Originally published in Christian News
A baby boy was recently born in Pennsylvania after his life was spared from abortion through a miraculous series of events.
Baby Roman was 18 weeks gestation when his parents went to Planned Parenthood in West Chester last July for an abortion.
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“I went to Planned Parenthood because I was stuck in my own world doing everything that I wanted to do,” Roman’s mother, Cartier, who had a previous abortion in 2012, told Christian News Network. “I was going to go get another abortion.”
Cartier, 21, had three other children and a stepchild, and was living in government housing, where she was limited to an occupancy of six people. If she had the baby, she and her husband feared that they might have to find housing elsewhere, but had nowhere else to go.
At Planned Parenthood, Cartier found out that she was too far along in her pregnancy to have an abortion at the facility. She was directed to go to Cherry Hill, New Jersey that day to end the baby’s life.
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“[Planned Parenthood] gave me this paper and said, ‘Here’s other places that will do it,’” she explained. “And when I left, my husband and I got in the car [and were going to drive to New Jersey for the abortion].”
That day, a number of Christian sidewalk counselors stood outside of the facility offering help to abortion-minded mothers. Mary Ellen Caris, who has been active in pro-life ministry since 1989, was one of the counselors that eventually had contact with the couple.
“They came out an hour or so after they initially went in,” she stated, “They didn’t look at us, and they didn’t want to take any information.”
Divine intervention
But as Cartier’s husband started the car and was ready to exit the parking lot, suddenly the transmission blew—right in front of the sidewalk counselors.
“[T]he car died,” Caris explained. “[The husband] tried starting it up and it just barely made it to the stop sign and died again.”
Cartier’s husband started the car one more time and was able to turn the corner, but the car again stalled—this time for good.
“They had just spent $500 on the car the week before to fix it,” Caris outlined, “So probably he’s thinking, ‘Man, I just spent $500. Why isn’t this car working?’”
Suddenly, everyone began to ask themselves whether the situation was a matter of divine intervention.
“The whole time that my husband and I were in the car, we kept saying, ‘What if it’s God? What if He’s trying to tell us something?’ Cartier recalled.
Caris and the some of the other counselors then approached the vehicle to offer help, and minutes later, worked out arrangements to take Cartier home—but with the stipulation that she first go to the local pregnancy care center.
“I said to [my husband], ‘I’m just going to to do whatever this lady wants me to do so that we can get home,” Cartier explained, “and then, forget them.”
But Caris said that she and the others asked God to intervene in the situation as she drove Cartier and her husband to Chester County Women’s Services in Coatesville and then waited patiently for the decision.
“We were praying while they were inside,” she remembered.
‘I can’t do it”
As Cartier sat in the offices of the pregnancy care center and listened to the words of Medical Director Lisa Thomas, she said that she suddenly “broke down.” She texted her mother to tell her about the situation, who replied by congratulating her on the pregnancy—something that stood out to Cartier as she said that her mother had never spoken to her like that before.
Minutes later, Cartier had an ultrasound, and she knew right away that she couldn’t go through with the abortion.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t do it,’” she said. “And me and my husband were immediately like, ‘Alright, we’re keeping him.’”
But, Cartier and her husband still did not know how they were going to provide for their son.
“I couldn’t go to work; my husband was unemployed,” she explained. “So now, we don’t have a car, no way to get around—nothing.”
Cartier and her husband decided to pray and trust God. And that’s when they began to see amazing things happen before their eyes.
“Lisa called us and said that somebody wanted to give us a van, and that we could ride around for free,” Cartier recalled. “And we’re like, ‘Are you serious?’”
“They called me again and said, ‘Somebody wants to give you a baby blessing,’” she continued, noting that she had begun attending Thomas’ church at that time. “[They said,] ‘We don’t want you to buy anything at all. … All you have to do is be here, and people are going to buy you everything you need for the baby.”
Each time that Cartier and her husband had a need, it was always provided for just in time.
“It was like a rush. We went through all of this—we’re struggling; we didn’t have anything,” she said. “[But then] people came into our lives and helped us. Every time we didn’t have food in our house, somebody’s bringing over groceries. Every time we’d think, ‘How are we going to get here?’ because we didn’t have any gas in the car, someone would say, ‘Oh, the church gave you a gas card, so you can put gas in your car.’”
Roman is born and his parents are born again
Baby Roman was born on December 4th, and Cartier, who along with her husband have since been born again, continues to testify to the goodness of God. She shared that every detail was taken care of surrounding Roman down to even the size of the clothing that she was provided during the baby shower.
“He’s two months old and he’s wearing three to six-month clothes,” she explained. “If they had bought everything zero to three months, I would have no clothes right now. So, it’s like an act of God that even happened.”
And Cartier’s housing situation worked out as well as she was able to have Roman share a room with one of his siblings without issue.
She gave a word of encouragement for other mothers who might also be considering an abortion.
“Instead of being so quick about everything, sometimes you have to be so tied up in something for God to step into your life. Sometimes you’ve got to struggle in order to see a victory,” she said. “Don’t get discouraged, because maybe God is trying to show you, ‘You can’t do it all without Me.’”
Caris also urged Christians to get out on the streets and love and help women like Cartier who may just need some hope and support.
“We don’t see behind the veil. We don’t know what God is doing,” she said. “While praying in our prayer closets and praying about abortion in our homes and churches is really important, being a physical presence at the gates of Hell is just undeniably one of the most most powerful things you can do.”
