His pro-life values and love for his then-girlfriend and now-wife, Loren, remained steadfast throughout their unplanned pregnancy, two miscarriages and rainbow baby — which helped inspire the creation of this pro-life storytelling ministry.

Receiving a pair of pink baby shoes in a Valentine’s box wasn’t something that Cooper expected during his last semester in college. 

Cooper received that gift on February 23, 2023 — the day his girlfriend, Loren, found out she was pregnant.

“I was a little bit scared, but also very excited and had a nervous happiness,” Cooper recalls.

Despite the anxiety and worries they had, Cooper and Loren both knew choosing life was the right choice. They were happy that they were going to be parents and made a decision that day that they would get married and keep their baby. 

“I did think about abortion in the context of how terrible that would be,” Cooper says. “I was like, how could a person ever kill her baby, even something unplanned when you’re not expecting to have a baby?”

Cooper found encouragement from his mom and friends, who gave him a hug and told him he was going to be a great dad. But still Cooper received criticism and judgment from other people. He was told by some that choosing to stay and be a father would be a detriment to his future. He was advised to even consider adoption or abortion. Yet, Cooper chose to stay and be a father. He grew to love the baby and started planning for a different future than he had in mind. 

On top of a full load of engineering classes, Cooper spent his weekends detailing tractors and combines to save money for the baby. He also went above and beyond to make sure Loren felt supported and encouraged during the pregnancy.

“It felt odd. It felt like I was speeding up my life, just getting everything out of the way before my retirement. I was going with the flow — that’s how I would describe that unplanned pregnancy, and that’s a good way to sum up the last year of college — just going with the flow and letting life take me where it may,” Cooper says.

Cooper and Loren got engaged five weeks before their college graduation.

Cooper had hopes and dreams for the baby, but they all came crumbling down on March 13, 2023. He and Loren found out during their ultrasound appointment that the baby had stopped developing. 

“It was shocking. I saw the first ultrasound, and there wasn’t anything there. I kind of knew then that we weren’t going to have a viable pregnancy. I had some hope left, but I think I’d already accepted that we might not end up having a baby,” Cooper recalls.

A few weeks later, Cooper and Loren received the official confirmation that the baby had been lost to a miscarriage.

“I processed my grief all at once. It was just a wave of emotions,” Cooper says.

Cooper and Loren eloped in the mountains of Idaho, six days after their engagement.

Despite losing the baby, Cooper and Loren got engaged in April 2023 and eloped on a mountain six days later. Loren physically miscarried three days after their wedding.

“It was painful to watch because I couldn’t really do anything. But I just knew the only thing I really could do at the time was to be there for Loren. So that’s what I did. I just stood by her side and supported her. I felt called to be there for her,” Cooper says.

Cooper married his college sweetheart, Loren.

Facing an unplanned pregnancy and losing a baby in the span of two months was difficult for both Cooper and Loren. But even with those challenges, they were able to graduate on time, with Cooper receiving his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering.

A few months after their wedding, Cooper and Loren faced another painful miscarriage, followed by a diagnosis of an incurable condition in Loren’s blood that caused the miscarriages. But they received a prophetic word from a friend that God would heal Loren’s body and that she would have a healthy pregnancy. That friend even prophesied that they would have a son.

All of that came to be in December 2023 when Cooper and Loren found out they were pregnant. God healed Loren from that incurable condition, and in January 2024, they got to see their rainbow baby on the ultrasound screen — a redemptive moment in their story since they didn’t get to see their first baby on the ultrasound screen. 

Cooper is now a father to a baby boy, whom he loves and adores deeply. His pro-life stance during the unplanned pregnancy was one of the inspirations behind Loren’s decision to start a pro-life storytelling ministry in April 2023 called Unplanned: Stories of Resilience with the hope of encouraging men and women to choose life, one pro-life story at a time.

Cooper’s encouragement to men who are facing an unplanned pregnancy:

“Encourage your significant other. Let her know that she is not alone. Be there for her. Speak words of encouragement. The most important thing is just be present in her life. Prepare yourself. That means many things for many different people, but you need to realize that you’re a father now. Your duty is to your child and to the woman who is the mother of your child, and hopefully she’ll become your wife. But if not, that duty still remains to her in a way and most importantly to your child. You’ll always, always have to take care of your child. He’s half of you and your wife and all of God.”

Written by Loren Ward.

This story is part of our Real Men Choose Life series where we share fathers’ pro-life stories to encourage other men to man up and do the right thing — to choose life.