Live Strong

Live Strong chronicles the remarkable life of Dr. Matthew Horn, a skilled surgeon who challenges the world of illegal abortion. It is the story of life – in this case, the lives of 42 unborn babies - stolen from the jaws of death.
Live Strong begins in 1931 in a coal-mining town in eastern Kentucky when a fire leaves a beautiful 12-year-old girl scarred for life. Her world destroyed, Caroline O’Donnell is willing to survive, but little else. She works 15 hours a day in a textile factory hunched over a sewing machine believing she is worthy of little else. She accepts the dominating “love” of the factory foreman convinced that no other man will have her. But life’s only true meaning comes with the birth of her two children, and even then she endures the premature death of her daughter.
Her son Matthew is a last, closely guarded spark, and his passion for life reveals itself at an early age. His passion leads him to a surprising calling: the ministry. It also leads him to Anne, a woman as beautiful as she is filled with energy and magic. They marry. Matthew’s calling takes them to Louisville, where, try as they might, they are unable to begin the family they both long for. A year later, their world is blown apart when Anne is brutally raped. The vicious attack leaves her pregnant. Horrified and guilt-ridden, Anne is determined to terminate the pregnancy. Despite his opposition and anguish, Matthew arranges a back-alley abortion which leads to Anne death.
Matthew’s faith is shattered. He abandons the ministry. He spends two years wondering from town to town, job to job. By chance, he finds himself in Lexington at a rally in support of legalized abortion. There, he encounters Mary Sue Emery, one of the rally’s organizers and a passionate advocate of women’s rights. An unspoken bond is formed between the two. Shortly thereafter, Matthew finds a second calling: medicine. A brilliant surgeon and clinician, he chooses obstetrics as a specialty. Driven by the horror of Anne’s senseless death and the mandate of Roe vs. Wade, Matthew and Mary Sue open a clinic dedicated to Anne’s memory and specializing in family planning. Protesters besiege the clinic daily. Still, Matthew is determined that no woman should ever die the way Anne did. With Mary Sue’s help, the clinic perseveres.
One October day, Matthew faces his most severe moral dilemma when a woman demands a third-trimester, partial birth abortion. He refuses. When she threatens to go elsewhere, Matthew recognizes her desperation and reluctantly agrees. But instead of acquiescing to the woman’s wishes, he chooses the ultimate deception: he will keep the aborted baby alive, and he will do so without the woman’s knowledge or consent. Mary Sue is mortified; still, she refuses to let Matthew proceed without her aid. The first baby dies after a long bout on life-support. A second and third live; they are christened Sara 1 and Willy 1. After nursing them to health, Mary Sue finds them suitable parents, parents unable to conceive their own children.
Over the turbulent life of the clinic, they save 42 babies and find them all loving homes. When the adoption of a rape victim’s baby fails, Matthew turns to his own mother; Caroline is now a widow and eager to raise the baby. She gladly takes the child in. Over the years, Mary Sue’s unrequited love for Matthew grows while his health fails. Relentlessly investigated by the police, the clinic is forced to relocate three times. With each move, Matthew and Mary Sue grow closer and more dependent upon one another, but Matthew’s weakened heart cannot survive a last, unexpected raid on their clinic. He dies leaving Mary Sue to decide on the fate of Sara 23, the last of their 42 babies. Unwilling to relinquish the child, Mary Sue adopts the baby herself.
In a surprising, moving ending, Willy 1, now 19 and armed with secret files that Matthew kept throughout the life of the Sara and Willy Foundation, is reunited with his birth mother.