This is the story of a young women I received some time ago. I will let her tell it in her own words:
Let me tell you what happened in 1986. I was 18, and I had missed my period, so I went to a clinic that performs abortions for a pregnancy test. Well, the test was positive, so the “counselor” came to talk with me.
I put the word counselor in quotation marks because a better word to describe this person would be a salesperson. What this woman did was to tell me how difficult it would be to raise a child on my own how my life would be over, and how it would never be able to get child support from the father yada yada yada. Then I asked her about adoption. She then proceeded to tell me about the horrors of adoption. How could I carry a child for nine months and then just give it up? She claimed lots of insurance companies don’t pay for prenatal care you plan on adoption, (a lie) My child would hate me forever for not wanting it. How would I ever know the child would go to a good family? She told me stories about people who adopted children so they would have a “servant” and that these children were mistreated like dogs. She told me this as if it was commonplace! Then this monster of a woman proceeded to tell me, I scared, pregnant girl, that the only real option in a case like mine was abortion.
She told me the baby was not a baby at all, but just a mass of cells, incapable of feeling and not human. I was eight weeks pregnant. Perhaps I should mention that I had become pregnant from a worker in the mental health unit where I had spent some time for attempting suicide. This woman knew this, and fed on my vulnerability. I left with an appointment for an abortion for three days later.
On my way out of the clinic, I was approached by young woman holding a baby. She said “your test was positive, wasn’t it?” I told her yes, and she handed me some pamphlets and asked “before you do anything, would you please just read what these have to say?” That was all she did. I told her yes thanked her and went on my way. When I got home I looked over the pamphlets. Although I am agnostic and these pamphlets did mention God, I looked at them objectively for the facts. I saw a picture of an eight-week-old fetus, complete with fingers, eyes, a nose, mouth, and a beating heart. Part of me thought that this couldn’t be true… in my confused state. I refused to believe that the abortion salesperson had lied to me.
On the pamphlet was a printed number to the local crisis pregnancy center. I decided to give them a call. I remember when I called it was 7:45 PM, and when they answered I asked how late they were open. I was told 8 PM I said “oh okay” and was ready to hang up. The woman on the phone said “wait… are you okay honey? Do you need someone to talk to?” I told her I was pregnant, and I have some questions about the pamphlet I had received. She said that she would stay open for me if I wanted to come out and when I told her I didn’t have a car, she offered to and did come to pick me up at the crisis pregnancy center she took my name and asked me some questions such as when was my last period, Had I had a positive pregnancy test, etc. When she got to the question where she asked about my religious preference, I told her I was agnostic. That was fine, it was a nonissue, she did not proselytize to me at all. What she did do was to answer all the questions I had, told me there about resources available to single mothers, and also told me about adoption resources. When I mentioned what the abortion salesperson said about my baby being a mass of cells, she pulled out a book, “A Child is Born” a well-known book for expectant mothers and others, and showed me a picture of an eight week fetus. The picture looked very much like the one I’d seen in the pamphlet… fingers, eyes, nose, mouth, and a beating heart. Yes, a beating heart… I read medical text that proved this to me. We ended our visit with her telling me that they would be there for me to matter what I decided to do. She reiterated the assistance they provide to expectant and new mothers, and it was substantial assistance. She drove me home.
The next morning I awoke with a clear head and I knew there was no way I could kill my baby. My first instinct was to call the clinic and cancel my appointment. I’m glad I didn’t do that right away, because the more thought about it the angrier I got. Angry that the abortion salesperson had lied to me. Angry that she had most likely lied to many other scared pregnant girls in just the same way. Angry that, all over the country millions of scared pregnant girls were being lied to… coerced into killing their babies.
I decided not to cancel my appointment instead at 10 AM on the appointed day I walked into the office. I looked around at the other girls, yes girls, sitting in that waiting room. I walked up to the reception desk, and in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear I said I would not be keeping my appointment. I asked the receptionist why I had been lied to. I told her the child inside me was a baby and I have pictures to prove it. Then I pulled out pictures of the five week fetus and an eight week fetus. I held them up for everybody to see. I started to read medical literature about when the heart begins beating. This is when two women came around from the back, each taking one of my arms, and told me to leave peacefully or they would force me out. I left all right but not before I had taken a handful of pamphlets and thrown in the direction of the girl sitting in the waiting room. They were all like keystone cops scrambling to pick up the evidence of their lies before any of their customers, saw it!
I walked out the door across the street, and into the car of a friend who was waiting for me. No sooner had I sat down, then I saw two – yes two – of the girls who were waiting in the waiting room walk out. A pro-life activist was born that day. My daughter Katie was born eight months later.
