A baby doctors said only had a 5% chance of survival is now a healthy, happy four-year-old boy. Max Staines was born with gastroschisis, meaning his organs were formed outside of his body. His mother, Lauren Staines, was encouraged to have an abortion, but she refused, and now sees Max as her miracle.

In an interview with The Mirror, Staines spoke about how she became unexpectedly pregnant. “We’d been in a relationship for a couple of years but Max’s dad didn’t want to have a baby so I decided to go ahead with the pregnancy on my own,” she said. But at her 12-week ultrasound, she was told something was wrong.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic forced people into social isolation and quarantine, pro-life students still managed to do incredible work to help mothers in need. Every year, pro-life students work to help save lives, but in 2020, their fundraising had to be mostly virtual — and they still managed to raise over $100,000.

According to an article from Students for Life of America (SFLA), their members were able to help 22 mothers to choose life, while also raising $108,000 to aid mothers in raising their children. These efforts included assembling over 400 “baby boxes,” which includes bibs, baby wipes, toys, clothes, and more, organizing diaper drives and creating resources on campus to help parenting students succeed.

(NRL News Today) The reality of the hidden life of the unborn child can pop up in the least likely of places.

I happened to be watching a “reality show” known for its contentious female friendships when I was surprised to see one of the leading ladies show up at an obstetrician’s office.

They suspected she was pregnant after having suffered the devastation of a miscarriage. She very much wanted a “rainbow baby” to bring hope and healing into her life.

Sure enough, the ob/gyn office confirmed the pregnancy, in all its glory, in the ultrasound image that appeared on the screen.

(Slow to Write) The Agenda Project released a repulsive ad in 2015, and it recently resurfaced online. The ad opens with a lullaby and features a baby girl staring into the camera. Then the words, “She deserves to be loved” flash across a black screen. The video reverts back to the giggling baby for a few seconds, then the words, “she deserves to be wanted” flash over a black screen. The video returns to the happy baby girl for a final time, before the words, “she deserves to be a choice” flash across the black screen.

The ad ends with, “#StandWithPP” or “Stand With Planned Parenthood” across a black screen.

During the pregnancy with their first child, Lesha and Eric were repeatedly given bad news by the doctors. Lesha, who at the time considered herself “pro-choice,” considered abortion. But when Eric, who was pro-life, shared a Live Action Abortion Procedures video with her, she saw the truth of what happens during an abortion and knew she couldn’t go through with it.

“I was 22 when we got married. My husband was very pro-life, very against abortion, but for me on the other end, I was completely for it,” said Lesha in a Live Action video. “Sometimes we would find ourselves, like, butting heads about it.

Pregnant 31-year-old Luissa underwent a medical procedure in 2016, but the surgery wasn’t for her. It was for her preborn baby girl who had been diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), a rare and often fatal condition affecting one in 4,000 preborn children who have a hole in the diaphragm — the thin sheet of muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen.

The hole causes the liver or bowels to move up into the chest cavity, which prevents the lungs from fully developing, according to The Guardian. Without the procedure, babies with severe CDH have a 15-20% chance of survival.

In 1996, a 26-year-old Indian woman chose life for her triplet daughters — despite pressure to abort, threats to her life from her abusive husband, and judgment from her community.

When the triplets were three months in utero, Jasbeer Kaur’s doctor recommended that she abort them. The “dreaded advice,” as Kaur described it in an interview with The Better India, was that “abortion is not expensive. I am sure you can afford it, against the massive cost you will incur by raising three daughters. If you go ahead with this decision, you can maybe even save your marriage.”

Kaur had married in 1995 and quickly realized her husband was both a physically and mentally abusive alcoholic.

Right to Life UK announced its 2020 pro-life victories, despite the challenges of the year. Those pro-life wins included fighting an extreme pro-life law and launching a new website.

Defeat of abortion-on-demand law

In July, pro-abortion lawmakers introduced an abortion amendment to England and Wales by “hijacking the Domestic Abuse Bill,” according to Right to Life UK. The amendment aimed to allow for abortion on demand until 28 weeks and would have been the most liberal abortion law in Europe.

Right to Life UK helped rally thousands of pro-lifers to email their MPs and urge them to vote against the bill.

Linzi Graham was 18 weeks pregnant with her third child when she learned her preborn baby had Down syndrome. Scared and full of misinformation, she scheduled an abortion. But the night before what would have been a 21-week abortion, (babies at 21 weeks have survived outside the womb) she changed her mind and canceled that appointment.

Graham lives in Ireland and abortion was still illegal in the country at the time, so her abortion was set to take place in England. But during the weeks leading up to her appointment, she researched the condition and “saw amazing families going through what I was so afraid of.”

December 17 is the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s baptism. Though his exact birth date is unknown, it was likely a few days before that. During her pregnancy with him, Beethoven’s mother Maria was tempted to have an abortion. The pro-life short film Crescendo is based on her diary.

Maria’s husband Johann drank away the pain of having unrealized ambitions and became abusive. When she became pregnant, according to Catholic News Agency, she considered having an abortion. She didn’t go through with it and went on to have seven children — four of whom died very young. The child she nearly aborted was Ludwig, who would go on to become one of the most renowned composers and pianists of all time.