{"id":286967,"date":"2023-03-14T08:42:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T13:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=286967"},"modified":"2023-03-12T19:21:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T00:21:45","slug":"multiple-abortions-prison-lisa-stribling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/multiple-abortions-prison-lisa-stribling\/","title":{"rendered":"After multiple abortions and time in prison, Lisa found healing and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Seventeen years old, homeless<\/a>, and with no parental guidance, Lisa Stribling discovered she was pregnant \u2014 again \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stribling told Live Action News, \u201cMy 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\u2019t have a permanent address, so I decided abortion<\/a> was the best solution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, Stribling\u2019s sister worked at Planned Parenthood. Devastated at Stribling\u2019s decision to abort, she kept her sister\u2019s baby\u2019s remains in a canister for several months, eventually leaving the abortion industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister asked for forgiveness for her participation in killing babies,\u201d Stribling said. \u201cShe never believed in what she was doing but for me, I just disconnected myself from the experience and kept moving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201cThe Wild Child.\u201d But, once again, Stribling terminated her pregnancy \u2014 her second abortion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stribling said, \u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t take care of another baby. My boyfriend and I were unstable, and I didn\u2019t want to bring a child into that situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Choosing drugs over parenting<\/b><\/p>\n

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. <\/span><\/p>\n

During this time, she became pregnant with her fifth child but instead of choosing life as before, she chose to end her pregnancy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be my third abortion, but I was shouldering the burden of raising two children and I did not want another baby,\u201d Stribling said. \u201cMy husband didn\u2019t care what I decided, and my friends encouraged me to end the pregnancy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stribling\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone at the clinic acted as if they were robots without any emotions, even the doctor committing the abortion,\u201d Stribling said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding redemption leads to defending life<\/b><\/p>\n

Not long after she had aborted their son, Stribling\u2019s husband, now in jail, accepted Christ\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019t have imagined the devastation she was soon to experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stribling said, \u201cOnce in prison, I was evaluated and given a scan indicating I was carrying conjoined twins. The doctor who couldn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0two babies. Once there, she was chained to a hospital bed for the late-term induction abortion, which took three days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy babies were born alive and left on the table to die,\u201d Stribling said. \u201cMy sister came and stayed with the babies. She had begged me not to have the abortion, but I didn\u2019t have much of a choice; my life was no longer my own to navigate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n