overwhelmed with emotion, she had rescheduled the appointment for next Friday. Katherine had temporarily put off making the decision.

The decision to do what?

“It’s not a person,” Katherine told me as we stood there talking on the chilly sidewalk. Yet her 9-month-old son was a person, she asserted. The unborn, well, just didn’t quite qualify. I tried to show her there really was no difference in value between her born child and her unborn child, nothing to make one a person and the other not.

Logic, though, often seems to have little effect. Katherine’s case was no different. Still, there was that nagging voice inside of her telling her this little child was a precious gem from her Creator. As another counselor and I spent time with her, gave her a ride to her apartment, and prayed with her, I began to see this little soul not just as another unborn baby to advocate for, but as a unique person. It felt as if I had somehow come to know this child who had been created by God, complete with his or her own unique DNA.

As we parted ways with Katherine, my hopes were high for this unborn child’s survival. Despite Katherine’s lack of recognition of the equal value of the born and unborn, it was clear God was tugging at her conscience. In fact, Katherine even had a name picked out. It seemed she had come to see Shyla, the unborn child, as her daughter. Another counselor had shown her an accurately sized figure of a baby the same size as Shyla. Katherine had also agreed to meet with us the following week, before the Friday appointment at Planned Parenthood, to accompany us to a pregnancy resource center.

However, day after day, our texts went unanswered. Katherine had decided to ignore us, to ignore her conscience and God’s conviction to let her baby live. Our hopes dwindled. We prayed fervently. Friday arrived with no word. Once again, the team I had been part of assembled on the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood, still hoping Katherine would not keep her baby’s appointment with death.

Tragically, that Friday marked the last day of Shyla’s life on earth.

How did the team and I care more for the life of Shyla than her very own mother? My heart broke for this little baby who would never say her first word, never take her first step, never learn to read, and never grow up into a young lady. What made the sorrow that much greater was that there seemed to be no others to grieve for this child. There would be no funeral for Shyla.

Let me ask you again, what breaks your heart? Do you have the heart of God, loving what He loves and mourning that which He mourns? Every life is valuable. God outlined this truth from the beginning in Genesis 1:27, where it says: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Do you also hate what God hates? God tells us in Proverbs 6:16-17 that He hates “hands that shed innocent blood.” Will you hate abortion enough to take a stand against it?

Here is something else to think about.

Around 6 million Jewish people were killed during the Nazi Holocaust. I have often wondered why more Christians did not stand up and stop the Holocaust from happening in Nazi Germany. Lives were unjustly taken. Violence was all around, and evil went rampant. Yet, well over 50% of Germany’s population belonged to a protestant church. If only more Christians in Germany had stood up! Surely they would have been able to put a stop to the reign of death. Most of us would probably say we would have stood up, at least to some degree.

Over 60 million innocent children have been killed during the abortion Holocaust that is happening right now, right here in America. On average, around 3,000 innocent lives like Shyla are killed every day in the U.S., according to 2024 statistics. Around 3,000 mothers like Katherine choose death for their children every day.

If you had lived in Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s, would you have stood up against the Nazis as Jews were being led away to death? It is hard for anyone to judge what their actions might have been. But are you standing now against the Holocaust currently happening in America? If not, will you stand?

“Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” Proverbs 24:11-12

Take a moment to pray about what God might have you do to make a difference in the pro-life movement, which is really a pro-God movement! Everyone can do something!

As always, if you have any questions about this or any other issue, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

*Note: names in the above account have been changed.