Ashley Lawton learned early in life that she was adopted. While that discovery was somewhat unsettling, the later revelation that her birth mother had been a rape victim was far more troubling.
“It was hard having someone tell you that they’re not your biological mother and father — but my parents were amazing, and they loved me dearly and guided me as best they could through it all,” Lawton recalled. “It wasn’t really until high school that I learned the whole story.”
She doesn’t exactly remember what led up to their conversation on that day. “My mom and I were driving down Haywood Road in Greenville, and something came on the radio,” Lawton recalled. “I looked at my mom and I said, ‘Mom, I just can’t imagine somebody being raped and then becoming pregnant and having to carry that child.’” Her mom’s reply took her off guard, “Well, Ashley, honey, your birth mother was raped.’”
In the movies, time sometimes seems to stand still for a little while, and the shocking news was that kind of experience for Lawton.
“Everything was in slow motion,” she said. “I remember looking out the window, and all I could think, all I could hear in the back of my mind, was, ‘You’re a product of evil. You were never meant to be.’ ”
‘Truly loved’
Although she was a believer, she wasn’t strong in her faith as a teen, Lawton recalled. “At that time, those words were powerful and resonated with me, and they stuck with me for years,” she said.
“It wasn’t really until later as I continued to seek God’s voice that those words started to dissipate, and I realized whose I was and who truly loved me,” she added. “All of that led me to understanding God’s plan for all life — and that it wasn’t just life that is convenient or planned that is important, that is worthy of life. It’s all life!”
God has a plan for every single living being from the moment one is conceived — and actually even before then, Lawton now can attest to, citing Jeremiah 1:5.
‘God still had a plan for me’
Today, she is the wife of Asbury Lawton, pastor of Lawtonville Baptist Church in Estill since 2019. They have been married nearly 19 years and have two children, Quinn, 12, and Katie Beth, 6. A graduate of Southern Wesleyan University, she serves on the board of Personhood South Carolina, helping organize Personhood Day and advocating for pro-life legislation. At Lawtonville Baptist, she sings in the choir, plays handbells, teaches youth in Sunday school, leads a youth Bible study on Sunday evenings and a Youth on Mission group on Wednesday evenings and also helps in the church office.
“Though my conception was not the ideal situation, God still had a plan for me. He still knew that I was going to be conceived that day. He still knew that He could use me to do whatever He needed me to do, provided that I was willing to submit — and I pray that I’m doing that,” Lawton said. “This is His story that He gave to me, and so I try to make sure He gets all the credit for it all the time.”
In addition to her advocacy work with Personhood South Carolina, Lawton also works with an international organization, Save The 1, which represents hard cases, such as those conceived in rape, incest, gang-related activities, sex trafficking and other tragic situations.
To fellow Christians who are seeking to reach out to women in crisis, Lawton counseled, “Foremost, you have to share the love of Jesus. You have to let them know that it wasn’t their fault, and that God still loves them no matter what, and they are much, much stronger than people give them credit for being.
“It’s a tough thing when a woman goes through a crisis situation, and she feels pressured to ‘just do away with it and move forward,’” she said. “But what happens is, that beautiful woman who has been violated has the abortion, and then later — once she’s over the trauma of the rape — has to deal with the trauma of knowing that she ended a life through that abortion.”
Finding healing
Instead, she can choose to see something beautiful come from such a horrible situation, Lawton urged. “She can see that life born and brought into the world as a beautiful creation and find healing through that.”
And, with so many families desperate for a child, Lawton pleads, “Please give that child to another family.”
“I was adopted, and my parents tried desperately to be able to have a child of their own and couldn’t. By my birth mother being brave enough to give me life and then to give me up, this other couple — my parents — were able to complete their family,” she said.
“I was conceived in rape. It was a horrible, evil act upon my birth mother. She was physically and emotionally violated,” Lawton concluded. “But I didn’t deserve the death penalty. I was an innocent life. I thank God that my birth mother valued life enough to give me life.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Todd Deaton and was originally published by The Courier, newsjournal of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.