“I just think [Roe’s reversal] is going to touch people in a different way, and I think many people are going to say, ‘What can I do?’ And I think this is not only a safe thing to do. I think it’s a rewarding thing to do for the kingdom,” Everett told BP in a phone interview.
“Since 1973, every generation has thought abortion is legal, i.e. moral, in most cases,” she said. “So we have an education job ahead of us as well as a ministry job. . . . And I don’t have the answer to how you reach these people to educate them, but we have to start somewhere. And that’s putting one foot in front of the other and quietly doing it.”
Everett told BP, “It’s like the truth is finally coming out. Honestly, it makes me want to cry because so many people have been wounded. Our country has taken such a terrible direction because of these lies [about the unborn child and abortion].”
Abortion “is a spiritual issue,” she said. The people who are “raging” in response to Roe’s demise are “hurt people. I know many of them had abortions, and they can’t admit that it was wrong. And I want us to stand up with the truth, because the truth wins every single time, and women need to hear the truth. [A]s never before in the 30-something years I have been out of the abortion industry, I want to share Christ with these women, because that’s the real answer to their pain and to their lives and to their futures.”
The Heidi Group has begun focusing on planting pregnancy resource centers in counties without one.
“[M]y goal for the last part of my life is to open pregnancy centers that don’t vary from the evangelistic but stay focused on evangelism,” Everett said, adding, “I think we’ve got an incredible opportunity to get very focused on evangelism and bring people into pregnancy centers, come to Christ and to the church.”
— C. Ben Mitchell has been a leading, pro-life bioethicist among Southern Baptists and evangelical Christians since the 1990s. After serving on the staff of the CLC (later ERLC), he taught as a faculty member of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Union University. Mitchell also served as executive director of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity. He retired in 2020 as Union University’s Graves professor of moral philosophy.
“Overturning Roe is a good start, but the hard slog continues state by state,” Mitchell said in written remarks. “The long march for the right to life of unborn children is not over, but the journey has taken a decisive turn.
“There will always be more work to do to protect innocent human life, support women with unplanned pregnancies and care for children who need loving families in which to flourish.”
— Lori Bova, chair of the ERLC’s trustees, has been actively involved in the pro-life movement for more than two decades. A member of a Southern Baptist church in New Mexico, Bova is secretary of the board of a local pregnancy resource center, helped start a county Right to Life chapter, previously served on the state Right to Life board and has mentored young women through the congregation’s Embrace Grace ministry.
“After advocating for life for over 20 years, I rejoice God has answered our collective prayers,” Bova said in written comments. “With the Court striking down both Roe and Casey, an egregious wrong has been righted.
“Even with this victory, our focus does not change. Thousands of pro-life people, like me, will continue in the same work we were doing yesterday — advocating for the preborn, serving mothers and families, and fostering a true culture of life in our communities.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
