| Prayer & Teaching help change the Attitudes
of Young Doctors towards Abortion Ann Lynch from Nottingham, who through the Ruth Fellowship, helps support those who have had abortions and knows the trauma women often go through afterwards, shares how a campaign of prayer and teaching has helped to change attitudes about abortion among some young doctors whom she has come into contact with
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Then one day, several years later, I received a request from the local pro-life group at the university, to go and talk to a small group there about the effects on abortion. Unknown to me, however, the organiser had felt a prompting in her spirit to put up notices in the university medical school. Thus when I arrived instead of the half a dozen students I expected, I was led to the lecture hall, where the place was crammed with mainly young men, medical students and young doctors. After the talk there was a question and answer session requested by the students, which lasted long after the lunch break. Long Term Consequences Of Abortion These students were appalled as they heard of the many cases of those who had suffered physically and emotionally after their abortion, as well as the effects on the wider family and even on the participating medical staff. Many of those there were not Christian but they could see the truth of the argument and the long term consequences of this choice between life and death (as we are warned in Deuteronomy) for all concerned. Several of the students kept in touch and told me of their decisions not to participate in abortions in the future. A few months later, the son of a friend, about to start his course at another medical school, also wanted to know the facts, from a Christian point of view. He later shared our conversation and the back-up literature I gave him with fellow students. They too made the choice for life, as many others seem to be doing. It seems the tide, particularly among the younger generation of doctors, is beginning to turn. Importance of Intercession Why the breakthrough? Many years earlier, when we were about to give
up praying for a particularly difficult situation, our prayer group
received the word, "Plough the field with prayer. Persist until
the field be ready, for the very stone must become a furrow where
the seed of God's word may grow to harvest." I believe our prayers
of reparation and intercession were all part of the ploughing. Canon
Soar never saw the fruits of his prayer initiative, as he died a few
years ago, but he still persisted. Times are still hard but I urge
you to keep praying - for God is still at work, making all things
new and adding to the Good News today.
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