After years as an abortion provider, Dr. Dave Sandridge’s change of heart led him to open his own practice in Asheville, North Carolina, a practice that would affirm his position as a pro-life physician.

Now retired, Sandridge divides his time between Asheville and his home at LakeKeowee in Oconee County, South Carolina.  He also devotes time as a board member for Hope Women’s Center, a Christian-based crisis pregnancy center serving PickensCounty.

Sandridge recalled how, during his 20 years at his Christian, pro-life practice, even his patients taught him life lessons.

A particular patient had come to him for assistance in having a child. “She was a very large woman, so large that we couldn’t weigh her, but I would estimate that her weight was 350 pounds,” he said. “Her husband slightly outweighed her. Her weight had contributed to her irregular menstrual periods and her failure to ovulate. I worked with her for years without success, and she gave up.” She later tested positive in a pregnancy test. Sandridge and his nurses were anxious to perform an ultrasound. “When we saw the heart beating, all of us in the practice shared in her joy,” he said.

When the patient returned for ultrasound dating, they discovered something terribly wrong. “The baby was badly deformed,” he said. “We did an amniocentesis and consulted with a perinatologist in Chapel Hill. The baby had a chromosomal abnormality incompatible with life, and would die during pregnancy or immediately upon birth.”

The patient decided to carry the baby to term rather than abort. She and her husband took natural-childbirth classes in order to share the experience, and her husband accompanied her on every pre-natal visit. “They felt that they might not get another chance to experience what they had been denied for so long,” Sandridge said. “They listened to the heartbeat, savoring an experience they felt they might not ever have again.”

By the time she had reached term through her difficult pregnancy, she had gained even more weight, had swollen, had been on bed rest, and had almost developed toxemia.

The day she delivered, she had arrived at the hospital in labor. Sandridge soon realized, however, that she would need help in delivering, but he was hesitant to put her at risk. Another heavyset woman, undergoing a caesarian section (c-section) a few months earlier in a nearby hospital, had died from lack of oxygen after the anesthetist had been unable to insert a breathing tube. Sandridge explained to his patient that using forceps in delivery could cause her baby’s death, but he also told her the risks involved in a caesarian section. “I was hesitant,” he said, “fearing the risk was too great. We prayed together and decided to go ahead with the c-section.”

The baby was delivered alive, and the parents held their newborn, their severely deformed child, for the first few moments of the child’s life. Shortly after birth, the baby died. “They explained to us that the Lord gave and took life, and they were grateful for the short time the Lord had given them their baby,” said Sandridge.

“They brought pictures of the casket and the funeral to the office,” he said. “All of us were so moved and humbled. We were so impressed with this couple’s witness to us, giving us a new outlook on these situations.”

A year and a half later, the woman and her husband conceived again, and delivered a healthy child.

Sandridge said that he learned a valuable lesson from the experience. “When patients say they don’t believe in abortion but their situation is so frightening, so awful, so complex that God can’t solve it, is that right? I found out that God has awesome power, and that you can trust Him in every situation. As my faith grew, I became more courageous in providing pro-life advice.

“I also found,” he continued, “that patients seeking abortion often would not terminate if their ‘buts’ were addressed, if they had Christian support and fellowship, and if ultrasound could be done in order to initiate bonding between mother and child.”

His pro-life stance was not always so bold. In the early years of his first practice, he struggled with his choice of providing abortion to patients.

“How easy it is to be pro-life until you are placed in a situation that seems hopeless,” he said. “I found that women facing an unplanned, inappropriate, or abnormal pregnancy were so desperate that they would be willing to cut off an arm if it meant they would no longer be pregnant. Demonstrating in front of an abortion facility is only helpful if you can deter a patient from abortion by offering her the helping hand of love and support.”

Sandridge began practicing in Asheville in 1973, the same year that the United States Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that a woman was guaranteed a right to abortion. Prior to 1973, women often terminated pregnancies in unsafe, illegal ‘criminal abortions’, risking their own lives from complications of the procedure. Sandridge and his fellow obstetricians wanted to provide safe abortions as well as safe follow-up, to deter ‘abortion mills’ from coming to town, performing abortions, and then leaving without the doctor providing follow-up for the patient. Sandridge once sat in a hospital’s intensive care unit with a woman who was in septic shock due to having undergone a criminal abortion. “We would have liked to have seen some way to have avoided that issue,” he said. “That is probably why we were all involved in terminating pregnancies. Nobody liked doing abortions. We tried to deter it, but, many times, there didn’t seem to be any options.”

In the 1970’s, Sandridge said, the attitude toward unwed mothers was not as kindas it is today. “Women were ‘ruined’ if they got pregnant out of wedlock,” he said. “They would have to leave town. Their parents would kick them out of the home, or they would arrange for them to go live with a relative or go to a home for unwed mothers. Often, they were shunned by the church, lost their jobs, were expelled from college. It seemed that ‘God’s grace’ wasn’t sufficient for them. There were no pregnancy support centers they could turn to.

“This was before the days of ultrasound,” he added. Consequently, not seeing the life within the womb made the choice easier to abort. “I think the general public now feels that life begins early on,” he said. “I think we are winning the abortion argument, because people realize it is life. It is hard to terminate something that you see living inside of you, and you begin bonding with that baby immediately. That’s why it’s important for places like Hope Women’s Center to have an ultrasound machine.”

As Sandridge and his wife committed to growing spiritually, found a church home, and became involved in Bible studies, he found that performing abortions conflicted with his spiritual values. He sought counsel from pastors and from fellow doctors who were Christians.

The practice was picketed, and Sandridge felt that the picketers did not understand his dilemma.  “I felt that those picketing in front of the office just didn’t understand the tough decisions I was facing,” he said. “I felt they were content to deny abortion and leave the woman alone to face the consequences of her mistake. I confronted pastors who picketed my office, challenging them to provide help for my patients. Some agreed that I could call them and refer cases to them for help. Many had thought that patients were making flippant decisions and were surprised how compelling many of the reasons were. So many times, patients seeking abortion would say, ‘I don’t believe in abortion, but –’ and they would detail the reasons why they thought termination was justified. What they were really saying was that these reasons, these situations, were so challenging that God couldn’t provide a solution for them. I challenged the picketers to take away the ‘buts’ that patients expressed as reasons to terminate. I see Hope Women’s Center playing a role in taking away the ‘buts’, with the assistance of all of those churches who have a heart for the unborn.”

Sandridge realized that he needed to leave the practice and start his own. Lack of finances, however, prevented his doing so, especially after an investment with an oil well partnership went under. After his mother’s death from pancreatic cancer, he used funds from her estate to begin his practice, to pay his employees and to purchase an ultrasound machine, which, he said, “dramatically impacted my practice.”

Grace OB/GYN, begun in 1985, grew beyond his expectations. “I will be forever grateful to God for the blessings He bestowed upon me and the practice,” he said. “I have seen Him work through my patients, partners, and employees to achieve His goals. They have all been such a witness to me.”

He remembered one patient who came to him for advice after she found out that the baby she was carrying had Down’s Syndrome. “I told her that I would not terminate, based on my belief,” he said. “Shortly after the birth of her baby, she told me that she wished she had terminated. I really felt terrible. I felt that I had let her down. She, not I, would have to take care of this child for life. Several years later, she told me that she was glad she had carried the pregnancy. She was active in the Down’s Syndrome support group, and her son had become a special blessing.

“I understand what growing spiritually means—developing a Christian world view and applying biblical principles to our lives. A Christian world view requires that we believe that each and every one of us arrived here as part of God’s plan. He knew us before we were born. We didn’t evolve. We didn’t just occur by chance. God cares so much for us that He sent His Son to die for our sins.

“I only had a goal of having a Christian pro-life practice that supported the world view of my Christian patients,” he added. “I never expected to publish papers, lecture, or teach laparoscopy. Leaning on my own understanding, I was getting nowhere—in fact, headed in the direction of an abortion doctor, not an infertility specialist and gynecologic surgeon. When the Lord directed my paths, He carried me to great success. I had to pass through a number of valleys on the way, but the Lord was always there for each and every trial.”

Sandridge’s spiritual growth had guided him into becoming bold in counseling women who sought abortion. “I challenged patients seeking abortion to believe that God did have a solution to their problem,” he said. “This required that they believe in God’s power and trust Him to use it. I realized that I had done abortions because I had limited God’s power. I just didn’t believe there were any other solutions. I now realize that there are many solutions.

“As Christians, we must not think only about the unborn baby. We must have compassion for the mother and realize her desperation. We have a role to play. We can be part of God’s solution. God will work through us, demonstrating his awesome power, providing solutions we never thought possible.

“God works through His people and His church. I see God working through Hope Women’s Center, demonstrating Christ’s forgiving, unconditional love toward women who have made a mistake.

“Hope Women’s Center can provide the beginning of a new life. The problems facing a woman with an unplanned pregnancy are challenging. Hope Women’s Center can’t do it all. Hope needs to find a church home and Christian friends for its clients. Hope needs volunteers who can be called on to help with the ‘buts’ that women express as they consider the difficulties of an unplanned pregnancy. This could be a temporary place to stay, a ride to work, a job, a car, some extra cash, baby supplies, a car seat, or just emotional support.

      “God works through His people and His church. God also works powerfully in the lives of patients who choose  life. I know how powerfully God worked in my life after I became a pro-life doctor.”