Life Choices | S7 E1

Welcome back to the point-taking podcast. We are at a new season, and I'm not gonna say the number cuz I don't know and Lowell didn't know either so we're at a new season here, and I am here with Anna.

With Kaylee and with a friend Sarah Grace who Anna and Kaylee continue to call the wrong name. This morning. Well, I guess I should say over the summer Sarah Grace came and spoke to us at Whitten. Actually last season we did an episode on abortion and One of our members well actually she's been on the podcast before she Shared that with life choices here in Memphis.

We'll talk about them in just a moment.

And.

They watched it we went and toured their facility. I believe it's second or third time. We've been over there and Here we are four weeks later and Sarah came and spoke at the church this morning. Of interest meeting afterwards went well.

Figuring out ways we can work with them, and they can work with us and so here We are the church being the church working together so today is Mostly gonna be about Sarah Grace and life choices. I'm gonna let Anna take it away before I do.

Guys remember. Continually, please like share and subscribe these videos, and if there is any topics you want us to cover. We're not afraid to tackle.

Really.

Right so you can send those questions to the thing that I always say listen. Point taken at gmail .com and.

That was good. Or drop it in the comments below. Like a bounce back email like this email. So like pastor Josiah said our church ended up doing a tour at life choices about a month ago and Really got to see what type of work this Center in the city does for our community.

And so we just wanted to have her on to discuss. What services they provide what type of work they do? All the things essentially. So again, this is Sarah Grace. I always want to call her Sarah Beth. It's the southern double name thing.

But I didn't know originally how life choices started so can you tell us a little bit how that happened?

Yeah, disclaimer. I'm sorry sir. Just make sure quick disclaimer if you haven't yet watched the abortion episode from last season last season. It may be good and do that so that this conversation makes a little more sense.

No, yeah, so like this has actually been around in the city of Memphis since 1986. I know a lot of people didn't realize yeah, how long we've been Around in our city. But at that point in time Roe v. Wade have been around for a little while.

And.

Abortion rates are actually at an all-time high in our country and obviously we've seen that those rates have just continued to go but Memphis locals Don and Ann Johnson and Buck and Monette Jones Had been actually at a summit in DC.

I'm kind of hearing about the state of What was going on in our country? And they Really just felt the Lord Kind of pressing in on them To to kind of do something about it. They were honestly kind of questioning like why aren't you doing something about it?

And the Lord kind of pushed back and was like, well, why aren't you doing something right? And so they ended up starting Life Choices. They brought it back to Memphis and Rallied local churches to support And started the pregnancy medical clinic that is Life Choices.

Obviously, we've grown and shifted since then.

And.

Patients a time or two a few times. I don't know how many exactly but Yeah, so since 1986 we've been serving the women in our city. So and what services do you provide those women? Yeah, that's a great question I like kind of starting off when we talk about services just Stating the fact that first and foremost through a ministry of Jesus Christ.

And so the most important thing that we do with any women that walk through our doors is we're sharing the gospel with them. But women that come to our clinics are really in need of kind of first stop intervention for Pregnancy, so when they find out that they're pregnant or they think they might be pregnant.

They can come to one of our clinics and get a free pregnancy test and a free limited ultrasound. Basically to confirm that they're pregnant. But then while they're in for that appointment our client advocates get to meet with them.

And kind of talk to you where they're at with their story what's going on in their lives? And kind of help to figure out what they're thinking because obviously we recognize that. Not all pregnancies are planned and so sometimes women need an extra I guess maybe hands to help kind of process and figure out what those those things are gonna look like.

So our client advocates are sitting down and they're doing. Options education and counseling. Talking through resources that these women might need to be able to parent. And helping provide referrals for those.

We offer STI treatment for our clients that come in. Lots of different education opportunities our mission statement at Life Choices is To educate and empower women to choose and cherish life, and so we really do take that education piece.

Very it's very important to us.

How with y 'all not taking any government funding? How do y 'all fund all those services? Yeah, that's a great question.

So all these services are free for our clients. But that is because of our community local churches people in our community businesses That believe in the work that Life Choices is doing And want to support that Financially.

We have a lot of businesses that help with in-kind gifts and coming and serving us in that way and so we're able to provide all these things because there are Believers in our city that want to continue the work of building the kingdom of Life Choices.

This probably leads into why Life Choices has to exist in general, but just out of curiosity. What percentage of the time that a woman comes in does a man come in?

Hmm not as often as we would hope. A lot of times they might have a mom sister, right?

Right.

Very rarely. Yeah, it happens on occasion. We do have have some men that are stepping up to the plate and Coming to these appointments and we do have up like some clients that and the fathers are working appointments and those sorts of things so we understand that but This is an epidemic in our country and so There are a lot of women that I'm are coming to these appointments.

Probably sometimes even without a relationship with the father of their baby. Yeah.

I.

Wanted to know if someone Who wanted to schedule an appointment like how they would go about that that. Do they need a referral? Can they just call. Do they need to book an appointment online? Like how does that process work?

Yeah, great question. You don't have to have a referral at all. You can can call either of our clinics. Or fill out a form online and then one of our receptionists will get in touch. They do a really good job of kind of discerning what services you're in need of and if that's something that for the place for that or.

We get a lot of calls for different things because people don't necessarily know the full extent of what we do. And so our receptionists are really good at making sure that the services that we offer.

What?

You know.

One of the criticisms and especially if you're watching this and you haven't Heard our stance before our stance Comes to or she's the same as the Lord's you shall not murder. But in that one of the common false attacks on believers who stand for the Fact that even have to say the sentence defend the lives of the unborn is an amazing time.

Anyway, the fact that even citizens that are pro that one of the common Attacks will do is say well, you're not really pro-life. You're just pro-pregnancy birth you pro-birth. That's not true. There are believers all over.

Exactly like what Sarah Grace saying like with life choices. That's not true. We are eager to show grace mercy love and compassion To those who might not have done it right on the front end, but we're gonna help them do it right on the back.

So it's just untrue. So guys talk about that that the idea that you love you are born Abortion then you're really not pro the father-mother. You're just pro baby. You ever heard this before. Yeah, sure.

So One of my favorite kind of thought processes with this obviously we have these Button words of pro-life pro-choice, right? Yeah. But if if we genuinely are wanting to practice what we preach and they were really pro-life especially as believers It goes back to to John 10 like Jesus came so that we could have life and have it abundantly, right?

So we are are are in the business of not just pro-life but pro-abundant life. And so that looks like walking alongside of women and supporting them and empowering them with the resources that they need To choose life for their for their for the babies.

And so it so many people kind of glossed over and make this these like generic statements but we are walking out and practicing what we preach about this of like if we Really want to see women again going back to our mission statement choosing and cherishing life.

What what can we do? How can we do that? How can we empower them to do that? And I think that our ministry Is probably one of the most holistic in that aspect of the of the Amount of services that we offer.

Not just the amount but the quality and the way that we go about it.

For the sake of caring for women as a whole and not just in regards to mind and spirit like you said like holistically.

I hope so.

Rachel.

Our CEO is Shelly, so I'll definitely send it to them.

So you mentioned like With the different types of people that come into your clinic. Like what is the main demographic that you see and is there a reason why your guys? Clinics because you have two locations in Memphis one on Raleigh LaGrange one on Poplar.

Yeah, is there a reason that those clinics are placed? Specifically there. Yeah, that's a really good question.

So I would say any type of a person that you see in the city of Memphis. Those are the demographics. There are so many different so many different demographics obviously Memphis is predominantly African-american white and Hispanic and so.

Those are a lot of the the main kind of demographics that we see. But then also we we look at even the the socio-economic statuses of people in our city. I think it's something like maybe last year. I think in Memphis maybe 21 of people were in poverty.

Which is kind of crazy. That puts us I think in it at least in the top ten maybe the top five in in the country for cities below the poverty rate. And so when we look at kind of that that demographic that distribution of that it is really important to think about our neighbors.

You're supposed to love our neighbors, right? And so the intentionality of being in areas where. Those demographics are the people that need services that are free and accessible and obviously a lot of our clients struggle with transportation and so being in areas where.

People can access us. We're all in Grange and Poplar, pretty common streets here. Yeah. Yeah, you know. For those of you who don't know euphemisms. Euphemisms are soft ways of saying true things. Unfortunately, most times they are negative.

Euphemisms are normally not good things. I mean there are sometimes like Instead of saying yeah, my grandpa croaked. You say he passed away, right? It's a euphemism. It's a kind way. Unfortunately when it comes to abortion it is filled with euphemisms.

Terminate the pregnancy or health care health. Oh my gosh. It's not a baby. Yeah. The most discouraging the way you get most courage when you hear and I guess I need you to not listen and look when I when I say this Christians Who are in line with that?

And you know, I'm not gonna rehash the scriptures we point you because you guys might have been Kaylee point out last time, you know Elizabeth with John the Baptist and the baby leaps in the womb and we went over this before but if you notice Pastor Jemiah preached this morning and I thought he did an excellent job nailed it.

He was pretty straightforward. I thought he'd actually job, you know, I Always say her last name incorrectly Margaret singer. That's a singer. Thank you the founder of Planned Parenthood. You know guys is amazing you look at the location of those in Cities just look at our city where they're at.

They're not gonna be for the most part places like Cargill Germantown German town. Okay, they're gonna be in a bush. They're gonna be in Frazier and if you're not from Memphis in other words and below Socio-economic status because there was a goal from the get to eliminate a certain demographic of people mainly black people.

And if I could talk to him it's just tell me I was okay, I don't want to cut you off because you're.

You know.

My job died. There's this guy and if you're from Memphis, you'll recognize it who's waving the Palestinian flag. And you see once I say that some of you are so trapped. You think I'm talking politics.

I don't care about. Based on our presidential debate from over the summer. I'm not really interested in politics. My point is You can pull up on tik-tok a young woman shorts in a t-shirt with makeup and her hair braided.

Talking about supporting Palestine now realizing the people she's supporting would never let her look that way. Dress that way or be on a podcast, right? Without permission from her brother or uncle or cousin, you know, I mean, I mean, it's.

The other day when I passed that guy, I I wasn't even angry. I said father forgive him because he really doesn't know what he's doing, right? He has no idea and when it comes to We have been lied to so often on things like this and the lies are so amazing because they're covered in biblical words like love and tolerance and patience and kindness and All things that if they're biblically defined are beautiful things.

But those are the words the enemy uses to find the most horrific and terrible things.

So.

If you notice us thinking plainly about those things it's because we're trying to remove the euphemisms that have overtaken things like the murder of children and. You know one day By God's grace A hundred years from now People are gonna wake up and say wait a minute.

My great-grandparents lived in a time where this was okay. And I want them to be able to say yeah, but you know what great-grandma Annie did something about.

You know.

Grandma KK did something else. You need to sit quietly, you know, I mean that.

So.

We would rather because I know this upsets some people we talk about that stuff. I would rather be ridiculed now and have the father say well done good and faithful servant then.

Be well-liked now. Well, we're worried about offending somebody.

That has become an everyday job. All right, so Sarah. Grace you've been there a year now. Where did you work before. Please tell me.

At an incredible coffee shop. Shop I loved. I love people and so getting to engage with customers. Oh great.

Ever heard he's worked in like customer service retail and.

I.

Can tell someone if they were asked me, how did you become a pastor. I can tell them exactly what happened. A Lot of times people in the mission field they can say I know exactly why I'm here. I went on this trip and I saw this.

I couldn't unsee what I saw. So you're at a coffee shop, but you're gonna leave nameless for whatever reason you're a coffee shop. And then now you're working. At what many people would call. Most people who would Think clearly and are not clouded would call it a place where you show love and kindness and support to women.

Other people would call it a place where you spread Ideas and you know, whatever. How did you go from working there to there? Yeah, that's a great question. She says that a lot and that makes us feel good.

That's a great question.

Question.

Exhortation spiritual gift. Yeah. Thank you. So my degree is actually in social work and so. No, I know. I know maybe I'll get my master's from there because that's maybe a next step. Hopefully I don't know I don't like school.

We'll see. But yeah, so I got my social work degree and Actually when I was getting that degree I had to do a practicum internship all that good stuff and I did it at a pregnancy center local to where I was and really Just fell in love with Center work.

And the way that the Lord can can use that to build the kingdom.

And.

When I graduated from undergrad It was December of 2019. So literally right before the world shut down. Right, so there's so many things that when you're graduating college you all those expectations were kind of Had shift and so I was applying for jobs all over the country.

I was actually looking at some pregnancy center work and Had an interview for a job very similar to what I'm doing now, which is really funny.

In.

California got like four interviews deep and they were like actually like we're not quite ready to like move. Someone this young across the country and I was like because you were here at the time I was in Nashville like right outside of Nashville.

Yeah.

And.

They're like, yeah, we're not gonna do that and I was like, okay, so I just kept getting a lot of closed doors on what that would look like and so The Lord was just kind of me he kind of provided Memphis to me as a safe place to land.

I had a mentor from college that lived here with her family. And she's like sir guys I just want you to come like stay here for a little while like just gonna stay with us see what happens. And When I was was getting in my car to come here I was really thinking I was gonna be here for like maybe a month maybe two here.

I am two years later like. But I moved here.

In.

2022 a week after I moved here. I started that job at the coffee shop called the hub. I love it. It's in East Memphis. It's great.

Sounds like an East Memphis name.

But I actually met my my current boss at the hub at the coffee shop and When I am kind of talking about this now, and I just see the Lord's hand just so evidently ordaining each of these things but I met her and She's actually in the coffee shop meeting with one of my pastors and my pastor was like, oh my gosh You guys need to meet and I was like, okay My pastor did not know that I had done my internship like anything in pregnancy center work but he was like I just feel like you guys we get along and like you would enjoy like getting to know what what they do and all this stuff and At the time Rachel is her name.

She was like why don't you just come in and like learn more about the ministry do a center tour all this stuff and I was Like, okay. Yeah, I love it. And I was like kind of explaining I was like, yeah, I did my internship at a pregnancy center.

She's like stop it And I was like, yeah, and so I came in did that center tour basically that center tour turned into an interview because I just like love the ministry and love what they did and They had this this job opening to be in the outreach coordinator.

And so here I am a year later Look at you thriving. I know doing all this stuff that I love and that I just feel It's so much in This gifting that the Lord has given me and this passion that I have for Loving and supporting vulnerable women.

So I love it.

Very good. Well and Kaylee Kaylee had actually gone to the tour that our church did a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't able to go but she said that You guys had started really focusing on the abortion pill reversal.

Yeah, and so she's like, yeah Grace said she really wanted to talk about that was a good because I have a lot of questions about that because that's a big Thing since the overturn of Roe vs. Wade. It is now.

These abortion pills are being prescribed without these women being pregnancy tested without confirming how far along they are in pregnancy. And they're just getting prescribed this pill and taking it at home like not even seeing a doctor physically.

So what does that look like?

Yeah, so Crazy so it's so interesting because. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade the expectation is that we would see a decline right and in abortion rates, but the reality is is that we still women still have Ready access to the abortion pill.

Just like you were saying they There's there's not a lot of medical oversight to that. They can stay in the living room. Exactly. They don't have to have a medical confirmation of pregnancy. They don't have to have a prescription for it and.

And you can like order them online, right?

You can order online and have them and literally have them shipped to your doorstep. My CEO tested it to see because she was like I just want to know like if in Tennessee you can actually get this ship to your house and she did and so.

Realistically abortion rates have have still been increasing because of that.

But.

Obviously, we we understand that abortion in and of itself is not safe, right. But it's even even less so when you're taking a medication and taking it improperly and it not being administered with any sort of correct instruction anything any sort of oversight and so.

There's a lot of facets to that conversation right now. That's going on but part of what Our ministry has felt like has been important to help. Be a part of that conversation is abortion pill reversal.

So, I don't know what you guys know about the abortion pill, but it's actually a series of pills so There are two two separate pills that you you take. The first one is actually cutting off and the nutrient supply to baby.

And.

Then the second one that you're supposed to take Within 24 to 48 hours of the first one is actually basically inducing labor. It's flushing out your uterus and so what abortion pill reversal is is if a woman takes that first dose of the abortion pill series and Has an immense change of heart that can obviously Exactly only come from the Lord And says I can't do this.

I need help if she happens to Google I took the first pill. Now what? The abortion pill reversal hotline can come up and she can call that phone number and if she is in the greater Memphis area She's connected with left races of Memphis.

A 24-hour hotline that we have that connects to a member of our nursing staff and they are able to To get that medication to them. So basically what the abortion pill reversal medication is is an extra dose of All those good nutrients that were being cut off to reinstate that supply And to to try to make sure that baby is getting what they need.

So just to put it bluntly.

The first one is basically making it where the nutrients do not pass through the umbilical cord to a child. So the child is starving. In other words Is that where you're getting that. And then it can be reversed by doubling down on the right thing this in the past 24 hours.

Right. So so earlier on in pregnancy the the the way that baby gets nutrient supplies actually through something called a yolk stack and so it's basically like Just cutting off that supply that comes through your mother and so.

Yeah, so basically if the abortion pill reversal can be administered again, we're wanting to be kind of in a wearing a little bit of a time crunch when when that Call comes in and so it's it's such an interesting ministry because our nurse director will come back with stories Of just how the Lord Like worked out every step along the way.

I don't know if you guys remember snow apocalypse that we had a few months ago. Yes. So our clinics were closed because we couldn't necessarily get out to the clinic safely. And we obviously didn't necessarily want clients trying to get there either and so.

We had one of those hotline calls come in. Wow, we were snowed in. Right and so our nurse director Like just started the phone tree like calling her. I'm like, hey, I need exactly Who who can get me where I need to go and she was like reaching out to people.

But.

Each each step of the way there are so many different things. Even finding a pharmacy because we have to call it into the right find a pharmacy that was open I could get the medication for us. So she had to find somebody that had a truck and take her to the pharmacy and then take her to.

This woman cause the name of the medication that reverses it. So it's under this abortion pill reversal like umbrella. Basically, it's it's progesterone.

Sick is I'm very familiar with that. I've had three children. Yes. Well, what'd it take for you guys to be able to have that on hand.

Hmm. That is a good question that to be honest.

I don't because it'd be illegal because you would be prescribing it right.

I don't know that that is something that we have the means to do without.

Well, then you would have to have a physician to be able to prescribe the medication. The pharmacist would just fill us.

That's what I'm getting. Yeah. Yeah, so we do have a medical director that kind of is does a lot of our medical oversight and. So anytime that we have a woman that comes in is and has administered this medication is then considered a high-risk pregnancy but our medical director then takes her on as a patient and Walks with her through that pregnancy.

Legality is behind it. But if we ever figure out something there, it'd be cool to not have to rely on Walgreens.

We do have a really good Pharmacy that has been a supporter of us and we know that we can call them.

They're good. So we're grateful for that for sure. I keep that medication in stock. Yeah, cuz I could see. I could see many pharmacies like oh, sorry. It didn't get ordered. I worked at a pharmacy for sure.

Yeah, like oh, yeah. Sorry. We just don't have that. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah and not even understand I'm gonna say yeah, you worked at the pharmacy.

Yeah, I have some good stories about the farm.

So I I honestly can't remember for sure how long ago we started being a part of the abortion pill reversal hotline. But I'm just statistics wise because I think this is something that's worth celebrating we have.

I.

Think six women that are still Carrying their babies to abortion. Pill reversal. And we actually just celebrated two of our first births this summer.

A few weeks ago. So that's another one baby, but genuinely just life-saving work.

And I get chills thinking about it because it's just it is it's just the Lord. You just get to be a part of it and so. But it is. We're celebrating so.

So with these moms who choose end up choosing life for their babies whether it's through the abortion pill reversal or whether they go in and be like I. Couldn't think about having an abortion. You like whatever the situation is.

What programs do you offer to those women? So I know that we talked about this this morning. But just for you know, our listeners and stuff like what kind of programs like support groups do you provide for them?

Absolutely, so there are clients that come in That as they're kind of thinking through What it looks like to to parent a lot of our clients come in with Financial insecurity food insecurity housing insecurity so many different so many different hindrances that they feel like could prevent them from being able to parent right and so part of what we Want to to help in that is Any need that we can help me as a ministry.

To support them and walk alongside them. We want to do that and so Tangible needs like baby items diapers wipes. We have an incredible baby boutique that I kid you not right now. You guys is overflowing because of people's generosity.

It's so cute. I walk in there. Each day, I'm at the office. I have to walk through there and I'm like, it's just oh, you know a little baby things. But I It was so funny. I was reorganizing some things this week.

We're kind of at a Kind of a lull in the summer. And so it was like, okay this is the time to like clean house like organize things and I kid you not there are diapers and wipes took it tucked into like nooks and crannies of our office.

Because we were just so generous and they they want to see women succeed and and again going back to that like experiencing abundant life and so between our baby boutique where we offer Diapers wipes clothes all sorts of baby items that you could think of it's in there.

I I find things all the time I'm like, what even is this? I don't know. I don't have kids so. But it is just fun. And that's a really sweet way. So Our clients that that stay connected with us whenever they have their baby our advocates I've done to them and give them a really beautiful baby basket full of it's beautiful items.

And so that's so sweet. And then.

We do that's the kind of stuff that pastor Jeff says all the time. Sorry to go. No, you're okay. That's kind of when he says that ministry supersedes sermons Jesus preached To tea pot. And ministered and all those about words are in the scripture ministry is Investing in the spiritual life of another.

When I was hungry. You gave me food for I was thirsty. You gave me drink, you know when I was naked you clothe me so on and so forth. What do you say? Remember when they all look at him this at the end of days.

They said though it's like the one kid in class always asked to teach you about the homework and it was like shut up. So Jesus says bless her so he looks at all the righteous from all the ages and.

You know.

And if you think of the scale of everyone who ever sold Jesus as a human. Or less than 1 of all Christians ever less than less than I can't even put it and he goes bless you when I was hungry. You gave me food when I was thirsty gave a drink when I was naked.

He loved me came visit me in the hospital in jail and other just stay with me for a minute. You remember the one guy goes Lord, when did any of us see you in prison, you know. We lived in South America in the 1500s.

When did any of us see you in prison or naked? What do you say you do it for each other? You did it to me. Right. So when I hear you say that that Is ministry and that's what pastor Jeff when he says that's worth a thousand sermons, you know.

You don't Go to church. That's a that's that's not true. We are not sitting in a church right now. Every time in the New Testament the word Ecclesia is used the called ones the elect ones the chosen ones.

It is in reference to the people so you can be the church by doing what Jesus said to do. And that's to do good unto all people, especially those of the household of faith. So I'm gonna commend you for that.

I was beautifully.

Baby baskets. Yeah on. The thing is to own a dimension like that's actual support. Yes of the women going through this. It's not like when they go to Planned Parenthood or another one of these abortion clinics and it's like oh We'll provide you support with this abortion and then they call them.

I've heard tons of stories of like you're a live-action Listener watch or whatever. They always do stories and articles about this. About women who call back with Complications after the abortion pill or after like whatever type of abortion they've had and like they don't call them back, you know.

Like oh, well, you just need to go to the hospital. Like there's nothing we can do for you and so like these women are actually being supported like through every step of the way. And like you talked about we've had a.

Little.

Questionnaire type thing after the service today and we talked about the different ministries that you guys offer. It's like parenting classes like postpartum like education Breastfeeding like all these other things and it's like so you're actually supporting them through every step of the way and as a mom of almost to Like postpartum was so difficult and postpartum isn't just like yes.

He's still in here at this point. He's 30 from 33 weeks today. And so Like going through that and knowing how difficult that was the fact that you guys provide support Through every aspect of that is a huge deal because it can be a very isolating Situation.