SALEM – This is a pro-life story about choosing life and receiving life after the
October 7 terror attacks in Israel.
Last summer, Eliana (name changed)
became pregnant at the age of 40. She
contemplated having an abortion. How could she care for a baby in her middle years? But she remembered a message she heard as a teenager.
Efrat, Israel’s pro-life organization, had
spoken at an event she attended when she was 16 years old. She remembered from that speech about the development of the fetus. This is not protoplasm or something that is not quite a person, but a living, feeling image bearer of God being formed in the mother’s womb.
Eliana is not a particularly religious person, but she felt the weight of the decision in front of her.
“God, please show me a sign, please show me what you want me to do.”
Shortly after begging God to reveal His will to her, she walked out of her home. Just as she
stepped through the front door, a bus passed by, and on the side of the bus was a sign with the
name of a familiar organization: Efrat.
“She reached out to us,” explained Nir Salomon, Efrat’s executive director. “At the end of the
day, she had her baby, thank God.”
But that is not the end of the story.
Several months after giving birth came the terrors
of October 7. Her adult daughter was attending
the Nova Music Festival in Israel’s south, not far
from the Gaza border, and she was one of the
young people murdered that day.
“All I wanted to do was crawl under blankets and
die,” Eliana shared with Nir. “But I had a little baby
to care for, and I needed to continue living.”
“God chose this woman to have this baby,” said Nir. “And now this baby has ended up saving
her life.”
Every day in Israel, Efrat is helping women make the choice for life rather than a choice for
death, just as Moses challenged the Israelites, “I have set before you life and death, blessings
and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Since 1977, Efrat has been the point of contact for women who want to give birth to their babies
but experience emotional and financial distress. More than 86,000 babies have been saved and
are today part of the Jewish people because of the tireless efforts of Efrat.
Efrat comes alongside mothers-to-be with financial assistance and emotional support so they
can give birth and raise their babies with dignity, joy, and peace of mind.
And in the case of Eliana, that was a choice that ultimately saved both her and her baby.
To learn more about Efrat, visit IsraelBabies.com.
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