Dear Friends,
Conservatives across North Carolina worked seemingly nonstop in 2014 to stop, or at least slow down, the destructive direction that this President and liberals such as Sen. Harry Reid had taken us. I remember personally standing outside Kay Hagan's office along with a strong group here in Charlotte, urging her to support the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act legislation that would end abortions past twenty weeks. Then, after prayers, sacrifice of time, energy, and resources, we celebrated that finally this critical legislation for the life of an unborn child would have its day in Congress. Please take the time to read this piece my wife, Beth, has written in response to the disappointment many of us have felt...
Representative Renee Elmers’ success in killing the Pain-Capable Abortion Child Protection Act intersected with my chance to see American Sniper late last week. These disparate events left me sickened at how the cart of money and political expediency starts pulling the horse in Washington, leaving real people to suffer. Contrast candidate Elmers’ 2010 statement on the unborn from Congresswoman Elmers’ remarks last week:
From Elmers’ 2010 campaign website: “I have gained the wisdom of knowing that every life is a precious gift from God and it is not for us to judge its worth, deny its beginning or determine its end.”
From Elmers’ remarks to the press on the collapse of the Pain-Capable Abortion Child Protection Act: “It’s unfortunate the way it played out…I think we’re all just going through some growing pains.”
Why the change from words like “wisdom” “precious gift” and “not for us to judge” to “unfortunate growing pains?” Because those who don’t understand the grace of God or the strength of women falsely assume that women would not rise to the challenge of Motherhood even under the most difficult circumstances. Furthermore, they don’t understand that most women I know would be thrilled to depart from the ranks of China and North Korea, two of the handful of nations that still allow abortions after twenty weeks.
As events in Washington unfolded, I thought of a family who happen to live in Elmers’ district. I vividly remember meeting Darrin, Tracy, and their two sons because the oldest, a special needs teenager named Cory, touched me so. In Darrin’s office, Cory kept pointing to the Bible on Darrin’s desk and emphatically repeating “Daddy’s Bible…” Simply, profoundly, Cory indicated that Daddy and his Bible anchored that room and also their lives. Tracy told me that Cory loves to sing, attends school, and has an uncanny knack for identifying people who needed a hug at church. Only later did I learn the rest of Cory’s story, which with Tracy’s permission I’m sharing with you today.
In high school Tracy entered a relationship that over time became abusive and included both consensual and non-consensual sex. She recalled that the first time her boyfriend forced himself on her she screamed, but either was not heard or ignored by the parent who was in his home that day. Like many women, she soon accepted this “new normal” and could not break away from the relationship.
When she was 19, Tracy became pregnant after a non-consensual encounter with her boyfriend at the state university they attended. She confirmed the pregnancy at a local Crisis Pregnancy Center, and as she met with her counselor that day Tracy at last confided in someone about the abuse. Her counselor gave Tracy her home phone number and kept in touch as the situation played out.
Like many young men in the same circumstance, Tracy’s boyfriend urged her to get an abortion. She just couldn’t do it. When she finally summoned the courage to go home for the weekend and tell her parents she was pregnant, they began planning a quick wedding. Upon learning what she had done, her boyfriend sent word that he would “deal” with her.
At last she revealed the abuse to her parents. Tracy’s relationship ended amid denials of paternity and her mother’s guilt over not recognizing signs that Tracy had been physically abused.
Tracy withdrew from school as she began to develop high blood pressure. She was put on bed rest due to preeclampsia and toxemia. As her health worsened, Tracy was hospitalized and given steroid injections to boost the baby’s lung development. Finally, with failing kidneys and fluid filling her lungs, Tracy was put into a medically induced coma in the hopes of buying time for the baby. Ultimately her baby boy was taken via C-Section at 26 weeks.
Despite the fact that Cory could only come out of his special incubator and into her arms for fifteen minutes per week, Tracy planted herself in the NIC-U. She wanted to feed and change Cory, reaching into the isolette to touch him often. As Tracy puts it, “I became a mom, and nothing else mattered.” His premature birth left Cory with a host of health issues including seizures, asthma, scarring of his lungs and the need for a feeding tube.
But with God’s grace, there’s more to the story. When Cory was 15 months old, Tracy’s mother encouraged her to teach Vacation Bible School at church as a first step to reengaging her gifts and abilities. In a divine appointment, only Tracy showed up for an organizational meeting. Darrin, the church’s new youth minister and host of the meeting, had a chance to talk with Tracy and found that they connected. 28 years old, Darrin had surrendered his desire for a mate to the Lord in prayer just one night earlier. Tracy and Darrin married that fall with Tracy’s counselor from the Crisis Pregnancy Center in attendance.
On March 8, Cory will turn 19. Asked about regrets, Tracy hesitated. Asking any mother to imagine a scenario in which one of her children does not exist is unthinkable. At last she said that if she had a wish, it would be for Cory not to suffer with so many health problems. She added “But he’s happy. Cory doesn’t see that he’s different. He has been a blessing to so many people. “
Tracy represents the kind of gray-area nightmare scenario politicians fear. She claimed the sexual encounter resulting in pregnancy was rape, although it was not reported as such and occurred in the context of a relationship. She was unwed, still in school and ultimately her health was jeopardized by her pregnancy. Yet, like so many women, Tracy found that the circumstances of her child’s conception did not in the least affect her ability to love her child or recognize the blessing her child can bring the world.
Elmers remarked last week that she had concerns about “ending the conversation” if the GOP was perceived as “harsh” or “judgmental.” But the crux of the matter is that the abortion question requires a judgment. That judgment is this: Can one living being determine the fate of another innocent being? In one worldview, the answer is yes. In another, the answer is no. But how can any thinking person object to joining the majority of the civilized world in banning the killing of well-developed infants who feel the pain of their deaths? Darrin tried to get a straight answer to that question from Elmers’ office last week, only to get what he described as “a staffer obviously reading from a screen.” There is no answer; only the hopes that pro-life voters will forget by 2016 that within the first month of the new session of a Republican-dominated Congress our own elected Republicans derailed a bill they voted for in 2013. As for me, I plan to redouble my GOP involvement and help promote genuine conservative candidates rather than give in to disillusionment. Why? Because I understand that every policy decision affects real people…people who are better and stronger than politically driven people like Elmers can ever imagine.
- Beth Harris
Representative Renee Elmers’ success in killing the Pain-Capable Abortion Child Protection Act intersected with my chance to see American Sniper late last week. These disparate events left me sickened at how the cart of money and political expediency starts pulling the horse in Washington, leaving real people to suffer. Contrast candidate Elmers’ 2010 statement on the unborn from Congresswoman Elmers’ remarks last week:
From Elmers’ 2010 campaign website: “I have gained the wisdom of knowing that every life is a precious gift from God and it is not for us to judge its worth, deny its beginning or determine its end.”
From Elmers’ remarks to the press on the collapse of the Pain-Capable Abortion Child Protection Act: “It’s unfortunate the way it played out…I think we’re all just going through some growing pains.”
Why the change from words like “wisdom” “precious gift” and “not for us to judge” to “unfortunate growing pains?” Because those who don’t understand the grace of God or the strength of women falsely assume that women would not rise to the challenge of Motherhood even under the most difficult circumstances. Furthermore, they don’t understand that most women I know would be thrilled to depart from the ranks of China and North Korea, two of the handful of nations that still allow abortions after twenty weeks.
As events in Washington unfolded, I thought of a family who happen to live in Elmers’ district. I vividly remember meeting Darrin, Tracy, and their two sons because the oldest, a special needs teenager named Cory, touched me so. In Darrin’s office, Cory kept pointing to the Bible on Darrin’s desk and emphatically repeating “Daddy’s Bible…” Simply, profoundly, Cory indicated that Daddy and his Bible anchored that room and also their lives. Tracy told me that Cory loves to sing, attends school, and has an uncanny knack for identifying people who needed a hug at church. Only later did I learn the rest of Cory’s story, which with Tracy’s permission I’m sharing with you today.
In high school Tracy entered a relationship that over time became abusive and included both consensual and non-consensual sex. She recalled that the first time her boyfriend forced himself on her she screamed, but either was not heard or ignored by the parent who was in his home that day. Like many women, she soon accepted this “new normal” and could not break away from the relationship.
When she was 19, Tracy became pregnant after a non-consensual encounter with her boyfriend at the state university they attended. She confirmed the pregnancy at a local Crisis Pregnancy Center, and as she met with her counselor that day Tracy at last confided in someone about the abuse. Her counselor gave Tracy her home phone number and kept in touch as the situation played out.
Like many young men in the same circumstance, Tracy’s boyfriend urged her to get an abortion. She just couldn’t do it. When she finally summoned the courage to go home for the weekend and tell her parents she was pregnant, they began planning a quick wedding. Upon learning what she had done, her boyfriend sent word that he would “deal” with her.
At last she revealed the abuse to her parents. Tracy’s relationship ended amid denials of paternity and her mother’s guilt over not recognizing signs that Tracy had been physically abused.
Tracy withdrew from school as she began to develop high blood pressure. She was put on bed rest due to preeclampsia and toxemia. As her health worsened, Tracy was hospitalized and given steroid injections to boost the baby’s lung development. Finally, with failing kidneys and fluid filling her lungs, Tracy was put into a medically induced coma in the hopes of buying time for the baby. Ultimately her baby boy was taken via C-Section at 26 weeks.
Despite the fact that Cory could only come out of his special incubator and into her arms for fifteen minutes per week, Tracy planted herself in the NIC-U. She wanted to feed and change Cory, reaching into the isolette to touch him often. As Tracy puts it, “I became a mom, and nothing else mattered.” His premature birth left Cory with a host of health issues including seizures, asthma, scarring of his lungs and the need for a feeding tube.
But with God’s grace, there’s more to the story. When Cory was 15 months old, Tracy’s mother encouraged her to teach Vacation Bible School at church as a first step to reengaging her gifts and abilities. In a divine appointment, only Tracy showed up for an organizational meeting. Darrin, the church’s new youth minister and host of the meeting, had a chance to talk with Tracy and found that they connected. 28 years old, Darrin had surrendered his desire for a mate to the Lord in prayer just one night earlier. Tracy and Darrin married that fall with Tracy’s counselor from the Crisis Pregnancy Center in attendance.
On March 8, Cory will turn 19. Asked about regrets, Tracy hesitated. Asking any mother to imagine a scenario in which one of her children does not exist is unthinkable. At last she said that if she had a wish, it would be for Cory not to suffer with so many health problems. She added “But he’s happy. Cory doesn’t see that he’s different. He has been a blessing to so many people. “
Tracy represents the kind of gray-area nightmare scenario politicians fear. She claimed the sexual encounter resulting in pregnancy was rape, although it was not reported as such and occurred in the context of a relationship. She was unwed, still in school and ultimately her health was jeopardized by her pregnancy. Yet, like so many women, Tracy found that the circumstances of her child’s conception did not in the least affect her ability to love her child or recognize the blessing her child can bring the world.
Elmers remarked last week that she had concerns about “ending the conversation” if the GOP was perceived as “harsh” or “judgmental.” But the crux of the matter is that the abortion question requires a judgment. That judgment is this: Can one living being determine the fate of another innocent being? In one worldview, the answer is yes. In another, the answer is no. But how can any thinking person object to joining the majority of the civilized world in banning the killing of well-developed infants who feel the pain of their deaths? Darrin tried to get a straight answer to that question from Elmers’ office last week, only to get what he described as “a staffer obviously reading from a screen.” There is no answer; only the hopes that pro-life voters will forget by 2016 that within the first month of the new session of a Republican-dominated Congress our own elected Republicans derailed a bill they voted for in 2013. As for me, I plan to redouble my GOP involvement and help promote genuine conservative candidates rather than give in to disillusionment. Why? Because I understand that every policy decision affects real people…people who are better and stronger than politically driven people like Elmers can ever imagine.
- Beth Harris
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