This is a story about a 15-year-old boy who got the news that his 15-year-old girlfriend is pregnant. He is a freshman in the high school where he and his girlfriend attend. This 15-year-old boy was Laval W. Belle, author of Man, How Many Children Do You Really Have?: The Abandoned Family. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Belle was the sixth child of nine boys and one girl. Although there were at least six fathers among them, he never knew who his natural father was. The words “I love you” were never spoken in their home growing up. It was a household of survival, confusion, hunger, and excitement, all at the same time. Determined not to repeat the mistakes of his mother by having children out of wedlock with multiple partners, Belle made up in his mind as a child that he would never be poor again. He was determined to be rich and very successful at all costs! This came true for the most part, or so he thought.

Some years ago, Belle was invited to a ceremony for women and men who had experienced an abortion or miscarriage. It was hosted by an organization called No Longer Bound Abortion Recovery Ministry. He had no idea of the lasting impact attending that ceremony would have on his life. The ceremony was basically a funeral service for men and women who had experienced an abortion or miscarriage, and provided closure for parents who aborted or miscarried their children. Unknowingly, the memorial service ignited the process of liberating Belle’s heart and consciousness from the denial of his own abortion experiences. When he experienced his first aborted child as a freshman in high school, he didn’t realize then that his decision would unleash a parade of aborted souls. Men and women in the No Longer Bound ceremony confronted their abortion decisions and opened the door of recovery from torment, guilt, shame, forgiveness, and freedom. The program remained with Belle and continued to unlock the denial in his heart.

After attending the No Longer Bound ceremony, Belle decided to reach out to the mothers of all his born and unborn children. What he discovered was mind-blowing! Not only did the mother of one of his living children have a miscarriage, but she aborted one of their children as well. This was information he never knew. What he learned from that conversation was…I built my success on the lives of all my aborted children. His so-called accomplishments were at the expense of the mothers’ shame, torment, and abandonment. Today, he openly shares that he not only has an intellectual awareness of his actions but a spiritual and emotional awareness as well.

Belle writes, “Men and women were created to be fruitful and multiply; however, it’s the man who possesses the earth-populating seeds. Imagine if you were a farmer or gardener and you distributed your seeds indiscriminately around the world. During the process, you consciously or unconsciously abandoned your investment. What do you think would happen to your seeds? Your crops and garden would probably die. Suppose nature decided not to water the seeds of life? The world would be no more. So is the case with the abandoned seeds of the womb. Abortion threatens the human family. There is no family without life. There is no life without children.”

In his book, Man, How Many Children Do You Really Have?: The Abandoned Family, Belle’s desire is for every man to experience the same freedom he did when he attended No Longer Bound’s memorial service. He wants to sound the alarm and encourage every male, young and old, to accept full responsibility for abandoning their child and the mother in their greatest time of need. He shares, “It is time for a family reunion of the aborted children and abandoned mothers.” Belle acknowledges many men, including himself, have been selfish and destructive.