In Nigeria, a baby was saved from abortion through the work of 40 Days for Life, an organization that started in 2004 and has seen nearly 9,000 babies saved from abortion, 101 abortion facility workers quit and 57 abortion facilities shut down.
In 2014, 16-year-old Blessing became pregnant and was initially planning to keep her baby because the father of her child was promising to marry her. However, he suddenly changed his mind and said that he wanted her to have an abortion. To make matters worse, her family wasn’t happy that she was pregnant without a husband and told her they would have to send her away.
40 Days for Life told LifeNews that it’s Nigerian tradition for families to look down on women who become pregnant out of wedlock.
Thankfully, Blessing was given a pro-life brochure from a 40 Days for Life event and was encouraged to choose life for her baby. The organization offered support during Blessing’s pregnancy and advised her to have a plan after the child was born.
40 Days for Life explained, “Our team encouraged her on skill acquisition as she was already asked out from school and advised her to plan to get back to school after delivery. To the glory of God, her family was no longer hostile to her after several months of seeing she was determined to keep her baby. They accepted Blessing and her condition. The man responsible for her pregnancy was taken to Social welfare by her brothers for prosecution but he turned out to deny the pregnancy and said he would start saving money to go for a DNA test after delivery.”
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Now Blessings’ daughter, Success, is a healthy infant and living in a one-bedroom apartment with her mother. 40 Days for Life has helped out with baby clothes and other essentials for newborns. They said the following moral lessons could be concluded from Blessings’ story:
- The power of information. Life begins from conception. We all have the responsibility to educate others. If we did not hold that 40 days for life kick off seminar nor give out informative flyers on life of an unborn child, the information that life begins from conception would not have reached Blessing, neither would we have met her to support her choose life! Baby Success may not have been alive today. Parents are the first teachers, if they fail to teach their children, they should be ready for the consequence that may result.
- Pregnancy should not deter a young secondary school student from being what he/she wants to be in future.
- Women generally should be very weary of men who want to get them into bed by offering marriage. Because when pregnancy arises, they either ask her to abort as they are not yet financially ready or deny the pregnancy. Also beware of men who offer financial support in exchange for sexual pleasure. Avoidance of pre-marital sex is necessary to prevent being pregnant while not married.
- In the event that pregnancy results when a woman is not married, the society — especially parents — should help the woman carry her pregnancy through to birth and support her afterwards lest she commits a bigger sin of killing her own child for fear of stigmatization.
- Finally, if you happen to be pregnant, choose life for your baby, remain cheerful, optimistic, hardworking and prayerful in life for in vain is the work of man without God.
To find out more and get involved with 40 Days for Life click here.
