Our lives matter. Even our small lives can make a difference when we surrender them to God and seek to follow His agenda for our days. What’s His agenda for us?

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:7-9.)

He wants us to be His arms and His voice in the world, to defend the widows and orphans, to stand up for those who have no voice and are defenseless. Like babies.

This week, I read about one woman who has made a big difference in a dark land. Chai Ling is a Chinese activist who led student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989, landing her on her country’s Most Wanted list. More recently, she founded a group called "All Girls Allowed” to fight the Chinese one-child policy.

They just won a major victory. According to the September 13 article in “The Christian Post” by Lillian Kwon, China’s Population and Family Planning Commission recently issued a ban on forced abortion to enforce its one-child policy, largely credited to the international outcry generated in part by Chai Ling’s influence. I will let Kwon’s article speak for itself:

"Under China’s one-child policy, family planning officials have long dragged women pregnant with an additional child to hospitals where they were forced to have an abortion. . . .

"One case that drew international attention and widespread media coverage in June involved a 7-month pregnant woman, Feng Jianmei. After being beaten by family planning officials, she was forced to sign an abortion ‘consent’ form and toxins were injected into the brain of her unborn daughter. She gave birth to her deceased child on June 4. A picture of her lying on a hospital bed next to her baby was released. . . .

"’If there had been no graphic picture of her (Feng Jianmei), no media firestorm, no global outcry, and no anger voiced by social media users in China,  then the central government might never have done anything,’ Lewis (All Girls Allowed spokesperson) told The Christian Post. . . .

"Despite progress, there are still other forms of coercion that the government is utilizing to keep families from growing. This includes the huge fines that families are forced to pay for an additional child. . . .

"’Human rights will take a back seat as long as the government continues to use family planning fees as a major revenue source. China cannot genuinely claim that the policy is ‘coercion-free’ until it no longer threatens parents’ livelihoods and ability to provide,’ Ling said. . . .

"More than 13 million abortions are performed each year in China. Family planning leaders claim that the one-child policy has prevented 400 million births over its 32 years."

One person. One large step forward in justice for the voiceless.