From a recent letter to Rev. Don Richman, International Representative for Lutherans For Life, from Gunte Irbe from Riga, Latvia. Gunta is married to Martin Irbes, a missionary for the East European Mission Network and pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Riga.
I don’t think we need to even try to get Abby Johnson to Latvia. Let her use her time in the USA. We have our own “Doctor Heroes.” Last year I must have told you about the head of the Gynecology Dept. at the Valmiera hospital, Gints Lapins, who one day decided that he was no longer going to do abortions. His wife, who worked with him also agreed to no longer to abortions. So for a while those patients that insisted on having abortions they just referred to other doctors. After a while these doctors caught on and said “what kind of fools are we?” and said they didn’t want to do abortions either. So now we have an entire hospital in Northern Latvia that is not performing abortions. This has set off quite a furor in Latvia.
The situation here is different than in the USA because every gynecologist is taught that they must perform abortions—as if the women have the right to request this of their doctors. In one sense because abortions are available at almost all hospitals, the oversight and regulation is much stricter. On the other hand, when we moved to Latvia in 1998, there was only one gynecologist in the country who had stood up to say she would not do abortions—we had her speak at the first Sanctity of Life Conference.
Last Saturday, I was invited to my parents’ home town, to speak about Lutherans For Life at the church where both my parents were baptized and confirmed. It was the first time I gave the “Life Alfa” presentation that Janis Diekonts has developed, based on Prof. Lamb’s videos. It is exceptionally well done:
- What the Bible says about why our life has worth—because God created us and Jesus paid for us on the cross.
- The biological development of the fetus with beautiful pictures.
- What is abortion—in words, no pictures.
- How to get forgiveness and healing after an abortion—acknowledge it as a sin, go to confession, receive absolution, participate in the sacrament, and continue to pray.
The “Life Alfa” presentation was very good, largely because of the quality of the production. But after I spoke Dr. Lapins got up and spoke about how no doctor can perform an abortion without hardening his heart and as time goes on this becomes even more difficult and the heart becomes increasingly hardened. His wife was with him but wouldn’t speak simply because the lecture was going on two hours and held in a very cold church sanctuary. But she also obviously had much to say.
Afterwards we spoke and decided that we need to do this again—and probably in Valmiera. They feel obligated to speak publically about this and try to accept every invitation. Unfortunately, timing didn’t allow them to be at our Sanctity of Life Conference last year, but perhaps this year. I’ve been thinking that it would be great if I could do the introduction part of the “Life Alfa,” the doctors could speak about the biological/medical part, and we could have the local pastor speak about how to receive forgiveness of sins after an abortion.
On Saturday two women from different towns gave me their phone numbers and said they want to help with the work of Lutherans For Life. I was very encouraged.