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Yesterday’s email:

Today’s devotional encourages us to pray for fathers
involved in abortion decisions.

In some cases, it’s the father who encourages — even
demands — an abortion. In other cases, the father is
the forgotten man who is left helpless because has no
“choice” concerning the fate of his child. In all
cases, these men need your prayers.

That was painfully pointed out in a note Matt left on
the 40 Days for Life blog.

Matt said he used to live across the street from an
abortion center. “I would scoff at the man with all
the abortion photos protesting it every day,” he
wrote. “I even yelled at him.”

Why was Matt so angry? He now knows the answer:

“I have fathered up to five aborted kids.”

He said this represented self-centeredness at its most
extreme level. “I am so sad by this I burst into tears
every time I think about it. Thank God for His grace
and forgiveness, because many times when I think about
it I still do not forgive myself. It is so wrong it is
unimaginable.”

Of course, Matt now knows the truth and is speaking out.
“I pray someone sees this and changes their mind. If one
baby is saved, all heaven rejoices,” he wrote, adding,
“I can barely see the keyboard from my tears.”

Brian is an intern at Expectant Mother Care in the Bronx
— the pro-life pregnancy resource organization that
helps sponsor 40 Days for Life in New York City. “As a
guy,” he wrote on the group’s blog, “it’s rather
interesting to watch and talk with the fathers.”

Typically, he says, these are men who act like they’re
in charge of the whole world.

“Often,” Brian said, “this is the fellow who is
pressuring the woman to abort, although, they generally
cover by saying ‘it’s her choice, I’m behind her either
way.’ This is such a copout.”

Some of these men “have built up such a wall that they
cannot be reached,” he said, “except through prayer.”

Still, he said, there is always hope. Some of them do
really care about the mother and will “react in horror
and even turn around after they realize what actually
goes on during an abortion.”

Brian has seen these men experience profound change.
Where they had been demanding an abortion, they now
beg the mother to spare their child’s life.

He met such a man recently. “Watching his face and
body language change was one of the more amazing
changes I’ve seen working here. He and his girlfriend
decided not to go ahead with getting an abortion,”
Brian said. “Seems he didn’t have everything figured
out after all!”

Rachel’s Vineyard, an organization that helps people
seek healing following an abortion experience, has an
outreach for men as well as women. If you — or anyone
you know — is in need of such healing, please see: