***(Editor’s Note: Debbie Durrell is a Guest Columnist for “The Thirsty Quill,” and serves as the Executive Director of Lois’ Lodge, an organization dedicated to supporting and educating young women who may have considered abortion. As an alternative, Lois’ Lodge serves these women through a variety of programs. To learn more or contribute, please visit their website at www.loislodge.org)***

“An Open Heart (Part 1): The Topic Of Abortion From The Perspective Of A Pro-Life Republican Woman”

By: Debbie Durrell, Guest Columnist

In 2007, Barack Obama promised supporters of the nation’s largest abortion business that the first thing he would do as President would be to overturn every Pro-Life law in all 50 states. It is believed that one of his first actions will be to sign the mislabeled Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). The measure, if it becomes law, would codify Roe v. Wade by making the infamous Supreme Court decision (allowing unlimited abortions) the law of the land. It will prohibit such restrictions as parental notification and consent, as well as the requirement that all abortions be performed in a hospital, spousal consent, and waiting periods. In short, it will remove all (or most) restrictions from this life-ending procedure. The passage of the FOCA would also guarantee that more taxpayer dollars pay for abortions.

Obama didn’t wait 24 hours before making his first decision to promote abortion as the President-elect. He offered the White House Chief-of-Staff position to abortion advocate Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who has a 0 percent Pro-Life voting record.

Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family says that Obama will be “the most committed pro-abortion President in our history, even supporting infanticide for babies who survive botched abortions.” Dobson also worries that Obama is “going to appoint the most liberal justices to the Supreme Court, perhaps, that we’ve ever had.”

“The Freedom of Choice Act would instantly, if it passed, invalidate more than a hundred laws and provisions that would protect the unborn child,” Dobson said. “I mean it would set back to 1973 the efforts to have parental notification and waiting period — all those things that have been done in various places — gone, because he wants no restriction on abortion whatsoever.”

Despite the setbacks that we are facing, Pro-Life Conservatives need to re-charge and re-energize following Obama’s election. We need to prepare to challenge this President, and renew our educational efforts that stand in the path of the pro-abortion movement. According to Charmaine Yoest, President of Americans United for Life, “In 2008, it is clear that, despite the challenges still remaining, the Pro-Life message is steadily gaining ground. Momentum in the states has enabled us to make significant gains in protecting women and unborn children. Young people today report being “Pro-Life” at a much higher rate than their parents’ generation.”

We need to rally together to oppose the incoming Obama administration in their efforts to roll back Pro-Life laws. We have made significant gains in the courts and in our laws over the past eight years. For the next four, we must work together to prevent the erosion of that progress. The key to countering this devastating political loss is to change the hearts and minds of Americans on abortion and related life issues. This needs to be done through effective Pro-Life education. The truth needs to be told…and promoted.

A favorite mantra of the National Organization for Women is “Every Child a Wanted Child”. This may sound noble, until you realize that this liberal group is seeking to make the case that women who are pregnant with a child that is not “wanted” (or planned) should have the option to abort their baby. The underlying argument is that it is better for the child’s life to be snuffed out through an abortion, than for the child to be born “unwanted”. In my role as the Director (of an organization which serves women experiencing unplanned pregnancies), we help families to understand that there really are no “unwanted” children in the broadest sense. Even if the biological parents choose not to raise their child, there are wonderful families throughout this nation who would be thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to parent a child. This oft-cited notion of “unwantedness” is misleading, and I believe it is utterly insufficient to justify even a single abortion.

According to Sharon L. Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, a research arm of Planned Parenthood, “Behind almost every abortion in the US is an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. Abortion is not an isolated event in a woman’s life. It is a last resort for a woman who is faced with a crisis pregnancy she did not want or plan for.”

Lois’ Lodge offers women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy the resources needed to sustain their pregnancy, and to develop a plan for their future (and the future of their child). Unplanned or unwanted pregnancies do not need to result in an abortion that will terminate the child’s life. There are other options.

Abortion must never be a woman’s only resort. We need to make it more difficult, not easier, to develop an abortion plan. The implications of this choice are as vital to the health of our nation as the tiny heartbeats are to those children who need our help.

***(Editor’s Note: Debbie Durrell is a Guest Columnist for “The Thirsty Quill,” and serves as the Executive Director of Lois’ Lodge, an organization dedicated to supporting and educating young women who may have considered having an abortion. As an alternative, Lois’ Lodge serves these women through a variety of programs. To learn more or contribute, please visit their website at www.loislodge.org)***