What This Devastating Senate Vote Means for the Church

The U.S. Senate failed in the Republican attempt to defund Planned Parenthood last night, voting 53-46 against S. 1881, a bill that would have halted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to the nation’s largest abortion provider and instead allocated the money to other women’s health programs that do not perform abortions.

Religion and culture expert Dr. Alex McFarland said although the outcome was disappointing, the pro-life community must stand for the unborn now more than ever.

“Despite our lawmakers failing to take a united stand against the atrocities of abortion, those who value life must now engage in a concerted effort to protect children who may never have a chance to live and fulfill their God-given potential,” McFarland said. “The extremely disturbing secrets of Planned Parenthood, now brought to light, remind all of us of the obvious irony of this scandal—that the unborn aren’t valuable enough to live, but their organs and tissue are valuable enough to be harvested and sold.”

McFarland will welcome Dr. Alveda King, who has her own painful past with abortion, to the upcoming Truth for a New Generation apologetics conference on Sept. 18-19 at First Baptist Spartanburg, 250 East Main St., in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

King has talked openly about her experience with abortion, first when her private physician performed an abortion without her consent just before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Then, after the Supreme Court ruling legalized abortion in America, King had a voluntary abortion when she became pregnant again at the age of 22. With abortion legal, she walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic and underwent a second abortion.

“Roe v. Wade made it too easy for me to make the fateful and fatal decision to abort my child,” King told The 700 Club as a guest. “The doctor advised that the procedure would hurt no more than ‘having a tooth removed,'” she said. But the procedures damaged her cervix and forced her to miscarry another baby months later. The physical toll on her body and the emotional strain of the abortions led to the demise of her first marriage. “My children have all suffered from knowing that they have a brother or sister that their mother chose to abort. Often they ask if I ever thought about aborting them,” King added.

As a result of her abortion, King said she suffered from eating disorders, depression, nightmares, sexual dysfunctions and a host of other issues, and the guilt sickened her. “I prayed often for deliverance from the pain caused by my decision to abort my baby. I suffered the threat of cervical and breast cancer and experienced the pain of empty arms after the baby was gone. And truly, for me, and countless abortive mothers, nothing on earth can fully restore what has been lost—only Jesus can.”