In the abortion debate, arguments typically focus on circumstances, economics, emotions, and health concerns. People may even attempt to take the high ground by advocating that abortion is in the favor of the unborn child because he or she would be born unwanted or faced with undue hardships. But the undeniable scientific fact is that once conception occurs, a life has begun. What is the value of that one life? What real difference can come out of the existence of a single, average individual in the big, wide world?
Unwanted and alone
Enter William Avery, a 92-year-old Michigan resident, who fits all the criteria of those who are said to be better off not born: unwanted, abandoned, orphaned, alone in the world.
Conceived in rape and born to a 15-year-old mother in St. Joseph, Missouri, during the Great Depression, Avery was given a chance at living only because his mother ultimately refused, was denied, or had no access to an abortion. Just a few months before he was born, his mother married the man he grew up knowing as his father. Whether by “choice” or not, Avery entered the world in 1932 – a rather cold, harsh world in which he experienced few pleasures in his early years.
“I didn’t have toys; I didn’t know what Christmas was,” Avery recalled.
The growing family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, and Avery now had 3 younger siblings. When Avery was 11 – and his siblings were 9 years old, 7 years old, and 1 year old – his parents divorced, and he was separated from his father. A few months later, his mother abandoned her three oldest children. Avery and his younger brothers were on their own for a week before their father found them. A year later, his father died unexpectedly – leaving Avery and the others alone in the world again.
Finding his way
At 16 years old, Avery began boarding with a farmer in Union City, Michigan, where he worked 16-hour days for $15 a week. In this way, he completed his last two years of high school and graduated, fulfilling one of his father’s dreams.
“When I finished high school in 1951, I didn’t have any place to go, but I had to find a place to make a living and pursue my legacy,” Avery told The Stand. “I went back to Missouri and pursued a birth certificate, and there was no record of my birth in the state of Missouri or any place in the world. So that didn’t give me any sense of being anything as a person. I was really a homeless person.”
So, with no roots in Missouri, Avery returned to Union City, Michigan, where he had attended high school. As a boy growing up alone without a family, he had received kindess from the residents there and found a sense of belonging.
From that tentative foothold in society, Avery began his adult life – and flourished. He married, began raising a family, and was embraced as an active and respected citizen in Union City. In fact, he became a leader in the community, serving as village president for 12 years and as a council member for 19 years, an office which he still holds. In 2024, he was named Union City Citizen of the Year for his long-standing contributions to the community.
A lifesaving moment
But the real turning point in his life was when he came to faith in Christ – on March 8, 1964.
“I was at a crusade, and the message pointed at my life, what it stood for, where I was going, that kind of thing. I realized then that I needed to come to Christ, and I needed to do it soon,” Avery recalled. “That was a lifesaving moment in my life, and it brought an immediate change in my dynamics. I had played church for some time, and I was a church leader, a youth leader, a Sunday school teacher, but I really didn’t have a message for any of those people. I was simply a nice person, so I was accepted because of that, not because of my faith.”
After coming to faith, he continued to be even more active in ministry, but now as a believer.
“I was grateful really to be able to go and witness to Who Jesus is,” Avery said. “I hope I don’t insult people; I just simply tell them, ‘What happened to me, it could happen to you.’”
He and his wife, Janet, ended up leading their church’s youth group and hosting free summer camps for more than 30 years.
“The youth group grew from 15 to about 60,” Avery said. “That evolved into a four-week summer event where we took in 50 kids every week for a week of camp. It was all free; we ran the camp and everything for well over 30 years. Once I came to faith, God was in the process of doing something I wasn’t really looking for. But I was ready. My wife and I were dedicated to what God brought our way.”
In addition, Avery has served as a Gideon, participated in Promise Keepers, leads a men’s ministry group, and has volunteered for the past 15 years with a crisis pregnancy center to counsel the men involved in crisis pregnancy situations. In all these ways, Avery has found his focus in mentoring men.
“My activities in these various groups have led to 10 to 15 years of reaching out to men only,” Avery said “It allows me to focus more upon men. My mission is to men.”
One choice – 50 lives
But his greatest legacy, he feels, is his family: 4 children and a foster son, all married; 18 grandchildren, 10 of whom are married; and 13 great-grandchildren. That’s 50 people, most of whom would never have existed if Avery – born unwanted, to the point of being abandoned – had had his life snuffed out with an abortion.
“From the time I was 16 years old, I was a one-man show; there was no dad, no mother, nothing,” Avery said. “My family now is over 50 people – just because I lived. And all my children are saved. Their children are Christians. They’re all Christians, and that faith is manifested. They’re not just pew-sitters; they have ministries that reach out to people. So that’s the legacy I have in my kids.
“Because my mother did not get an abortion, I lived, and there’s this history of what happened in my life. Because I lived, something happened – and is still happening – and an abortion back in 1932 would have prevented all of it. Yes, I endured terrible things, and the rape that occurred in 1932 was also terrible, but my message is that when terrible things happen, there is hope. No matter how bad rape, divorce, abortion are, God must rule.”
(Digital editor's note: This article was published first in the March 2025 print issue of The Stand. Click HERE for a free six-month subscription.)
