Tag Archive for: Motherhood

4 Inspirational Pro-Life Moms

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Mother’s Day is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the gift of life, an especially important endeavor since we live in a culture that continues to reject it in a multitude of ways, not only through abortion but in the increasingly common decision of many to intentionally not have children. In the spirit of celebrating the gift of life that mothers have given us all, here are four beautiful examples of moms who are not only championing the preciousness of every life in the culture but are also selflessly mothering their own children.

Melissa Ohden

Melissa, who was adopted as an infant, was 14 when she found out that she was the survivor of a botched abortion. In 1977, her biological mother was 19 when she was forced to go through with a saline abortion by her family. Even though Melissa was soaked in a toxic solution in her mother’s womb for five days, she entered the world alive. Melissa survived due to the heroic actions of a nurse who rushed her to the NICU.

Melissa went on to found the Abortion Survivors Network, which seeks to “share stories and data to humanize survivors’ experiences” and “promote policies that protect and serve abortion survivors, their families and friends.”

Through God’s grace, Melissa was eventually able to connect with “a maternal cousin, my two maternal half-sisters, a maternal aunt — and yes, even my biological mother!” She now has two daughters of her own with her husband Ryan.

Abby Johnson

Abby spent eight years working for Planned Parenthood, America’s leading abortion supplier. As she rose through the ranks of the business, however, she became “increasingly disturbed by what she witnessed.” In 2009, she was asked to assist with an ultrasound-guided abortion. “She watched in horror as a 13 week baby fought for, and ultimately lost, its life at the hand of the abortionist.” Abby soon quit her job and vowed to “begin to advocate for life in the womb and expose abortion for what it truly is.”

Abby went on to write the memoir of her experience at Planned Parenthood and her subsequent conversion to the pro-life cause in “Unplanned,” in which she revealed that she had two abortions before the birth of her first child. “Unplanned” was later made into a film, earning $21 million at the box office on a $6 million budget. Abby also founded And Then There Were None, a pro-life organization that seeks to “help people in the abortion industry leave their jobs and rediscover the peace and joy they’ve been missing.” As a result of ATTWN’s work, over 700 abortion workers have quit, and 48 abortion facilities have closed after these workers left.

Abby now has eight children with her husband Doug, one of whom is adopted.

Lila Rose

At the age of 15, Lila founded the pro-life organization Live Action, which began by giving presentations on the tragedy of abortion to schools and youth groups. Beginning in 2006, she conducted numerous undercover sting operations at Planned Parenthood facilities, posing as an underage girl seeking an abortion. In multiple instances, the Planned Parenthood staff was caught on video encouraging her to lie about her age in order to cover up possible statutory rape and to get an abortion.

Lila has since become one of the leading voices in the pro-life movement through her numerous media appearances and through the work of Live Action, which continues to uncover illegal activity by abortion businesses and produce cutting edge pro-life media content, resulting in “the largest online impact among pro-life and pro-abortion groups reaching over 46 million per month and over 2 billion lifetime video views.”

Lila now has three children with her husband Joe.

Bethany Bomberger

Bethany and her husband Ryan founded the Radiance Foundation, a pro-life organization that seeks to educate and motivate the culture “to put truth and love into action.” She is the author of three children’s books, which focus on the unique gift that each child is as well as the unchangeable and beautiful truth of being either male or female.

After becoming pregnant in her early 20s, Bethany made the courageous decision to choose life. During an interview on CBN, she described a life-changing moment she experienced:

“I had a defining moment. I look back and I think of February 14th, which was Valentine’s Day. It was a Saturday morning at 9 o’clock, and I had my first ultrasound. I walk into this empty room, just by myself, with the ultrasound tech, and I saw for the first time my daughter’s little beating heart. I had this defining moment as I saw in the emptiness of the room, I felt the fullness of the love of God for me, and I just felt that he wrapped my heart and her heart and his heart and just called me back to himself. And that night, I went home and God gave my Psalm 34:5, which says, ‘They looked to him, and were radiant, and their faces were never covered with shame.’ And actually that’s what the Radiance Foundation is predicated upon. But for me it was so personal, because it didn’t matter the shame of my yesterday decisions, ungodly and selfish as they were, but when God infuses you with his glory, his glory becomes what people see, and it’s not shame anymore. I always wanted for my child and for my life to walk in that.”

Bethany has since become the mother of four children with her husband Ryan, including some by adoption, and “loves to celebrate courageous birthmoms and the beauty of adoption.”

Of course, every mother is an inspiring witness to the pro-life cause for a simple reason: they said yes to life and endured hours of pain and labor — in some cases even risking or giving up their own lives — to deliver a child into the world. May our hearts be grateful this Mother’s Day for every mother who has cooperated in God’s plan for humanity to “fill the earth,” with a simple yet profound “yes” to love, self-sacrifice, and new life.

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

When Lying to Your Kids is OK

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Another Major Parenting Challenge. 

This is a cross-post as I thought it was a well-written, thoughtful piece. Mary Rooke (whom I do not know) is the author, and it was originally published in the Daily Caller. This is her Good Life signup page and her Twitter account.

It brings up an important parenting question: which burdens on our children are harmful and we should protect them from — and which burdens are ultimately a net benefit (i.e., an essential part of maturing)? Here goes…

Welcome to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss the little lies of motherhood.

It’s okay to lie to your kids.

My daughter had surgery this week. I’ve been like a duck on the water, calm on top, telling everyone I know that it’s really nothing to worry about. Underneath the surface, my legs are anxiously pedaling to get to the other side.

I don’t want to worry her, so I lie and tell her the same. In times like these, parents must put their own emotional needs on the back burner to ensure their children aren’t carrying any unnecessary burdens.

Don’t get me wrong. I have complete faith in her surgeon. I’ve been around enough of them in my lifetime to recognize his confidence comes from years of success. He possesses the perfect balance of self-assurance and bedside manner, which makes him a well-rounded surgeon. Still, even well-disciplined doctors find themselves in a tornado of complications. I know this firsthand, but that’s a story for another time.

So I lie to my daughter. I tell her that there is no chance anything bad will happen, that the doctor has performed this surgery a thousand times. I don’t mind carrying the weight of the anxiety about the “what ifs.” It’s my job to send her into that procedure with a calm body. Lying to her is a mercy for her and a sacrifice for me.

Since she is so young, I was allowed to be in the room with her. They needed her awake for the surgery. There were times when she would wince and silent tears would roll down her face. I couldn’t grab her hand and physically reassure her that she was being very brave. Instead, I sat across the room, outside the sterilized area, maintaining eye contact and telling her what a great job she was doing.

These moments were the hardest. At this point, I wasn’t lying about the status of her surgery, but more about my own bravery. I wanted to collapse onto her and cry with her. But she didn’t need me to do that. She needed me to look her in the eyes, smile, and show her love. I had to push my selfishness away in order to keep her morale high.

My daughter really did so well. When the doctor finished, he called it a success. All those worries and fears are now gone. The little lie saved her from the emotional baggage that I willingly carried around for her. While in recovery, she hugged me so tightly, thanking me for not leaving her.

There has been a societal movement that encourages parents to communicate with their children on a peer-to-peer level. While there will be a time for that when they are adults and self-sufficient, until then, it’s incredibly important that your children do not see you as “on their level” in any way.

Of course, the most obvious reason for this is discipline. You want them to respect your authority and listen to your instructions or obey your punishments when they break your rules. However, this is only a small part of it.

When I tell my daughter that I have complete confidence that everything will be okay, she believes me. She doesn’t have to worry about any possible complications because her mother has told her not to.

We aren’t on the same level. I’ve never made her carry unnecessary emotional weight. She’s not an adult. She doesn’t have the life experiences to lean on in times of stress or trouble, but I do.

That’s the beauty of how God created the nuclear family structure. Everyone plays a divinely inspired role that is incredibly important for building a healthy family. My husband and I are not her peers or friends. That doesn’t mean we aren’t close. In fact, protecting the parent-child dynamic builds concrete trust.

She knows that if I tell her I’m going to do something, or, as with the surgery, that everything will be all right, she believes me completely.

I’ve spent her whole life cultivating this trust between us. Not because I have demanded it, whether she likes it or not, but because I chose to guide her through life with confident, loving authority. I haven’t made her come up to my level. I’ve allowed her to grow and mature at her natural pace. With each passing year, our conversations become more sophisticated, but I am cautious not to overwhelm her with thoughts, themes, and stresses that she isn’t ready for.

This isn’t an easy thing to do, because these worries don’t simply disappear. Someone has to carry them and deal with them. But I genuinely believe that a mother’s ability to hold the emotional weight of the family is a blessing. I get to be the one that my children and husband turn to when their worlds are spinning or they are feeling emotionally drained.

I’m sure my husband feels the same way when the girls boast about how they know their daddy could beat up the bad guys. I’ve said this before, but parents have a responsibility to protect their children. I’m the emotional protector, and my husband is the physical one.

After the surgery was over and I had a moment alone, I let out all the pain, fear, and stress. Then I gathered myself to go back in and continue the work. She was smiling when I walked through the door.

There will be a time when she realizes that it will be her job to lie to her children. She will have to be the emotional protector of her family. Mothers are made through their endurance to withstand their role and are rewarded with immeasurable blessings. Her smile was my blessing.

©2025 All rights reserved.

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ROOKE: Trump’s Latest Move To Siphon Voters From Kamala’s Largest Voting Bloc Could Be A Game Changer

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Since Democrats threw President Joe Biden out the proverbial window to anoint Vice President Kamala Harris as the new nominee, female voters have flocked to her campaign. However, former President Donald Trump has a plan to bring a large portion of these voters back.

One of Trump’s greatest weaknesses is his inability to reach female voters on a large scale. While conservative women, in large part, enthusiastically support Trump, a swath of independent female voters aren’t sold on his campaign. But that should all change now that presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign in most swing states and fully endorsed Trump for president.

WATCH: RFK Jr’s EPIC entrance to President Trump’s rally in Arizona

Women make up just over 51% of Americans; among those, about 18% are mothers, according to a report gathered by Vote Mama Foundation. The group found that 7.7% of women in the U.S. are mothers to children under the age of six, and 10.2% are mothers to children older than six but under 18.

There is reason to believe these women will support Trump now that Kennedy has endorsed his campaign and will be part of his administration, according to female commentator Alex Clark.

“Can’t express to you how amped conservative female voters are after last night. They have been waiting for 20+ years to hear a presidential candidate acknowledge the health crisis stemming from our corrupt food system. Women are re-energized and ready to show out for Trump,” Clark posted on X after Kennedy’s announcement.

A growing concern, one that I have, too, is how we as mothers are supposed to raise healthy children when everything being sold to us, from our water supply to the food at our local grocery stores, is filled with harmful chemicals that disrupt our body’s immune system and prevent us from being healthy. Even seemingly healthy foods like milk, eggs, and meat are hardly fitting for humane consumption.

It all feels too overwhelming to even think about, much less fight against. How is a family in a Biden-Harris economy supposed to afford to buy all organic produce, raw milk, pasture-raised eggs, and grass-fed beef when they can barely pay the mortgage? Not only are we fighting against unrelenting inflation driving prices high, but the products (even if we could afford them) are still filled with chemicals forced onto farmers by the federal government.

WATCH: RFK Jr: Teaming up With Trump, Pavel Durov’s Arrest, CIA, and the Fall of the Democrat Party

These issues and more (the U.S.’s insane childhood vaccine schedule) are the foundation on which Kennedy has built his campaign. Ipsos polling from March 2024 showed that women made up a large portion of Kennedy’s campaign support. Kennedy voters are slightly more likely to be women and identify as independents rather than Democrats or Republicans, according to the polling.

These suburban women are looking for someone to come in and help clean up our environment and make it easier to raise a healthy family. It would be a mistake for Democrats to laugh this off as if their obsession with anti-family policies like abortion are the only things women care about.

Trump’s move to include Kennedy in this fight will not only change the game for his election but should hopefully mark a shift in the American food industry. Kennedy wants to end the revolving door from federal regulators, like the FDA, CDC, and OSHA, into Big Pharma, Big Ag, and Big Food. This would be music to the ears of desperate American mothers.

It’s clear that Trump is gunning for the women’s vote, and Kennedy could help him finally break into their voting bloc.

AUTHOR

Mary Rooke

Commentary and analysis writer.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Killing Unborn Children Will Never Solve Maternal Mortality

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Since its founding, the abortion industry has always targeted minority and economically disadvantaged women as its prime sources of profit. Today, this anti-life narrative often takes the form of arguing that protecting life in the womb will exacerbate the nation’s maternal mortality crisis — a lie that a bogus new study from Boston University and the Commonwealth Fund attempts to perpetuate.

In the study, titled “The U.S. Maternal Health Divide,” the researchers claim that passing pro-life laws in the states will lead to an increase in maternal mortality and the disintegration of existing maternal health care. The legacy media wasted no time in elevating the report, with outlets like The Hill writing, “The new findings from The Commonwealth Fund confirm what many advocates feared: scrapping Roe v. Wade would have a disproportionate impact on women of color and worsen maternal health overall.”

The pro-abortion narrative is set — the only problem? The study doesn’t actually provide evidence or statistically significant data backing up the claim that protecting life in the womb augments maternal mortality. Rather, the study attempts to correlate the pre-Dobbs maternal and infant mortality rates between 2018 and 2020 with where the state laws now stand on protecting life in the womb in a post-Roe America.

One glaringly obvious issue with the narrative portrayed by this study is that under Roe v. Wade, no state had the ability to enforce a meaningful protection for life in the womb prior to viability. This means that during the period studied, practically speaking, the states now enforcing pro-life protections were indistinguishable from the states that currently allow abortion through 40 weeks of pregnancy.

Furthermore, during the three-year period studied, 20 of the 26 pro-life states reported at least a one-year increase in abortions, with several seeing increases across both years. If abortion were negatively correlated to maternal mortality, then an increase in abortion would cause a decrease in maternal mortality; however, increased rates of abortion in states that are now pro-life did nothing to alleviate the maternal mortality crisis in these states.

The study ignores regions such as our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., where women are almost twice as likely to die from pregnancy complications as mothers in the rest of the nation. The city also maintains one of the most liberal abortion laws in the United States; an abortionist in D.C. can kill a child in the womb at any point in pregnancy, and the abortionist does not need to be a doctor. The D.C. Abortion Fund directly finances abortions for abortion-minded mothers who struggle financially. If abortion were the solution to maternal mortality, why does unlimited abortion fail to remedy the maternal mortality crisis in areas like D.C.?

The answer, of course, is that killing a child in the womb is not a valid solution to any problem — nor is pregnancy itself the problem when addressing maternal mortality. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 63.2% of all pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Treating abortion as the solution to the maternal mortality crisis is a waste of time, money, and energy that would be far better directed to addressing real disparities in human flourishing.

For example, limited access to convenient and quality health care plays a major role in whether a woman is healthy before, during, and after her pregnancy. The Commonwealth Fund study attempts to characterize abortion as a solution to maternity care deserts. Of the 26 pro-life states analyzed, the majority are predominately rural, making the solution to a maternity care desert much more complex than simply opening a new hospital. Innovative medical resources, like telehealth services and mobile maternity care units, would go a long way in addressing the maternal health care disparities that abortion attempts to camouflage.

Likewise, abortion is not the solution to poverty. Nine of the top 10 states with the highest poverty rate in the country are states with pro-life protections in place. Poverty often predicts a mother’s ability to access quality health insurance, healthy food, and pharmaceutical resources. In these instances, mothers require assistance to access the resources needed to experience a healthy pregnancy and postpartum lifestyle — not abortion.

A quick glance under the hood of the Commonwealth Fund study reveals the major logical leaps that a reader must make in order to accept the claim that pro-life laws increase maternal mortality. Beneath the misleading pro-abortion framing, however, the report holds some truth: our nation really is suffering from a maternal mortality crisis. But one must only look around the abortion propaganda to recognize that telling poor and minority women that their safest pregnancy outcome is to kill their child is not a real solution.

AUTHORS

Joy Stockbauer

Joy Stockbauer is a policy analyst for the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

Connor Semelsberger

Connor Semelsberger is Director of Federal Affairs – Life and Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.