It is estimated that over 50 million American children have lost their lives due to surgical abortions and countless others through abortive means of contraception. The 50 Million Names website at 50millionnames.com is attempting to recognize the personhood of these children by offering us a way to give them names and to encourage us to pray for all those involved.
- For the pre-born babies still in the womb; that their mothers will give them the gift of life.
- For the parents who force their daughters to kill their own grand babies; that they will repent and seek God’s healing grace.
- For others who force girls and young women to procure abortions; that they will see the evil of their ways and reform their lives.
- For the people who profit from murdering pre-born children; for conversion to Christ and repentance.
If you have had an abortion, naming your child is a start on the road to repentance and healing.
If you are a sidewalk counselor, or pray outside your local abortuary, or work at a Crisis Pregnancy Center, etc., this is another service you can perform for those in need. Look at the girl or woman and visualize their baby and the name the mother might give the baby. When you are home, or using your smart phone go to www.50millionnames.com. You have to register the first time, enter the name, your gesture / prayer, and (optionally) the story behind your entry.
God bless,
Jim Anderson
NHRTL Trustee
50 Million Names | Our Story
from Charlotte Ostermann, founder of The 50 Million Names Project
50 Million Names began with a number. When the abortion toll reached 50,000,000 I was pierced by awareness that I could not even begin to imagine a number that large, much less embrace that number of souls in my own heart with the love each deserved. I wished there were some way each child could be named, loved, prayed for…acknowledged as a unique human being instead of a statistic. We didn’t have the technology then, but we do now! A name is the beginning of dignity.
Later, when my son Timothy died in the womb, I discovered the healing power of naming a lost child – for the mother, for the family. Many women came to console me and shared that their own miscarriages had gone unremarked, and the babies unnamed. That’s just the way it was done ‘back in the day’. But it wasn’t a good way! They came to cry with me and left with the awareness of their own pain, and their own need to acknowledge and name those precious children of their own. Another chapter in the story of 50 Million Names was written. A name is the beginning of healing.
Next, I heard Mother Teresa say we would never end abortion until we identified with the victims. I pondered that in my heart, with anguish for the babies themselves. The more I thought of them, wanting to bear some of their victimhood for them, the more I sensed their own longing for the pain of certain others. I realized that these children, now present before the throne of God, care deeply for the relatives who lost them, and even for the abortionists who killed them. My identification with these victims took a new and hopeful turn. A name is the beginning of blessing.
Thinking only of the violence of the abortion itself, it was hard not to feel despair about the damage that has been done to families, to our country, to the world. But as I began to think of the prayers of the babies, I realized that God himself would be teaching them to pray for blessings even for those who had cursed and killed them! I felt a new lightness of heart as I began to identify with the desire to bless these hurting people for the sake of the very babies themselves. I saw that violence, sad as it is, creates an intimate relationship between one who harms and one who is victimized. This relationship is not one we would wish on anyone, but once it is established, that perpetrator better watch out! Because now they are linked to a person who, if he follows God’s instructions, will be begging that he be blessed. A name is the beginning of relationship.
God gives back ‘the hundredfold’, and a shower of blessing (unless his heart is changed and he cries out for mercy) may feel like hot coals heaped upon the head of one who is prayed for in this way. But God’s desire, the baby’s desire, my desire is to bless and bring healing and reconciliation to those who are surely still suffering the effects of the harm they have done, or that has been done despite their objections.
So, we began it, my daughter and I, talking about the idea and taking every bit of help that was offered. Mary Ackerly helped develop our Request for Proposals for the website, and the momentum just kept growing from the moment we chose Kristofer Cowles, of Exposure Strategies, to take on the project. Since the construction of the site began, we’ve been blessed by help from many others to get the word out that naming 50,000,000 would soon be possible. A name is the beginning of 50 Million Names!