God's Miraculous Hand in Missouri's HB 126 8 Week Abortion Ban

Nine years ago, April 29, 2010, I suffered a traumatic miscarriage. It was a turning point for me personally in my stand for life. Before that event, I had been pro-life, but I had never shed a single tear over the issue of abortion. I knew in my heart and mind that abortion was wrong and grieved God’s heart, and I had been leading Bound4LIFE St. Louis with my husband for several years.

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This event in my life was the thing that finally broke my heart and showed me a glimpse of the Father’s heart for the unborn. It was this experience that opened the flood gates for me and brought the tears. It was also shortly after going through this that I got pregnant. It is always challenging to have hope and faith in God for a different outcome after going through loss and disappointment. I knew I wouldn’t make it through the pregnancy without a word from God, a promise that I could stand on.

God brought me to a scripture that is now my life verse and what I cling to during trying times.

Psalm 126:5-6:

“Those who sow with tears WILL reap with songs of JOY. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”

These verses would not have been as meaningful to me before the miscarriage because I didn’t know what it meant “sow in tears,” that concept was foreign to me. So that’s what I have done for nine years. I have stood at my kitchen sink, on the sidewalk outside abortion clinics and courthouses, and in our prayer room and shed tears as I have prayed for LIFE in my state, and asked God to release the harvest of joy. In many ways, I have been pregnant with this promise of a harvest of joy for nine years! It’s the longest pregnancy ever!

Then in February 2019, I happened to be at our state capitol with another pro-life organization on the day that House Bill 126 passed the Missouri House of Representatives. It was a momentous occasion. This bill is a sweeping pro-life piece of legislation that would ban abortions at eight weeks, among other things. It is known as the strongest pro-life bill in the nation! However, the most defining thing about this piece of legislation was that it was 126th bill filled in this session. God was speaking of my promise, and I knew it immediately!

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We continued to follow the progress of the bill as it made its way through our Senate. At the end of April, I had three dreams in the span of a week, and a dear friend had another that we felt were clearly from God. In my dreams, I was pregnant and giving birth; in each one, there was an obstacle in the way of the baby being born. In my friend’s dream, I was also pregnant and had given birth to a baby we named “Steady Endurance.” We took all these dreams to the Lord in prayer and asked for a revelation of what He was speaking so we could pray in line with God’s will for our state. With each of my dreams, I woke up during the hour of 4 am. We felt this was a strategic prayer assignment and felt led to cover the hour of 4 am in prayer.

In partnership with a local House of Prayer, we had a small band of prayer warriors commit to get up and pray at 4 am, two people each day the Senate was in session. Along the way, God was speaking to us through His word and encouraging us to keep going! We committed to the prayer strike until the bill passed, and it ended up lasting three weeks. On May 16th, the last day of our scheduled prayer strike, at 4:01 am the Senate chamber announced that HB 126 had passed by a vote of 24-10! God, once again, was showing his faithfulness to His promises!

HB 126, banning abortions after the eighth weeks of pregnancy with no exception for rape or incest,  now heads to Governor Mike Parson’s desk, who is expected to sign it into law.

- Melissa Jacobs