Life Defenders

    Written by Rosa Hopkins , Vice President at Life Defenders Also find her at Rosa A. Hopkins  As the soap suds circled before going down the drain, I wondered if any of this was clean.  Soap, an agent of cleaning did not feel clean, as I felt so incredibly stained by living in a homeless shelter.  The stigma could be felt, as the workers' obvious bias pervaded every interaction. I did not feel served; I perceived judgment. The shower was a hiding place, but being wet exposed my heart to fears over cleanliness that I didn't realize I had had.  I had never before felt sullied by a shower. I had a need for space that was more than just a physical separation from the others. I needed mental distance from what was happening in my life and who I considered myself to be. A great chasm had opened up and swallowed me whole. This substrata neither accepted me nor knew what to do with me, and when I had to leave to go to work, the eyes o...

You almost daily hear in the news about women speaking up against sexual assault with the #MeToo movement. My #MeToo involves my mother. My name is Kathy Hobbs and from the impressionable age of 5 I was sexually abused by my mother. I only knew her sick and twisted version of what love was; but, when I was 16, I started dating a guy named Danny and we came up with a plan to get me out of there. We would get pregnant and move away.  It wasn’t long after that we found out that we were pregnant. I was so excited, but Danny didn’t have the reaction I expected. The same man that told me he would stick around and get me out of my mother’s snare, bailed on me when I needed him the most - leaving me on my own to tell my mother and deal with the fallout. When my mom found out I was pregnant, she acted like a jealous lover with the callousness of her words. Within the next couple of days my mother took me to her ObGyn and my pregnancy was confirmed. That’s when my mother and...

Born at 19 weeks, weighing 8.5OZ    The start of the new year for the McFarlane’s was met with sorrow on January 8th, 2018 at 3:48pm whose son was born  at 19 weeks, passing away 1 minute after.  In his 19 weeks alive in-utero and the minute of loving on him after his birth, Baby Zane James McFarlane, has already had a profound impact on those who knew him. With permission from the family, Life Defenders has the bittersweet honour of sharing some pictures with you. More and more, parents who suffer the profound loss of children are bravely coming forward to show the humanity of their children to an abortion-minded society that tries to dismiss them as disposable and replaceable. Our thoughts and prayers are with the McFarlane family at this difficult time. Written by Feleica Langdon , Founder & President of Life Defenders 

I was 12 weeks when my husband and I were told that our baby had fluid at the base of her neck, which could be an indication of Down or Turner Syndrome; but, they were leaning more towards Turners because she had a strong nasal passage. After reading all of the awful things that can occur with Turners, my husband and I agreed that we would abort our baby. After genetic testing it was determined that she had neither . None of the chromosomes were malformed or missing.  That’s when we found out she was a girl.   Fast forward to the 20 week appointment when we found out that thicker fluid at the base of the neck also could mean cardiac issues.  At this point we had developed a strong bond with our daughter and had accepted our  journey. We didn’t receive full knowledge about her condition until it was too  late to legally take her life into our own hands, but no matter what the law said, she was our little girl. When I was 21 weeks of was discovered th...

My name is Laura and I’m Elaina’s mom . It was January 4th, 2017. A year ago I sat sobbing uncontrollably in an ultrasound room after being told Eliana would not likely survive birth.  I was 21 weeks pregnant and a cleft lip was seen on our routine scan, warranting this trip to the specialist. Zach and I had already come to terms with the cleft, done our research and found a fantastic surgeon in Tampa.  We foolishly walked into the office hoping her palate would not be involved. Her palate would soon be the least of our concerns. Instead we were given some of the worst news an expecting couple  can hear. Without hesitation the doctor told us that our baby girl had numerous defects and clear markers of Trisomy 18 (T18), also known as Edwards Syndrome. She had seen it before and  confidently explained that more than 95% of these babies are stillborn or die moments or hours after birth. She explained that, even if our baby fell in the small percentage who ...