Hearing her daughter’s heartbeat led her to choose life and adoption, inspiring her pro-life advocacy in the legal sector. 

Pregnant? Scared?

Those words on a pro-life billboard caught Elizabeth’s attention as she grappled with her unplanned pregnancy at 15 years old.

Elizabeth was terrified, unsure of what her future would look like with a baby in her life. Everyone around her, including her mom, urged her to get an abortion. 

“Everyone in my life told me to get an abortion. I didn’t know anything about abortion, so I just made an appointment,” she says.

Elizabeth had to wait two weeks for her appointment, but God seemingly used that short period of time to change her mind and save her baby’s life. Seeing that billboard ad was no mere coincidence. 

She called the number posted on the ad and connected with a local pregnancy help center. That same day, the center offered her counseling, a pregnancy test and a free ultrasound.

“I get on the table, and the doctor puts the gel on and finds the baby. Then, he turned the sound on, and her heartbeat took over the entire room. I just knew that I could not get an abortion,” Elizabeth says. “The flip that switched that made me realize that this is a human being with a heart and their own body was when I heard her heartbeat and that’s when I was like, this is a person.”

Elizabeth left the pregnancy center choosing life for her baby. Her mom, however, didn’t support her decision, and Elizabeth soon found herself homeless.

The God of details

At 15 years old, Elizabeth was not only facing an unplanned pregnancy, but homelessness as well. She stole food to eat and sometimes slept on the couches of friends and relatives.

Even in her struggles, God pursued Elizabeth and blessed her and her baby through the people she met. One of the volunteers at the pregnancy help center often bumped into her and would give her donations of food and clothes. It was one of many ways God provided for Elizabeth during a turbulent season in her life.

“People tell me all the time, ‘Oh, you’re so strong. I can’t believe you did that all alone.’ And I’m like, I wasn’t alone. There were people who, if they did not let God burden them with love for me, I don’t think I would have made it and I’m so thankful for them,” Elizabeth says.

A small group leader at Elizabeth’s church invited her to dinner one day, which changed the trajectory of her life. Her church friend encouraged her with some verses, including Jeremiah 29:11 — “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Her friend’s encouragement uplifted her, and she felt the love of God that night. This led Elizabeth to give her life to the Lord. She then prayed for wisdom regarding her pregnancy.

“I got on my hands and knees and I asked, ‘God, I don’t know what to do with this baby. Please give me wisdom. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do it.’ And he said adoption,” Elizabeth recalls.

The next day, Elizabeth called the pregnancy help center, where she was connected to several adoption agencies. An adoption caseworker met with Elizabeth and stacked a pile of binders on a table that contained information of families who were wanting to adopt. She randomly picked up a binder and perused through the information of a particular family. Little did she know she would later choose that family as her daughter’s adoptive parents.

About a month after the adoption process started, Elizabeth went into early labor and had to undergo an emergency C-section.

“It was really scary. I was alone,” Elizabeth recalls. “I remember being strapped down to the table because they have your arms strapped down so you don’t freak out, and I was also just 15.”

Without her mother there, Elizabeth didn’t have any support to lean onto. But God provided in that moment, and the adoptive mother of Elizabeth’s baby came into the delivery room and prayed over her. She encouraged Elizabeth during the entire procedure, and they both heard their daughter’s first cry.

“I always thought that God was really into the details, and it was so good of Him to allow both of us to be in the room when she was born,” Elizabeth says.

Daughter inspires mom’s pro-life advocacy

Elizabeth Edmonds has written several laws that passed in Georgia, and she has also introduced laws at the federal level. 

Choosing adoption was a loving and selfless decision Elizabeth made to ensure her child was provided for and cared for by a family in ways she couldn’t as a 15-year-old mom.

“I had an abundance of grief. But I had peace, and those two things can coexist,” Elizabeth says.

Elizabeth’s sacrifice motivated her to find a purpose for her life. She graduated from high school and pursued a degree in paralegal studies in college. 

Since then, she has worked as a lobbyist and activist for Georgia Life Alliance and now works as a paralegal for Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian law firm that wrote the model legislation that overturned Roe v. Wade.

“I knew that there was a chance she might never want to meet me,” Elizabeth says. “But in the chance she ever did want to meet me, I wanted her to be proud of what she finds, so I became really involved in the pro-life movement.”

‘Nothing in life is planned’

Elizabeth Edmonds met her daughter, Betsy, for the first time in November 2022.

One of the laws she drafted passed in Georgia in 2022. Named after her daughter, Betsy’s Law provides for maternity supportive housing for pregnant women up to 18 months after childbirth. 

The law’s passing opened a door of reconciliation that Elizabeth did not foresee. Betsy’s adoptive mom notified Betsy about the law. Betsy was so proud of what her mom had done and wanted to connect with her.

After 17 years of waiting, Elizabeth met her daughter for the first time in November 2022. They embraced each other for a long time and talked for five hours at a restaurant.

Since their first meet up, Elizabeth and her daughter text regularly and have seen each other a few times. Elizabeth got to send Betsy a gift for her birthday for the first time this year.  

“God is into details, intricately and intimately, and even things we don’t understand make sense eventually,” Elizabeth says. “Nothing in life is planned. We can try it. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s will is what prevails.”

Written by Loren Ward.