Kevin Kelly/Key photo Kansas City Royals designated hitter Mike Sweeney, left, and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols pose with Susan Vaughan of Nativity Parish in Leawood, Kan., at the Mike and Shara Sweeney Family Foundation Luncheon for Life June 13.

KANSAS CITY - Ryan Lefebvre drove his girlfriend to an abortion clinic.

Dee Dee Pujols drove her college roommate to an abortion clinic.

Mike Sweeney remembered the day he fell in love with his first born, son Michael. He was 17 weeks old, still in his mother Shara's womb, and as perfect as a baby could be, and he wants to make sure every woman in a crisis pregnancy can see her child the same way with state-of-the art 3-D ultrasound technology.

The confessions and stories were part of the June 13 Mike and Shara Sweeney Family Foundation "Luncheon for Life" at Kansas City's Carriage Club.

More than 200 people - heavily laced with Sweeney's Kansas City Royals major league baseball teammates and a friend from out-of-town, St. Louis Cardinal superstar Albert Pujols - raised more than $30,000 for 3-D ultrasound equipment for Rachel's House, a crisis pregnancy resource agency with centers in Blue Springs, Lee's Summit and Clay County, dedicated to helping women bring their children to birth.

That is a decision that both Lefebvre and Dee Dee Pujols, wife of the Cardinal slugger, wish they had made. Both told the crowd how their decision to help an abortion happen haunts them to this day.

Lefebvre, the Royals' radio and TV broadcaster who is still single, said he thinks of the child he didn't see grow up every time he sees young ball players with their children.

"There is a regret that you contributed to a life not being born," said Lefebvre, who with Sweeney, is Catholic, and frequently attend Mass together on road trips. "And it's not only that, but it is a piece of your life you will never have."

Though they are very close friends, Lefebvre begged out when Sweeney asked him to serve as master of ceremonies for the first Luncheon for Life last year. He had an excuse - his mother was coming to Kansas City.

This year, he had no excuse, but he also had new peace. Through prayer and the sacraments, Lefebvre said he continued to grow in the knowledge that God loved and forgave him. Lefebvre learned to forgive himself - and to contribute his gifts to help women out of the decision to abort.

Her Catholic faith in a loving God also saw Dee Dee Pujols through, not only through the crisis of assisting her friend's abortion, but through her own crisis pregnancy with her first born, daughter Isabella, who has Down syndrome.

The Pujols Family Foundation is active in aiding families with Down syndrome children, and both Albert and Dee Dee are active in the pro-life community.

Dee Dee, who did the talking for her lectern-shy husband, told the crowd to "invite the Holy Spirit to fill each one of you."

"God is good," she said. "God is forgiving. Abortion is not just a woman's decision. It affects everyone around her."

When "Bella" was born and the doctors handed her to her mother for the first time, Dee Dee said she never felt closer to God.

"It was so supernatural," she said. "That was the one moment that brought me to where I am now."

Seventeen weeks into their pregancy with Michael Sweeney Jr., now 3 years old, doctors told Mike and Shara Sweeney that their developing child had an irregular heartbeat. They ordered a 3-D ultrasound.

When the image came up on screen, the Royals slugger who has had a lifetime of thrills on the baseball field got the thrill of his life: a perfect view of a perfect baby, his baby.

"He looked exactly as he did on the day he was born," said Sweeney. Just 17 weeks after his conception, at an age at which a thousands of babies are aborted every year, young Michael did something that his baseball playing Bible-quoting father will swear is true.

"I said, 'Hi. It's your daddy. You're daddy's here,'" Sweeney said. "He turned to me and he smiled. He smiled at me. At 17 weeks, we saw that little baby smile. My relationship with my little boy started that day."

There were lots of sports heroes at the Carriage Club that day. Only one hero received the first Mike and Shara Sweeney Family Foundation "Hero of Life" Award.

That went to Virginia Hansen, a young woman who turned to Rachel House in Kansas City's Northland suburbs when the father of the child she was carrying abandoned her.

At Rachel House she found the material and spiritual support to bring her baby to birth.

"I had my appointment (for an abortion) made. Then I said, 'I can't do it,'" Hansen told the crowd, as Mike Sweeney cradled newborn Chase Hansen in his arms.

Hansen was asked to share her story at the luncheon, not told what was about to happen.

After she told her story through tears, Hansen only then learned that she was the first "Hero of Life."

The honor came with baby clothes, baby furniture, a stroller, and a car seat. That last gift came in handy. Kevin Nachbar of Morse Chevrolet handed Hansen the keys to a refurbished 1996 Buick Skylark. With just 60,000 one-owner miles, the car was in showroom condition, and still low cost on property taxes and insurance.

On top of that, the Mike and Shara Sweeney Family Foundation gave Hansen a check for $5,000.

"It's not easy being a single mom these days," Hansen said, through tears. "But this little boy keeps me fighting."

And nobody fights harder for babies than Shara Sweeney, said Kathy Edwards, director of Rachel's House.

In 2006, Edwards said she wrote Mike and Shara a letter, hoping to hook a baseball player into helping Rachel's House raise money. Shara not only replied, she volunteered to help at the Rachel's House in Blue Springs. The Luncheon for Life, Edwards said, was Shara's idea.

The new 3-D ultrasound equipment that the luncheon proceeds will buy will mean, literally, life over death for hundreds of babies, Edwards said, as mothers in crisis pregnancies will see the same miracle of life that Mike Sweeney saw in his son.

"It allows a young woman to commit with her heart, and to make that baby a reality," Edwards said. "To open that window to life so she can see that it is a child, and it is her child makes all the difference in the world."

Shara Sweeney called her time at Rachel's House, in addition to raising not one but two small Sweeneys, "a blessing."

"It's a life from the point of conception," she said. "That's what brought me here. Many of these girls who come to us have never felt love before, and I have never heard a happy story come out of an abortion."

Mike Sweeney said that when Shara committed herself to Rachel's House, he could do no less.

"You all know Ephesians. I want to love my wife like Christ loves the church," Mike said. "She has put so much time and effort into this. This is my wife's World Series."

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