• • Businessman's Bold Plan to Save the Lives of Thousands of Unborn Babies
• • The Saddest Goodbye: Heartbreaking Photos Show Parents Saying Goodbye to Terminally Ill Babies

'God Just Wouldn't Let This Idea Go'

Reprinted with permission from  
 

Brian Fisher was a successful businessman when he launched a charitable organization with the goal of taking a creative and tech-driven approach to saving unborn babies - a venture that eventually led him to abandon the corporate world completely.

But transitioning full-time into the pro-life space wasn't always his plan.

"God just wouldn't let this idea go of saving children from death in the womb and so in 2009 - honestly, begrudgingly - I started a nonprofit," Fisher told TheBlaze. "I didn't want to start a nonprofit. There's plenty nonprofits to go around."

His organization, Online for Life, uses the Internet to convince pregnant women considering abortion to choose a different path, after he realized there weren't any organizations fully using technology to achieve the same goal.

The Founding of Online for Life

Fisher's journey started in 2007 when he was CEO of Coral Ridge Ministries, a Florida-based Christian organization. At the time, he was testing how technology could help stop abortion, learning lessons he had no idea he'd soon be putting into practice.

While he ended up leaving the organization and heading back into the business world, Fisher said that research - and the nagging calling to address abortion - didn't escape him. He soon began thinking more deeply about the issue and began crafting a plan of action.

"I thought if we could basically go to where the women who are hurting are, which is online - there's 2 million Internet searches a month for abortion terms in the United States" - it would have a huge impact, he said. "So that's where the mission field is, if you will."

"Then if we could go and bring them into an environment that was caring and compassionate, and that there was a support network there where they could legitimately feel security which most of them don't feel, then we had a shot at saving children," he said.

Online for Life was born in 2009 after Fisher teamed up with other businessmen looking to make a difference. It started as a volunteer organization, with its founders continuing their for-profit careers while devoting free time to the cause.

How It Works

Since its inception, the concept behind Online for Life has been simple: The group ensures that Internet searches for abortion include prominent links to pro-life causes instead of only showing women links to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

The idea is to urge these women to visit pro-life clinics and to bring their children to term rather than seek abortions. Online for Life tracks the search results and appointments women make to assess how effective the ministry is in its reach.

Fisher said that the first victory came June 22, 2010, when the group's first baby was saved in Pittsburgh.

After purchasing some simple ad words online in a 10-mile radius around a pregnancy center in the city, the center's director called and said that a woman had come in for help and decided to keep her baby.

"That child is now 3 years old," he said. "It was just a very emotional moment for me personally because I recognized that if we could cooperatively rescue one, we could cooperatively rescue thousands."

The mother and her fiance were going to choose an abortion before Online for Life led them to the pro-life clinic - an event that changed everything.

Online for Life's Growth and Development

Since that first victory, Online for Life's operations have grown. In 2012, Fisher and two of his partners made a major leap, leaving their business jobs behind and working in the ministry full-time.

It was at least a 25 percent pay cut for Fisher, but he said it couldn't have been more worthwhile. In just a few short years, the organization has grown to around 35 employees, serving women in 23 states.

He said 2,573 babies have been saved.

"We have not only the marketing piece, we reach the women, we have a call center that talks to the women, and we're actually opening up our own clinics this year and we'll be operating two clinics," he said. "One in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. Two very different places."

As businessmen, Fisher and his fellow Online for Life staffers rely heavily on metrics and performance benchmarks to ensure they're reaching at-risk women online and on the telephone, helping refer these women to pro-life pregnancy centers.

They can even measure how effective counseling is for these individuals once they're at the clinic.

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Currently, in the United States, there are 26,000 stillbirths annually; and 6,000- 10,000 of all live births are afflicted with defects severe enough to cause neonatal death. A non-profit organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) offers free services that assist families facing these types of tragedies and helps them in the grieving process.

The group says their mission is to introduce remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby with a free gift of professional portraiture.

On their website they say that their organization trains, educates and organizes professional photographers to provide what they describe as 'beautiful heirloom portraits' to families facing the untimely death of an infant. They say, "We believe these images serve as an important step in the family's healing process by honoring the child's legacy."

According to the Daily Mail, NILMDTS has boomed in popularity since launching in the USA ten years ago and boasts 1,650 volunteers in 40 countries across the globe, who offer their services. In April 2005, Cheryl Haggard founded the organization after she had to make the excruciating decision to take her newborn son, Maddux Achilles Haggard, off life support.

Maddux was born with a condition called myotubular myopathy, which prevented him from breathing, swallowing or moving on his own. However, before removing the equipment that kept him alive, they called photographer Sandy Puc to take pictures of them cradling their son.They even took some photographs when Maddux "was free from the tubes and the wires that had sustained him."

Cheryl said, "That night was the worst night of my life. But when I look at the images, I am not reminded of my worst night. I'm reminded of the beauty and blessings he brought."

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By Greg Richter

Gov. Bobby Jindal's office has been a part of the effort to block construction of a new Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in New Orleans, The Washington Post reports.

A sign declaring that "High-Quality, Affordable Health Care for New Orleans" would begin "Seeing Patients Early 2015," is now lying on the ground behind a chain link fence, but Raegan Carter of Planned Parenthood Center for Choice told The Times-Picayune that the banner was damaged by weather, and that the group still intends to build the clinic.

Planned Parenthood is appealing a ruling from Jindal's administration that the need for the new clinic was not proven and that "it did not meet the clear requirements."

Louisiana's new rules regarding abortion clinics are similar to those in Texas, in which any doctor working at an abortion clinic must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility.

Jindal's office isn't the only adversary Planned Parenthood is facing. Archbishop Gregory Aymond has threatened to boycott any contractor who works on the project.

Several subcontractors backed out of the project after Aymond wrote in an open letter, "the archdiocese, including its churches, schools, apartments for the elderly, and nursing homes, will strive in its privately-funded work not to enter into business relationships with any person or organization that participates in actions that are essential to making this abortion facility a reality."

Jindal didn't comment on the issue, but the Post quoted him from a statement made last week in which he said, "It matters how we treat the unborn and the elderly. Every life is sacred and we should have the courage to defend it."

She said, "I was appalled, that in the 21st century, in our country and in this city, that still happens." However, according to the Indy Star, one thought overpowered her: A dumpster is not a grave. A diaper is not burial clothing. Doe is not a name.

That thought is what gave her the idea to start her organization, He Knows My Name, which helps with funeral arrangements for abandoned babies and helps parents who can't afford funeral expenses. In fact, Znachko sometimes "adopts" a child that has died recently, takes responsibility for the child's remains and receives death certificates for the baby to her mailbox.

Recently, Znachko organized and facilitated a double funeral for two children - a newborn baby that was abandoned in the woods and a 1-year-old child who died in the care of a guardian while her mother was in prison. Remarkably, the funeral drew nearly 100 attendees and every aspect of the service was donated, including the funeral chapel, cemetery plot, funeral gowns, caskets, flowers and embalming.

Znachko said that the essence of her ministry is to flip the story around and say, 'Yes there is a tragedy. Yes, it was hard. But let's remember the life and the name of the child.'

Linda's husband, Steve Znachko, commented on his wife's compassion and said, "She has a heart for the tragedy behind a mother that would dump a child. There's never been any judgment. There's only been sorrow. She feels so drawn to the tragedy of the community and the tragedy of the parents. Of saying what must it have been like for a mom and a dad to dump a baby." Linda added that she always reminds herself that she doesn't know everything about the women who abandon their babies and knows they are going through more than she can imagine.