Dear Friends of Life:

Today, December 23, 2019, I celebrate my 26th anniversary as executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life. It has been an amazing two and a half plus decades. I want to personally thank you for all you have done to enrich my life as we band together to save and protect the innocent, vulnerable members of our human family.

I remember my first day as if it were yesterday. I was alone in the office and didn't know how to turn on the heat. The next day, Christmas Eve, 1993, I held my first press conference. That morning, the front page of The State -- the newspaper where I worked as a reporter for 16 years -- carried a disturbing article about the decision of the S.C. Department of Social Services to terminate life support for a 2-year-old girl, Mona Sonnier. Mona had been beaten into a coma and dropped off at the emergency room of a local hospital.  The reason DSS gave to end the child’s life? Mona's Medicaid bills had reached $1 million.

Even though I hardly knew where the phone was in my new office, I called as many people as I could, including the news media, to strongly protest the deliberate killing of an innocent 2-year-old whose life depended on the government.  As a result of the involvement of South Carolina Citizens for Life, DSS rescinded its decision.  Little Mona lived several more years until our Lord, in His own time, brought her home. 

In 2001, we moved our office into the one of the most notorious former abortion facilities in South Carolina that was vacated upon the death of its owner, abortionist Jesse Floyd. He died in an automobile accident that was his fault. Denis Yeo, a Christian businessman bought the building and vowed to use it for redemptive work. It is the right place for South Carolina Citizens for Life to be housed. In 2020, we hope to install a memorial to the unborn babies who have died from abortion. Please pray for this project.

As a grassroots movement our goal is to overturn Roe v. Wade. We are closer than ever before. If President Trump can appoint just one more pro-life justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, we may see Roe gone in our lifetime. Meanwhile we do everything in our power to save as many babies as possible.

Thanks to your faithfulness to the grassroots pro-life movement, South Carolina is in the top tier of states that have dramatically reduced abortions by passing effective pro-life laws. Nationwide through the efforts of the National Right to Life Committee abortions have declined by a dramatic 30 percent. In South Carolina abortions have declined by 67 percent.

As I enter into another year of pro-life work -- work that God has called me to do and provided for me -- I want to thank you again for your faithful support and gifts of time, talent, and treasure.

Merry Christmas and a most happy Year of Our Lord 2020.

Sincerely for life!