It was in 1980 when Randy Alcorn opened his home to a vulnerable 17-year-old pregnant woman who had been living with a migrant worker. Alcorn was convicted by a church friend to aid the woman, who had undergone previous abortions. This time, Alcorn was hoping the young woman would choose life. She did, and this sparked in Alcorn a lifetime of pro-life advocacy.
Alcorn told Live Action News, “I shared the Gospel with her, and she came to faith in the Lord. When her baby was born, she chose to place the child with a Christian couple.”
And 33 years later, he was present at the reunion between the woman and her grown child.
“I learned she was active in prison ministry,” Alcorn said. “She redeemed herself for the abortions that clouded her past.” For Alcorn, the experience helped to ignite a passion for pro-life activism, but he could never imagine that his desire to do good would lead to legal troubles.
Alcorn served as a board member with a Portland-based pregnancy resource center (PRC) and pastored a church. Learning of a nearby abortion facility that committed up to 40 abortions a day, Alcorn and his church members were compelled to act.
“We were scared at first to get involved because Portland is an ‘atheistic city’ with the worst possible climate for pro-life activism but knew we couldn’t just stand by and do nothing,” he said. “Babies were being murdered every day. Since the inception of this country, civil disobedience has always been employed to protest the violation of basic human rights.”
The Oregon pro-lifers stood on the sidewalk in front of the busy Lovejoy Surgicenter holding a Bible and offering women information about the pregnancy support center. For Alcorn, the act of abortion became real when observing women going in and out of the facility.
“We then decided to form a united physical barrier to the building’s entrance,” Alcorn said. “What we were doing was illegal; however, we knew that, according to Planned Parenthood, one out of every four women will continue her pregnancy if an appointment at the clinic is cancelled or rescheduled. For us, the risk was worth it.”
There were some successes: a few women responded to the team’s outreach efforts by promising to reconsider their choice to have an abortion. But it wouldn’t be long before the pro-life activists were arrested and sitting in a jail cell.
“We went from quietly serving at the pregnancy support center to being on the front page of the newspaper,” he said. “In all, I was arrested seven times during nine peaceful pro-life interventions. We adhered to a code to always be respectful, to be Christlike. Our mission was to help women. We never caused unrest, but sadly, it was unpopular to speak out for the unborn.”
In one instance, a sympathetic judge informed Alcorn he’d be supportive of their cause if he wasn’t serving in the role of a jurist required to render judgment on those who stood before him.
Legal troubles mount as rescue efforts escalate
In Oregon, Alcorn’s fight for the preborn resulted in several lawsuits against him and his fellow pro-lifers – one that dragged on in court for 30 days.
“We were in the courtroom five days a week listening to employees of the abortion clinic lie under oath,” Alcorn said. “It was difficult, but understandable; if you killed babies for a living, lying without reservation in order to attain the greatest punishment possible for pro-lifers would come natural.”
Alcorn, along with his pro-life comrades, suffered greatly for peacefully standing for life. The Lovejoy facility requested a half million dollars in punitive damages against each of the 30 defendants to ensure their rescue efforts would discontinue. In February 1993, nine of the 12 jurors awarded the clinic $8.2 million dollars – averaging $250,000 per defendant — but the facility never received most of the settlement.
But the worst was yet to come. Alcorn was asked to resign from his post as pastor of the church where he had ministered for 12 years. The embarrassment and discomfort resulting from bad publicity, along with the lawsuits, prompted the fellow pastors and elders to make the hard decision to ask Alcorn to step down from his position.
Alcorn understood the need to protect the church from having to write a check to the abortion facility, but the decision took an emotional toll. “When my family and I needed the most support, we received the least support from many of the people we loved,” he said. “But God taught us a lot, and, in the end, we stayed with the church even though I could no longer pastor the congregation. My relationships with these people with whom I had formed strong bonds were most important.”
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A Pro-Life Future
In 1990, Alcorn launched Eternal Perspective Ministries, a non-profit organization with a mission to teach Biblical principles through books and to reach those in need. Fortunately, he had the foresight to remove his name from the bank accounts associated with EPM, so none of that funding was lost as a result of the abortion facility lawsuit.
His days of rescue at abortion facilities behind him, Alcorn has channeled his passion into writing. His book, “Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments” was meant to promote a pro-life stance and was targeted toward “fence sitters.”
“I have had the opportunity to donate royalties from my books to Christian causes and pro-life organizations,” Alcorn said. “The abortion clinic never got the money from the settlement and eventually lost money. I think it’s symbolic that I gave away more than $8.2 million to worthy causes.”
Today, Alcorn continues his evangelism and pro-life mission through various speaking engagements. His books have been translated into 72 languages, and are reasonably priced to make them accessible to everyone. He encourages those in the pro-life movement to continue their work – even if it’s on a local level. Alcorn said, “Don’t ever get discouraged. You can still affect change, even if it’s having a conservation with a neighbor or someone at church. Stay positive and find creative ways to make a difference that doesn’t involve going to jail or lawsuits. There are always ways to widen your circle of influence.”
