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Candlelight, flowers on sidewalk help close vigil
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December 13, 2023Candles flickered as the sun dropped behind the earth, and flowers were placed lovingly along the sidewalk—an offering to the babies who have died at the Moorhead Red River Women’s Clinic this past year, along with their parents, extended family, and all they were meant to bless.
The 2023 40 Days for Life Fall Campaign closing gathering the evening of Nov. 5 also featured songs, several talks, and prayers—including for the abortion workers to someday see the truth.
Many of the several dozen sidewalk advocates gathered did not even see the figure in the large red cloak, white bonnet and black facemask at the corner of Highway 75 slip in behind them until the presentations had concluded, nor the large white flag, which read: “We Won’t Go Back: Bans Off Our Bodies.”
When approached, the person stepped backward as if frightened, but remained silent. Several advocates quietly commented on the creepiness of the figure, likening it to the Grim Reaper. But the shadowy presence did not deter those who had come to bring light, which shone through the sparks of their candles and the hope in their voices.
Light certainly shone brightly when Terry Melby stepped upon the flatbed truck and shared her own story of abortion and the lifetime of regret it had left.
Her father was a pastor, she said, and yet in college, she was among those clamoring for abortion rights, even though she vowed to never have one herself. “I didn’t even really know what an abortion was,” she admitted. “But I thought it should be safe and legal.”
Melby was already a mother of two, finishing her nursing degree with the goal of someday delivering babies when, newly divorced, she became pregnant. “The bottom fell out of my world,” she said. She couldn’t imagine herself as a single mother of three, so when a loved one advised abortion, she felt she needed to consider it.
Melby asked her mentors at college what happens in an abortion, and they assured her it would just involve a mass of cells no larger than the tip of a pencil, with no nerve endings. She became convinced and figured that if she did it quickly and early enough it would be OK.
“The day of the abortion, I entered the back door of a private facility,” she said. The person who performed the procedure was an infertility specialist who helped women become pregnant by day, and in off hours, aborted the pregnancies of mostly college students.
“I cried all day that day,” she said, and during the procedure, she tried to yell, “Stop!” Though unsure if she actually got the words out, by the time she thought it, she knew the baby was either already dead or dying, she said. “I knew I had just killed my baby.”
That reality haunted her, and despite seeking forgiveness in the church, relief didn’t come. “At Christmas time, everywhere I looked I saw Baby Jesus and Mary, and I knew I was the worst mother in the world.”
She began conceiving a suicide plan. But it was thwarted by a loving and faithful uncle, who had sensed in prayer that his niece was in trouble, and convinced her she needed to live for her children.
“Women who have had abortions live in that state of regret,” Melby said. “But later, I finally understood who Jesus really was. He loved me so much that he died for me.” The healing process could begin. “Old things began passing away.”
Her uncle, Melby said, had listened to the Lord and responded, and she encouraged those gathered to do the same. “Thank you for loving the broken women like me,” she said, and for the continued prayers for the women who come to this facility. “Thank you for opening your arms for us down the road.”
“The tentacles of abortion reach out in so many ways,” she continued, into family lines and so many loved ones deprived of that child’s love and presence.
Ending with a reading of 2 Cor. 4:6, Melby reflected the little lights being held out around her: “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of the darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of [Jesus] Christ.”
