He lost a child to abortion. Now he works to save others.

Tim Clement attained an associate degree at a Bible college but didn’t consider himself a “serious” Christian — and failing to listen to his mother's advice led him down a painful path. When he was in his twenties, his mother became a Christian as he was moving away from Christianity, and she told him that if he ever got a woman pregnant, to never consider abortion.

Tragically, he did not listen.

A Conscience War

In an interview with Live Action News, Clement explained, “She told me she’d parent my child and take the responsibility out of my hands, if necessary. When my girlfriend got pregnant a year later, she was insistent on having an abortion even though I half-heartedly tried to talk her out it.”

Despite his reluctance about the abortion, he believed the cultural lie that it was a woman’s right to choose, and also believed that the preborn child isn’t a “baby” until two months gestation.

“I thought, we have to get to the clinic and get this done before the two-month mark,” Clement said. 

The time was 1996, and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act had been passed two years prior. There were no sidewalk counselors outside the abortion clinic, and Clement feels that if a sidewalk counselor had been there to speak truth to him, it might have made a difference. But he didn't blame the church.

Clement said, “In Bible College, it was conveyed that while abortion was wrong, we didn’t need to act like ‘radicals,’ so as a young man, I never developed strong convictions about abortion.”

“I was already at war with my conscience,” Clement said. “When I was in the waiting room, I just kept my eyes in a magazine. I couldn’t look at anyone.”

As he waited for his girlfriend for two hours, he kept hearing a buzzing sound and could feel a vibration through the wall.

Clement said, “I equated the sound with the abortion procedure.”

When his girlfriend came out, Clement drove her home and the two argued. The couple eventually broke off their engagement.

“We weren’t honoring God with our lifestyle,” Clement said. “I should have fought harder to save my baby because deep in my heart, I knew abortion was murder. I just didn’t have deep convictions at the time — and in many respects, the abortion was an easy way out for me.”

An unexpected conversion

For three years Clement suppressed his feelings about that day at the clinic. He denied any responsibility for his part in the termination of his girlfriend’s pregnancy. 

Now living in Las Vegas, Clement met Jerry Fagan, a retired Sands Casino dealer who challenged him to read the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Clement said, “I never read the full context of the Gospels while in Bible College. I knew who Jesus was but never chose to follow Him.”

Fagan had urged Clement to find a home church. He had a friend who was going through the 12-step program who was also looking for a church, so the two decided to visit a large church together. It was after the service that the pain Clement had suppressed for too long hit him.

“I was standing in the courtyard with about 200 people when my friend mentioned he was going to get his daughter from Sunday school,” Clement said. “I thought, I should have a child that age by now. Then, a young child suddenly ran up to me and hugged me. My heart just broke, and I cried like a baby.”

Clement confessed the abortion to his mentor, who told him to repent and trust Jesus. It was then that Clement fully turned his life over to Jesus and became a born-again believer.

“I had been previously living for myself,” Clement said. “But now, I found forgiveness at the cross. I went back to Bible college and eventually attained a master’s degree in theology.”

A new mission

Clement planned to attend seminary but instead found himself working at a rescue mission as a chaplain for a men’s recovery program.

“I went through the 12-step program with the men and when I came to step 8 about making amends, I shared about the abortion," he said.

During his time at the rescue mission, he met many men who told of their involvement in abortions. Some remained silent when their partners expressed a desire to end their pregnancies or ended them against the men's wishes; others pressured their partners to have abortions. 

“They all experienced so much heartache,” Clement said. “Many felt they had no voice when it came to the woman’s choice.”

Clement began to understand how helpless many felt to stop the killing of their preborn children. Soon, Clement would have a new mission.

“AJ Hurley, who was the Director of Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, asked me to come to D.C. for an abortion survivors bootcamp," Clement explained. “We took the camp to the Supreme Court and as we were standing there holding signs, we were attacked by pro-abortion protesters.”

Clement recalls that the protesters screamed at him that because he was a man, and therefore, he was not allowed to speak about abortion. For Clement, he recognized it as another ubiquitous cultural lie, like the lie that a preborn child is just a “clump of cells” until after two months gestation.

It was a bittersweet moment when he heard Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, announce that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that forced states to legalize abortion, had been overturned.

“I was honored to be there that day in D.C for such an important milestone in the pro-life movement,” Clement said.

After that momentous time, Clement volunteered with Hurley and the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust for six months. When Hurley moved on from the organization, Clement was hired as the new director, focusing on campus outreach activities geared toward changing young people’s hearts and minds about abortion.

“The greatest evil in our nation is the killing of innocent babies," said Clement. "I will continue to speak out for the preborn through difficult conversations that change minds.”