While We Were Sleeping – Abortion

A wake-up call for Christians to speak for the voiceless

*This is the eighth in a series highlighting key aspects from each chapter of the book “While We Were Sleeping: A Wake-up Call For All Christians” (2025). The author also posts reflections on each chapter on their YouTube channel.*

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Meet the Author’s Guest: Jodie Pickard

Jodie Pickard is the Founding Director of Love Australia, a leading pro-life organisation that first began as Love Adelaide. Love Australia’s latest endeavour is the introduction of the House of Refuge ministry to Australia, in partnership with Love Life America.

This mission is to equip churches across Australia to be safe havens—where those experiencing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy have no need to seek an abortion clinic, and where those who have been hurt by abortion can find healing.

“Now that’s a novel approach. Like many of my readers, no doubt, I have felt increasingly frustrated, powerless and angry that the agenda to kill unwanted life has gained acceptance in our so-called civilised society.”

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Jodie’s Story: A Life-Changing Encounter in Charlotte

Here is a short extract from Jodie’s story:

Love Life invited me to go out with one of their teams to the abortion clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was there to pray and watch what was going on. These sidewalk counsellors were offering hope and help—calling out, ‘Young mum, anything you need right now, we are here to help you. Please know you don’t have to walk into that clinic.’

Very occasionally, somebody would turn away, choosing life for their baby. I saw three women change their minds that day! Two of them drove away in their cars, letting the sidewalk counsellors know of their decision, and one entered the counselling RV bus.

Onboard was an ultrasound machine and a private lounge area to counsel, run by a pregnancy help centre. The young woman I saw go on the bus was offered a free ultrasound, and she chose life! What an impact this had on my involvement!

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The Australian Reality: Exclusion Zones

Back home in Australia, Jodie started going to the local abortion clinic and offering help. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.

Less than a year later (in 2020), the South Australian Parliament legislated a 150-metre exclusion zone, which outlawed any communication related to abortion around a facility that performs them. It also prohibited praying.

“What has become of our nation when praying is made illegal?”

Despite this restriction, Jodie’s Houses of Refuge ministry presents the church with a tool they can employ with no government restriction, while giving church leadership a positive platform to address the “elephant of abortion” in society.

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What Can We Do?

Every year in Australia, 88,000 babies are lost to abortion.

As Proverbs 31:8-9 urges us, we must speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Unborn babies are the most vulnerable in our society.

Love Life USA: A Testimony of Hope

Love Life began in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016, and has now spread across the whole of the USA. Their website celebrates:

Because of supporters like you, in 2023, Love Life was able to be present at 44 abortion centers across the nation with over 1000 partnering Churches and 306 House of Refuge Churches poised and equipped to help the moms that chose life.

A watershed moment occurred in 2023 when we saw the 5,000th baby saved from abortion.

Let that number sink in. 5,000 babies who were scheduled to die, with the permission of their own parents, are alive today.

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United Kingdom Votes to Effectively Legalise Abortion to Birth

“We are deeply concerned that on the evening of March 18 2026, the House of Lords voted to remove women from the criminal law related to abortion when acting in relation to their own pregnancy.” — Dawn McAvoy, Both Lives UK

The British Medical Journal (24 March 2026) reported on what was driving parliament to decriminalise abortion to birth:

• 277,970 abortions were carried out in 2023 (the most recent year with available figures)

• An 11% increase from 251,377 in 2022

• Abortion rate: 23.0 in every 1000 women aged 15-44 in 2023 (up from 21.1)

• Rates among women over 35 have risen to 12.3 in 1000 (up from 7.1 in 2013)

• Rates remain highest among 20-24 year olds: 39.4 in 1000 women

The Church of England’s Complicity

As of 25 March 2026, Dame Sarah Mullally became the new Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of England. She is proudly pro-choice and not pro-life.

Sarah, along with all the other bishops in the House of Lords, could have blocked this amendment to decriminalise abortion to birth, but they didn’t. It’s devastating when church leaders stay silent and effectively become complicit in this barbaric method of birth control.

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What the Bible Says

Back in the author’s school days, debates about abortion often raised the question: “What about the victims of rape?” The author’s reply: “Whatever happened to adoption?”

Psalm 139:13-15a

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret…

God has created every one of us. For Him, there is no suggestion that life begins at birth; it is much earlier—at the point of fertilisation of the egg by the sperm.

Jeremiah 7:30-31 (Ancient Child Sacrifice)

The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.

Parents brought their sons and daughters to be burnt in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, seeking to gain a blessing from their false gods. Our one true God declared: it had never entered His mind!

The Valley of Ben Hinnom (Gehenna)

The article notes that this valley has not been built on (unlike the Cedrom Valley, which is filled with gravestones and churches). It is said that the Valley of Ben Hinnom has been cursed for all time on account of these child sacrifices. The author sees this valley as a monument to the atrocity dating back thousands of years.

Abortion is our society’s sacrifice for “the good life.” We dress it up with justification, but in the end, it’s murder.

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The Hippocratic Oath

What about the doctors and nurses who violate their oath to keep their jobs? Most of us will never see an abortion, but they handle them on a regular basis.

I will never harm my suffering friend, because life is sacred, from the tender fruit that he once was in his mother’s womb to that first sight he gave out between her legs when he opened his eyes to the world.

— Extract from Hippocratic Oath (translated by Amelia Arenas)

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A Call to Action

Let’s ask God to show us how we can take a stand against abortion.

2 Chronicles 7:14

If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.

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Reader Comments (Selected)

“Thank you Jim for your article. It is sobering to think about how disposable are unborn children. I appreciated the video by Chris Wickland. It is tragic how silent the church is on this issue.”

“House of Refuge program encompasses love of the baby and mumma. Dads are not forgotten either. Our church is honoured to be a House of Refuge Church. Let’s share the program with every pastor we can. Arise church!”

“Abortion is murder and self-suicide for our society. I support South Australian Dr. Joanna Howe in her tireless work.”

“My dream is that all of us pick up the tools most right for us, and naturally, there are many options available to us. But above all, let’s wage war in the heavens for those who have no voice.”

“I would like an answer to your question above – ‘Why is adoption so hard?'”

“It is telling to consider who creates the narrative of the day, what is discussed and what is left un-discussed. It is hard to raise this topic in public but let’s look for every opportunity we can to keep the topic alive.”

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About House of Refuge

House of Refuge is a ministry supported and facilitated by Love Australia — affiliated with Love Life America, the initiators of House of Refuge.

Love Australia’s mission: To unite and mobilise the church to create a culture of love and life that will result in making abortion unthinkable.

House of Refuge will empower your church to:

• Support those facing an unplanned/crisis pregnancy

• Guide those hurt by previous abortions to find healing

• Protect the unborn in your community