WOOT!! Happy to give!! Thank you Ann Marie!!

Thanks Jill...this has been a yearning of the heart for so many years. God is Good all the time!

Just putting this out there--

I had an abortion 20 years ago. I'm now 40, married with one kid. I don't regret my abortion. I'm sure I will be vilified, but please be aware that "post-abortion syndrome" is not a condition felt by all women who have had abortions. It is a lie to say speak in absolutes, saying that all women suffer or all women are relieved. The experiences fall along a continuum.

Also, I worked in a home for pregnant teens and young mothers in my 20s. We helped them care for their kids, get GEDS, jobs, even apply to college. Never once did I--or one of my colleagues--"push" abortion on these girls. Most had no money to speak of but we were there to help. We lent ears when they wanted to talk out their decisions. So please don't accuse me of "hating" pregnancy or using abortion as a means to limit the reproductive rights of poor women.

"It is a lie to say speak in absolutes, saying that all women suffer or all women are relieved."

Is it safe to speak in absolutes regarding your aborted unborn child Keren? It is not a lie to state that your abortion killed a human being. That human being was your and someone else's child as well as your living child's sibling.

This is the absolute Truth and no one has the power to make this absolute Truth hurt you. If this absolute Truth doesn't hurt you, just don't call the number.

But "me thinks thou doth protest too much."

Peace.

Hi Keren from WHO,

For those that are suffering and struggling after their abortions and don't know what to do this is a wonderful thing to reach out to them with help and support, don't you agree? Hope and healing should be available to those that found abortion to be the worst mistake of their lives, right?

Oh and Keren?
Who is speaking in absolutes?

The sign--

"Abortion Hurts"--

an unequivocal statement.

More appropriate:

"Abortion CAN hurt"

Please answer my first question Keren. This is a very good thing is it not?

Of course women should have an outlet to talk about their experiences, particularly if they have been negative. I'm a big supporter of therapy.

And why NOT talk about abortion, as one would discuss other life events? We should not be ashamed to speak.

You're being oblique, though. This campaign is not intended to acknowledge the myriad experiences women have had with abortion. It is not "we know some of you have suffered," but "all of you have/will have suffered." People who have not had an abortion will pass that sign and come away with a skewed understanding of what it is to have an abortion.

There is no one experience, not of abortion, not of mothering. Even if you argue that abortion is wrong, you must acknowledge this.

There are NO absolutes... but the medical research is staggering to the effect of abortion on women, men and families. There are LOTS of articles on our website... but here's a few in point.

*In a study of U.S. and Russian women who had abortions, 65% of U.S. women experienced multiple symptoms of PTSD, which they attributed to their abortions. Slightly over 14% reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of abortion-induced PTSD, and 25% said they did not receive adequate counseling. 64% said they felt pressured by others to abort.

*Two national records-based studies from Finland revealed that aborting women were 6 times more likely to commit suicide in the following year than were delivering women.

*In a survey of women with post-abortion problems, 39% reported subsequent eating disorders.

So... if that billboard helps just one person find emotional help so that she/he isn't plagued with PTSD issues, suicidal thoughts of eating disorders.... I think Ann Marie will be more than happy!

should say "OR eating disorders"...

Keren - no one here wishes to vilify you.

Thank you for your work with young mothers -- they need all the assistance they can get.

Hey everybody, check out this cute bumper sticker celebrating motherhood.

"The Mudflap Mom"

http://leahhome.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-bothersome-bumpersticker.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B7vYau9hg4s/TBELaWtk_xI/AAAAAAAAAc8/1M3L1hB_FpQ/s1600/IMG_2277.JPG

I'm not trying to villify either..but the stmt

'More appropriate:
"Abortion CAN hurt" '

is a Half-truth...abortion ALWAYS hurts 1 or both patients. The unborn baby dies...THAT always hurts...

Awesome bumper sticker! When will you start selling them?!

Keren,
I did not vilify you but thanks for calling me oblique.

IF you ever struggle please email me. I get emails everyday from women that need abortion recovery.
carla@jillstanek.com

Otherwise I would rather not get into a DO TOO DO NOT conversation about our abortions.

"And why NOT talk about abortion, as one would discuss other life events?"

Abortion - not something brought up at the Christmas table like motherhood often is.

Abortion - not something brought up at the soccer match like childbirth often is.

Abortion - not something brought up at the 4th of July cookout like parenthood often is.

Abortion - not something brought up on a first date like childhood often is.

Abortion - not something brought up at weddings, funerals, births, graduations, anniversaries, work parties, . . .

I have never heard women discuss their abortions like they do other life events. Friends have expressed their great remorse to me one on one though.

Keren, where do you discuss your lack of guilt surrounding your choice to abort?

Keren,

I had an abortion in 1983...it nearly killed me in so many ways because I didn't numb myself to what I had done...taking the life of my own child.

I have been reaching out to those wounded by abortion for over 15 years, 8 with Silent No More MN. What I have come to learn is this, not every women regrets or was hurt in the timeline as I was.

I have met many women who for 30+ years said their abortions didn't hurt them or they regretted but one day something happened and they hit a wall...I have taken many of phone calls where women say, "I didn't realize" "I didn't know or get it that this was a root to so many other problems." It is only when they go through healing that they understand the hurt they felt all those years without realizing it.

Keren, I reachout to you today to say this; if you ever come to a place where you do hurt from your abortion call my number I will listen without any judgement. We are here for you always.

Thank you for your help in helping those young mothers who without the help they had gotten would more then likely aborted their babies.

Peace,
Ann Marie

For those needing help after abortion: http://www.abortionrecovery.org

Ann Marie, my experience was as you have described. It took me more than 20 years to fully realize how profoundly my abortion hurt me--to fully realize what my abortion WAS (the ending of the life of my child--my one and only child). When a person has been taught that abortion is OK, when most (if not all) of one's friends believe it's OK, when the LAW says it's OK--it is very hard to grasp and admit that it wasn't OK. The pro-choice theory is a form of brainwashing. The pressure to remain "pro-choice" and emotionally detached from the truth is tremendous, and the prospect of being ridiculed and even left by one's friends is frightening. All post-abortive women need our prayers and witness and support.

"I have never heard women discuss their abortions like they do other life events. Friends have expressed their great remorse to me one on one though."

Posted by: Praxedes at June 15, 2010 10:40 AM

People talk about all kinds of surgeries and health issues, but not abortion.

Who wants to admit killing an innocent kid as some sort of small talk. People talk of it only in very serious context.

" People who have not had an abortion will pass that sign and come away with a skewed understanding of what it is to have an abortion". Posted by: Keren at June 15, 2010 8:28 AM
___________________________________________
Skewed how exactly, Keren? I have never had an abortion, but I have heard many, many testimonies (including Carla's) about what abortion does to a woman..physically, mentally, spiritually. Seeing that billboard just makes me AGREE with it. My young niece had an abortion about a year and a half ago. I couldn't talk her out of it. She was always against abortion before. Now the guilt of what she did has driven her to drink to the point that it's affecting her health.She's only 23 and has two little girls.

Abortion is supposedly this EMPOWERING action that women should be PROUD to have and CARRY and wear like some badge of COURAGE and HONOR! Lies. All lies.

I heard all of that crap, listened and believed. I became angry and prochoice and ugly in my quest to have others close to me abort as well.(My sisters didn't listen thank God and I now have two beautiful nephews)

Then I learned the truth.

Keren,
How did my child die in my abortion but yours did not?

Thank you, Carla!!!

Keren,

You say you have one child what is the difference between this child you allowed to live and the one you aborted?

The abortion I had took the life of my child, the miscarriage I experienced years later took the life of my child. The difference is the miscarriage was not of my doing. Both babies lived in my womb, both died there. One was ripped apart while I cried and begged the Doc to stop. The other died and I didn't know it...I didn't cause it's death. I didn't have shame and quilt from the miscarriage but the abortion cause me unbearable pain at times.

I have never had any other children...you are very blessed to have been given the chance to be a mother to a living child.

I don't know... my nephew's wife, who, feeling two kids were enough, aborted their third. I don't know her well, but she started to unravel sometime after that. Started drinking more with her husband, then doing cocaine, then working lots of hours in a bar and hooking up occasionally. They divorced recently and she moved in with a drug dealer.

Twenty years ago, I would never have seen this coming. Middle class family, college. Was she the brightest bulb in the box? No, and pretty self-centered to begin with, but I feel her abortion DIRECTLY led to her disintegration.

Her unwed 19 year old just delivered her first child. Naturally, my nephew and his wife tried to talk her into aborting him. Lucky for her, she resisted and is getting married.

mtm...I had used drugs while pregnant...but it was after the abortion I started a deeper, faster spiral down into the world of crack cocaine.

One year and one month from my abortion I moved to the Virgin Islands to start fresh. I didn't want my child to have died in vain. I didn't want to become a nothing. I forced myself to become more and bigger always had to be different then anyone else. Little did I realize this to was a form of pain from having the abortion. I couldn't just be I had to be. Which is the same as being nothing except more work!

Addressed to all--

why do you think women are incapable of fully grasping what abortion is? what, do you think we don't understand biology, so we need to see all these ultrasound pictures to be raised out of our false understanding the feminist establishment has duped us with? give women more credit than that. right or wrong, i'd say most women understand the procedure. must voters view a film on the democratic process before being allowed to fill out their ballots?

I ended a life growing inside of me. I'm not sure if all the support in the world would have changed my mind either. I was still nearly a teenager. Still a child, still too young. I talk about my abortion with my girlfriends, sometimes they talk about theirs, and their pregnancies. All part of a reproductive-sexual narrative. We listen and support. I do not claim that any of them is delusional; if that is true, then can any woman really be trusted?

http://www.fwhc.org/stories/story14.htm

I remember a few years ago someone made up a tee-shirt that read, "I had an abortion" and wanted women to wear it proudly. The only place I have ever seen a woman wear that shirt was at some Pro-choice rally.

I doubt very much it's a tee-shirt you would see women wearing standing in line at the Dairy Queen with their other kids in tow.

No matter how much those in support of abortion want post-abortive women to stand up and be proud; it will never be to the volume that they hope for. Why? Because I am willing to bet many of them know their own child died that day and that is really hard to be proud of.

Keren it wasn't your mind that needed changing it was your heart.

Keren, You talk about "women" knowing these things...did you know them as a mere child barely a teenager.

You state you ended a life. Whose life? The life you ended was not just a life but your child's life. I step on ants all the time...no shame, no guilt..I ended their life.

For 8 years I have done this work, reaching out to those wounded by abortion. As I said, many live in denial of the fact they aborted their own child's life. That's a really hard thing to come to know and live in the truth with...but the truth does set as all free included those who took their own childrens lives through the means of abortion...whether legal or illegal.

Keren, like I said, if you ever hit that wall just call I'll listen.

Do you honestly think abortion clinics are ready and willing to discuss fetal development, say the word "baby" and show women ultrasounds while explaining exactly what she is seeing on the screen?

From my own experience and reading the stories of thousands of women hurt by abortion that is simply not the case.
Also see http://www.liveaction.org
Undercover at clinics across the land.

Women are lied to and deceived and coerced by the abortion clinic that claims to "care."

TRUST WOMEN WITH THE TRUTH ABOUT HER GROWING CHILD!

How do they help young pregnant teens that DON'T want an abortion?

"right or wrong, i'd say most women understand the procedure. must voters view a film on the democratic process before being allowed to fill out their ballots?"

Keren,
Not a very good example. Look at what happened in FL to Al Gore. People there couldn't figure out how to vote.

Surely you know that knowledge is power. Why should a doctor not give women the best information out there before making such a personal, heart wrenching decision? Even Pres. Obama agrees that abortion is just that.

Keren,
The link you gave with the stories are the same stories I have heard from so many women I have talked to. The only difference is with our stories we have come through the other side. The side of truth, Abortion takes the life of an innocent child. Your abortion took the life of your own child.

Carla is right...Trust women with the truth of her growing child.

I have a friend who was pressured to abort by her ex-husband and if she had would have aborted her only child. I have relatives who are post-abortive and were hurt deeply. One, could not forgive herself for years and part of the reasons she put up with 2 abusive marriages was because she could not forgive herself for having a 2nd trimester abortion. It was like she was punishing herself by being abused physically, emotionally and even sexually. Years later, she received healing and now counsels at a CPC. The other relative who had a few abortions, received healing and now is ministering to girls to help them to know Jesus Christ so they avoid making the same mistakes. God is using them both wonderfully. God is so good and He is the God of second, third or as many chances as we need.

Hey Hippie,

Thanks for recommending the mudflap mom bumber sticker. It's so nice to see the opposite image of what is so often advertised on the backs of car windows and trucks (you know - the provocative curvaceous image of the naked girl with big boobs) which is really the objectification of women. Great to see a bumper sticker that doesn't have the same sexual message as all the other ones.

Also, what an awesome billboard. I hope we start to see others pop up about how abortion has hurt so many.

Keren, at best you're like a war veteran showing up on a PTSD website and saying, "I'm a veteran and I don't have PTSD. Not all war experiences are alike. Stop acting like all veterans have PTSD, because we don't." Okay, so you don't have PTSD. Why come and bother those who do, then?

As for ultrasound pictures, do you think teenage girls are all aware of what unborn babies look like? What about women who never graduated from high school? Obviously they can know and many probably do, but why assume that they do? Why are we still hearing stories about "they told me it was just a blob of tissue, and I believed them"? It's easy to be in denial about something stressful. If a doctor tells you your heart valve is 85% blocked, you can try to rationalize it away - "so what, I still have 15%" - but once you see that heart valve, you know it on a different, deeper level.

Various commenters on this site have talked about being unexpectedly pregnant and the whole experience feeling unreal. Intellectually knowing that fetuses have limbs is a different thing from seeing your baby, the one who's growing in you right now, and realizing you can count the fingers and toes. I've known about the Holocaust since I was maybe eight years old, but going to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and actually seeing the discarded shoes of people who died in concentration camps made it a lot more real to me.

Oh, forgot to say: So you were a teenager and felt too young to raise a baby. That's understandable. But did that mean you actually had to kill your baby?

Marauder, good point.

I think the other point to make to "you were a teenager and felt too young to raise a baby"...

Did you feel you're not too young to kill your own flesh and blood?