Seventeen years old, homeless, and with no parental guidance, Lisa Stribling discovered she was pregnant — again — as the result of a casual relationship. She had become a mother for the first time two years earlier and was struggling to raise her toddler while living in her car. She was determined not to be responsible for another child, and decided abortion was the answer. She then headed down a path of drugs, multiple abortions, and jail.
Stribling told Live Action News, “My dad had died early in my life, and my mother had left, so I had nobody to turn to. I was using drugs at the time and didn’t have a permanent address, so I decided abortion was the best solution.”
At the time, Stribling’s sister worked at Planned Parenthood. Devastated at Stribling’s decision to abort, she kept her sister’s baby’s remains in a canister for several months, eventually leaving the abortion industry.
“My sister asked for forgiveness for her participation in killing babies,” Stribling said. “She never believed in what she was doing but for me, I just disconnected myself from the experience and kept moving.”
Just a year later, Stribling was pregnant with her third child. She was preparing to move in with the father of her baby, a man she called “The Wild Child.” But, once again, Stribling terminated her pregnancy — her second abortion.
Stribling said, “I knew I couldn’t take care of another baby. My boyfriend and I were unstable, and I didn’t want to bring a child into that situation.”
Choosing drugs over parenting
Stribling soon became pregnant again and this time, she chose to parent her child and marry her boyfriend. She was now the mother of two born children. But the couple traveled a dark path, selling and using drugs. In the meantime, her siblings, from whom she was distant, became born-again Christians. Living a dangerous drug-dependent lifestyle and struggling with a volatile marriage left Stribling feeling depressed and desperate, but she was not interested in salvation.
During this time, she became pregnant with her fifth child but instead of choosing life as before, she chose to end her pregnancy.
“This would be my third abortion, but I was shouldering the burden of raising two children and I did not want another baby,” Stribling said. “My husband didn’t care what I decided, and my friends encouraged me to end the pregnancy.”
Stribling’s husband drove her to the abortion clinic, but he would not return to pick her up; instead, a friend drove her home. As she entered the facility, she felt sick knowing what she was about to do. Swallowing Valium to quell her anxiety, Stribling was conflicted; she felt the urge to flee but knew of no other options.
“As I waited, the pills I had taken took effect and I fell asleep,” she explained. “Once I was lying on the table, I knew without a doubt I didn’t want to be there. I was killing our son and God was trying to get me out of there by sending me signals I ignored.”
As she felt the life inside her womb be suctioned out, tears slid down her cheeks. She was admonished to hold on; the procedure would be over soon.
“Everyone at the clinic acted as if they were robots without any emotions, even the doctor committing the abortion,” Stribling said.
Finding redemption leads to defending life
Not long after she had aborted their son, Stribling’s husband, now in jail, accepted Christ’s salvation. For once, it was an affirming choice made by a man whose life, marked by drugs and violence, helped the family build a faith-based foundation on which to begin anew and repair a troubled marriage. Stribling learned she was pregnant again.
Despite turning a corner and being off drugs for five months, the Striblings had previous felony charges pending. Now seven months pregnant, Stribling was informed by the judge at her court hearing that she was going to prison, and she would be required to give her baby to someone who could care him or her. Stribling couldn’t have imagined the devastation she was soon to experience.
Stribling said, “Once in prison, I was evaluated and given a scan indicating I was carrying conjoined twins. The doctor who couldn’t speak English well, wrote on a piece of paper that the babies had to be aborted or I would either die or they might die. He was sending me across the state for a late-term abortion.”
She recalls being placed in shackles and crying hysterically as she was transported to a university hospital for what would be her fourth abortion procedure. This time, she would be losing two babies. Once there, she was chained to a hospital bed for the late-term induction abortion, which took three days.
“My babies were born alive and left on the table to die,” Stribling said. “My sister came and stayed with the babies. She had begged me not to have the abortion, but I didn’t have much of a choice; my life was no longer my own to navigate.”
Two weeks later, Stribling developed a fever and began bleeding, passing football-sized clots. Clutching her stomach, she screamed for help and was rushed to the hospital. People in the emergency room gaped at her blood-soaked body as she was hurried into surgery.
Stribling said, “I was figuratively the picture of where America is at today: chained up and bleeding from the many abortions committed.”
While in prison, she became an ardent student of Scripture, realizing her life didn’t line up with Biblical principles and that she had fallen short of God’s standards. But she had been given a lifeline: the gift of salvation and mercy.
“As my life was transformed by a clemency only God could grant, I felt so ashamed for how I had been living,” Stribling said. “I had to face the trauma of the abortions and work through the sorrow and grief. It was a journey only I could take.”
Now a passionate defender of life, Stribling wants women to know that the consequences of abortion are forever. She is the Director of Hope City KC, hosting a full-time house of prayer and community center to aid the poor and bring social justice to Kansas City.
After years of struggles and heartbreak, Stribling and her husband renewed their commitment to each other and now serve as senior pastors at Hope City KC Church. She has a special compassion for those who are incarcerated and she is active in prison ministry, helping to build bridges to salvation.
“I am a testament to how God transforms lives even in the direst of circumstances,” she explained. “Women need to hear the truth: that abortion leaves you bloodied and scarred. I have five children who will never sit at my kitchen table and be a part of my family. Their losses will forever leave a huge hole in my heart.”
