Posted on 07/20/2004 5:27:29 PM PDT by cpforlife.org
Pictured here are Sarah Smith and her mother Betty. In 1970, Betty tried to abort Sarah in Los Angeles. At the time, Betty did not know she was pregnant with twins. One baby was aborted, but miraculously, Sarah survived. Sarah has forgiven her mother -- and for five years they traveled the world speaking together about the pain and suffering caused by abortion. Below is Sarah's story, followed by the speech she gave in Rome in 1996.
Twins -- one aborted, one survives! Sarah tells her story . . .
"Twenty-nine years ago, my mother decided to have an abortion. At the time, she was pregnant with twins, but nobody knew this, not even her doctor. My tiny brother and I were both there growing in her womb, until that dreadful day. Before the abortion, we were both alive. Moments later, I was alone.
It's frightening to think I was almost aborted when my mom had a D&C abortion. Somehow, miraculously, I survived! My twin brother wasn't so lucky. Andrew was aborted and we lost him forever.
Several weeks later, my mother was shocked to feel me kicking in her womb. She already had five children and she knew what it felt like when a baby kicked in the womb. She instantly knew that somehow she was still pregnant. She went back to the doctor and told him she was still pregnant...that she had made a big mistake and that she wanted to keep this baby. To this day, my mother deeply regrets that abortion. I know the pain is unbearable for her at times when she looks at me and knows she aborted my twin brother. Mom says 'the protective hand of Almighty God saved my life . . . that God's hand covered and hid me in her womb, and protected me from the scalpel of death.
After surviving the abortion, I was born with bilateral, congenital dislocated hips and many other physical handicaps. Nine days after I was born, I was taken to an orthopedic surgeon who applied a cast to each of my tiny legs. My mom would remove these casts with pliers every Monday morning and take me to the doctor to have new casts put on.
At six weeks I was put into my first body cast. Many surgeries and body cast followed over the next few years. Unfortunately, doctors are telling me that now I'll need surgeries about every 5 years (please pray for me).
Today, I thank God I survived the abortion, but the pain continues for everyone in my family. In memory of my brother Andrew, we bought a memorial gravestone and placed it in a cemetery in Southern California. It reads:
ANDREW JAMES SMITH, TWIN BROTHER OF SARAH -- IN OUR HEARTS YOU'LL ALWAYS BE ALIVE -- NOVEMBER 1970
Please share our story with others so the tragedy of abortion stops hurting babies and families. Everyone needs to know the truth about abortion. Thank you."
Sarah's Speech In Rome
On April 24, 1996, Sarah Smith gave the following speech at an international pro-life conference in Rome. The conference was called, "A Congress for Life."
It was organized to celebrate the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae - The Gospel of Life. The conference was held at the Legionaries of Christ seminary in Rome and was attended by approximately 500 men and women including; pro-life leaders, political leaders, media representatives, priests and seminarians.
Sarah Meeting Pope John Paul II in April 1996 in Rome.
Following is the speech given by Sarah Smith:
"My name is Sarah Smith and I wish to thank you all, your eminencies, and all of the wonderful Legionaries of Christ for allowing us to be with you today. I did not know of the abortion until I was 12 years old. I grew up feeling that I was the same as my friends, except for having numerous surgeries and physical complications. The only difference I felt was an incredible loneliness and a knowledge that something was missing. I never felt whole. I battled with severe depression and found myself dying of anorexia nervosa at age 12, when my mother knew it was time to tell me the truth. She sat next to me and took my hand and looked me in the eyes and said, "Sarah, you are a twin. I aborted your twin brother and tried to abort you. Please know I did not know what I was doing and I pray someday you are able to forgive me. I love you and need you to know that you are a welcome part of our family."
At that moment I knew what I had been missing all my life and that I was called to something much greater than I had knowledge of. Immediately I felt the overwhelming pain of the knowledge that I should be dead. As I stand before you today I am painfully aware that this is only possible because my twin brother took a scalpel for me, and I stand in his place and memory, giving him honor and a face.
We have become bombarded with statistics in our fight for life. Thirty-two million babies are killed in the United States alone. Yet every one had a face, a life, a creator who loved them and created them in His image. As you look at me today, you realize that I am no different than you, yet I stand before you today a representative of the dead -- a representative of the innocent lives who today may lose their lives. Who will speak for them?
The words of Christ are clear - "What you have done to the least of these you have done unto me." You and I are called and commissioned to care for these little ones just as we would care for Jesus Himself. To walk away and say this is not my problem is to walk away from Jesus Himself.
Many people upon finding out about the abortion ask me how did I feel, or to what can I compare this to. The only thing I can compare my life to is that of an innocent Jew being made to walk down the streets of Germany naked in front of many people and into a room he knows he will never come out of. In my case, unfortunately, the people leading me into that room are my mother and father. Yet the people looking on at the sidelines are people like you. And I ask you today, will you speak up or will you silently look away as another person who needs your help is led to their death?
I have forgiven my parents long ago as I remember the words Jesus spoke as he hung bleeding and bruised from the cross, "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." His words pertain to the sins of abortion. Most men and women who involve themselves with abortion don't know what they're doing, as were my parents.
Many women who demand the right to an abortion say, "It's my body, it's my choice." Let me make one thing very clear to you today - my mother's choice was my death sentence. It is not only a woman's body we are discussing in an abortion. It is the entire flesh and blood of someone just like me.
Then we have the issue of medical personnel stating it is just tissue. For anyone who has ever studied biology, you know better. Before any woman even knows she is pregnant her child already has a beating heart at 20 days. Show me one piece of tissue or cancer you believe must be cut out with a beating heart. Show me a liver or kidney that has it's own blood type. That child is perfect from it's first day. All it needs is time, oxygen and nutrition.
Another startling fact is that in medical journals it states the fetus is capable of feeling pain at 8 weeks of gestation. In America, the vast majority of abortions are performed between 10 to 12 weeks, well after the child can feel the entire procedure. So don't tell me abortion is a simple procedure that expels a piece of tissue and doesn't hurt anybody. I was there. I was less then an inch away from my innocent twin brother when his body was ripped apart, and he felt the entire thing. We were 14 to 16 weeks along in the second trimester. That was how my life was meant to end.
Yet I was spared to stand before you today and tell you on behalf of those who have no voice that if you remain silent, in my country alone a person just like you and me will die every 20 seconds of every day. We have been commissioned by Jesus to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and we have also been commissioned by the Holy Father, who I had the privilege of meeting a few hours ago.
As I told him my story he looked at me so intensely as if to say, "Speak the message! Proclaim the Truth!" And then he kissed me and gave me a blessing to go and speak about life. And that is what he says to all of you as he blesses and kisses us with his Encyclical. Preach the gospel - the good news of life. What is the greatest gift of all? When Jesus outstretched His arms and said, "This is my body given up for you". Imagine if Jesus had been selfish with His body and not given so freely of His life to you and me. Where would we be today? We would be nothing. The gift of a mother's body for 9 months of her life is one of the most beautiful gifts of all time. We must fight to protect it.
As I stand here alone knowing I have my brother as a precious guardian angel who is with me always, I know my life is a gift. And today I wish to give it back to you, the people and to the church, as a symbol of the consuming power of God's redemption and of His life and truth. You and I as a church represent life, and together we will extend that life into a hurting and dying world. We will give them the truth of life and we shall never be silent.
I love you and God bless you."
Ping
Tell that to Sarah Smith, Amigo!
Don't feel isolated. I'm left-handed and female but a sola pregnancy. Probably a good thing for the world. Hate to think what two of me would be like ;-)
Now wipe the ink from the side of your hand and stop pouring the punch ladle backwards :-D
Hell, tell it to Betty, she was the one who got the abortion.
And I can bet you money that there wasn't a single member of Congress holding a gun to her head when she got pregnant, nor one there when she decided to kill her baby.
P.S. Cut out the "amigo" crap.
That is a powerful visual. I can only imagine how painful that must be for her and her mother - you can see the power of God at work in that family!
Powerful reading!
Hey, by the way...any relation to "Speedy"?
God help us.
That is our only hope.
Thanks for posting this.
Wow!
Great story -- thanks for the ping! The Lord works in truly mysterious and amazing ways.
The liberals who get most agitated in anti-Catholic ways like to rant about "privacy of the bedroom." And Kerry has been talking weirdly as if abortion falls into a separation of Church and State issue. If people other than Catholics oppose abortion, how can this be assigned as a Catholic issue covered by Separation of Church and State?
Life ping.
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Southern Baptists believe in the sanctity of human life from the time of conception.
Have their been official Lutheran or Anglican positions stated on this? Missouri Synod, Archbishops of Canterbury, etc.?
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