A 17-year-old girl from Rwanda decided to reject abortion and choose the life of her baby following a school workshop offered by the international Catholic pro-life organization Human Life International (HLI).
Laurence, a young teen who had been impregnated by the man who wanted her to promote birth control to other students, was scheduled to have an abortion the day after a school workshop given by HLI Rwanda revealed to her the truth about abortion. Laurence promptly chose life for her baby.
“Human Life International Rwanda teaches high school students about abstinence and educates them on the long-term damage caused by contraceptive use and abortion,” a press release from the global pro-life group says. “The program invites young people like Laurence to apply prayer and other Christian disciplines in pursuit of a chaste life.”
HLI explained that, following the workshop, Laurence approached the Rwanda team for assistance:
She wanted to keep her baby, and she wanted to pursue a more spiritual, chaste life. Having been recruited to promote contraceptives among her peers by the pro-abortion advocate who fathered and then paid for her baby’s abortion, Laurence was in need of support on several levels.
First on the list was telling her mother about her pregnancy.
The team at HLI Rwanda, which was founded in 2021, helped Laurence to share the news with her mother and draw a commitment from her to assist with the baby in order to enable the teen to complete her education after the birth.
HLI also helped Laurence with other essentials: medical fees, baby supplies, and approaching her school about taking a leave of absence.
Dr. Brian Clowes, HLI’s director of education and research, says Laurence’s story is just one example of the many young women who have been persuaded by the messaging of population control activists:
Laurence was faced with an unexpected pregnancy in her native Rwanda. The only option offered her by Western population control groups was abortion. But then she heard a pro-life presentation by Human Life International the day before her abortion was scheduled, and she chose life for her baby. We are strongly reminded of the Biblical wisdom of Proverbs 18:17, which says “He who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.”
HLI Rwanda Director Aloys Ndengeye noted the country, with one of the highest population densities in sub-Saharan Africa, is a central target of population control and abortion activists.
With more than 65% of the population of Rwanda under the age of 30, Ndengeye said schools are a popular place for promoting the global contraceptive and abortion industries.
The director further explained how Health Development Initiative Rwanda (HDI) promotes abortion and contraceptive use among teens under the guise of “equity,” “sexual and reproductive rights,” and the promise of reducing teen pregnancies – “despite the fact that abortion is illegal in predominately Christian, highly Catholic, Rwanda.”
HLI added that, “like International Planned Parenthood Federation, HDI makes a practice of regularly visiting the area’s public schools,” a situation that, Ndengeye explained, has resulted in “increasing venereal diseases, sexualizing our youth, and killing innocent preborn babies through abortion.”
HDI’s “partners” promoting contraception and abortion as “health care” in Rwanda include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the dissident Catholics for Choice, the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, Center for Reproductive Rights, Safe Abortion Action Fund, and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Ndengeye reported that Laurence “is now happy being a mother, and she is thankful to Human Life International for saving her baby, a girl she named Keilla.”
“This is the task of all of the pro-life groups all over the world: to offer life-affirming options that the groups marketing abortion deliberately do not mention,” Clowes said:
Although successes may be few in the face of overwhelming opposition, the Talmud of Judaism tells us that you “Save one life and you save the world” [Sanhedrin 37a]. This is certainly true in the microcosm of the story of Laurence and Keilla from Rwanda. Every baby and every mother rescued from the deadly grip of abortion is a cause for joyous celebration.”
Ndengeye echoed Clowes’ sentiment, noting the mission of HLI Rwanda: “Saving a life which was set for slaughter – it is the greatest treasure.”
