Why I Decided To Work in a Crisis Pregnancy Center

By LINZY LAIRD

I began volunteering at Piedmont Women’s Center in 2011 when I was just 20 years old because I was tired of claiming to be pro-life but then doing nothing to fight for the unborn. It was time to throw on my armor and go to battle.

It was a scary thing to walk into the counseling room; I have nothing in common with these women. I cannot share a pregnancy or abortion experience, or even a sexual one for that matter, but to speak truth in love with grace to someone in crisis … that is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of experience.

When a woman is experiencing a crisis pregnancy, she has so many thoughts going through her head: “I don’t have the money, I don’t have the man, I don’t have support …” Piedmont Women’s Center and other pregnancy medical clinics exist to minimize all of those contending factors.

We work with a woman carrying an unexpected pregnancy by connecting her with a church family, providing free lab grade pregnancy tests, limited OB ultrasounds, vouchers for maternity clothing, and even a huge bundle at the end of her pregnancy filled with baby items to help get her started.

Most importantly, not a single woman or man walks through our doors without hearing the gospel. How can we expect women to choose life for their babies if they don’t even know what real Life is? We show them that abortion is a false savior—and point them to the true Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is true beauty to see a woman who was abortion-minded hear of Christ’s love for her and her child and then for her to respond by placing her faith in Jesus, cradling her unborn child in her stomach and begin praising Him for knitting her baby together in her womb.

After I had been involved for a while with counseling women who come in to take their pregnancy tests, I felt the Lord tugging on my heart to start ministering to the women who have already had abortions—to lead them to the place where they can find true healing. I started facilitating a Bible study called “Forgiven and Set Free” through our Abortion Recovery Assistance Program.

This is when the enemy really began telling me that what I was doing was worthless—how could I help women who have had abortions? They would scoff at me, wondering how I could even understand. But it was then that Abba began speaking to me, showing me how when I love those women through their pain even though I have not experienced the same pain, I would be giving them a picture of what Jesus does for all of us, in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I wrote this not only to share my own experience in fighting for life, but also to encourage you to do the same. Please do not believe the lie that somebody else will do it or that you cannot.
Stop pretending that you don’t know that children are being murdered every day in what should be the safest place for them—their mothers’ wombs.

You can help by praying for local centers and take action by getting involved, volunteering your time, energy and resources. Speak up with love when you hear a conversation about abortion. Reach out to your lawmakers and ask that abortion clinics be shut down.

There are so many ways that you can fight! In the wake of the Planned Parenthood videos being released, we must make much of our opportunities for battle and “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”

Linzy Laird is a full-time nanny and owner of Etsy shop “Works of Willing Hands.” She is an active member at North Hills Community Church and a public speaker on behalf of the unborn. You can find her on Twitter under @linzy_laird.