When we receive a report from a participating ministry about a
baby saved from abortion, we will increase this count of babies saved
accordingly.
Although ministries are often tempted to "speak evangelistically" (i.e.,
exaggerate) regarding the numbers of people they have reached, we hope
that we can avoid this temptation. We encourage our participating
ministries to be careful to distinguish between "turnarounds"
(that is, pregnant women who were intending to abort their baby, but
changed their minds after contact from a pro-life missionary or ministry)
and "turnaways" (that is, women who came to an abortion chamber and left
without aborting their baby, but without any direct confirmation that
they had changed their minds).
Sadly, it is true that sometimes women who definitely change their minds
later give in to temptation, aborting the child who we had reported as
being saved. We may not find out
about all these cases of babies who were only temporarily saved from
the abortionist's knife. However, if a child in your community fell in
a pool and almost drowned, but someone saved him, your local news would
report that the baby's life was saved, even if the following week he fell
back in the pool and drowned. So, we will apply the same standard here.
The number of "turnaways" is included along with the "turnarounds" in
the second number provided above ("probably
520
or more"). Even if we combine the number of "turnarounds" and "turnaways",
it is quite likely that many more babies were saved. Many women decide
not to abort their babies without telling the pro-lifers about their
decision. Sometimes, years later, they will drive up to the sidewalk and
show the dedicated missionary the baby that was saved, but it's quite
likely
(even according to Jesus' ministry experience) that only 10%
bother to ever take the time to thank the person who was used by God to save their baby's
life.
In addition, of course, God has saved many babies through missionaries
and ministries which do not participate with Voice For Life, so the total
number of babies saved from abortion is undoubtedly many times higher than
the numbers we report.
In the end, we know that any numbers we report are just approximations,
and that the One who sees every sparrow which falls from the sky is the
only one who actually has an accurate count of how many babies were
saved.
If you are interested in adding this count of babies saved from
abortion to your website, please send
us a message.