A Pennsylvanian woman is saving lives by paying pregnant mothers to not abort their babies.
Retired Air Force Maj. Laura Merriott, a nurse, served the United States for two decades, and now she is fighting for the pro-life movement by saving the preborn from abortion.
Merriott’s nonprofit, Save Unborn Life, gives $3,000 to women thinking about abortion. According to her website, the organization was started “to offer a compensation sum of $3,000 to any pregnant woman who is considering abortion, to choose instead to carry her baby and give it life!”
When Merriott learned that more than half of the women seeking abortions are financially deprived, she began her pro-life ministry.
“If money makes a difference, I thought, why aren’t pro-life people standing up and saying ‘We’ll help you?’” said Merriott. “We make an offer, and hopefully [pregnant mothers] choose life and have no regrets.”
Because of her life-saving nonprofit, Merriott has seen some 100 babies being born and even helped deliver two of the infants. If it weren’t for her ministry, the babies more than likely would have been aborted.
“[The mothers] are so happy, and most of them say, ‘I can’t believe I considered having an abortion,’” Merriott said. “This is what I envision happening across the country.”
As of June, nine donors, not including Merriott and her husband, have donated $3,000 or more to her nonprofit.
Merriott’s efforts to save lives in the pro-life movement took off when she started volunteering at a pregnancy resource center. From there, in 2005, she founded her nonprofit. Using her retirement savings – somewhere around $100,000 – she was able to get the ministry up and running.
Merriott’s organization does not advertise a whole lot, saying the cost to advertise in a newspaper is equivalent to “three babies,” or $9,000. Pregnant mothers are able to connect with Save Unborn Life by visiting pro-life women’s centers.
When mothers seeking abortion visit a pregnancy center for ultrasounds or pregnancy tests, counselors will determine if Merriott’s ministry is something that would benefit women who are struggling financially.
The process for a pregnant mother to receive financial help from Merriott’s organization is straightforward. The mother must sign a contract agreeing to not abort her child, and she must have an ultrasound to track her pregnancy and the preborn’s development, among other requirements.
According to the contract, “The natural mother hereby acknowledges that she has not intentionally become pregnant so as to reap the benefits of this agreement, the funds of which have been donated to SUL for the purpose of preserving life.”
Merriott says all donations to Save Unborn Life go directly to saving babies from abortion.
“[Donors] can actually say, ‘I saved a human baby,’” she said.
