Life to the Full: True Stories that Reveal the Dignity of Every Human Life
Edited by Abby Johnson and Tyler Rowley (Ignatius Press, $16.95 pb or ebook, 178 pages)
Life to the Full is a collection of more than 20 first-person accounts by women and doctors as they confront the reality of abortion. Many of the stories are chilling and this is not a breezy read, but the reality of the decision to end a pregnancy by killing the preborn child must be faced. Some stories are about women who mercifully changed their minds or the men who supported their partners facing a crisis pregnancy. There are stories of doctors who provide life-saving care to women and others of physicians responsible for the murder of hundreds of preborn children before their conversion to pro-life. But it is the story of Toni McFadden that sticks out. As a teen, she had an RU-486 abortion that did not initially work; months after the procedure, she had blood clots and eventually passed the dead child, much to her horror. But it is the clinical reporting of being at the abortion facility and despite having her best friend and boyfriend with her, feeling all alone. She reports how the nurse downplayed the humanity of the child growing inside her teenage body and how she trusted the doctor to “fix” her problem, blindly accepting the abortion pill regiment he gave her would make everything right. After a great deal of psychological pain that haunted her years after and led to numerous bad decisions, McFadden was brought to Christ and has shared her story as a pro-life speaker. Despite mistakes and unconventional journeys, these stories show it is possible to live life to the full, revealing the dignity of every human being.
