Nancy Kreuzer from Illinois talks about her abortion and its aftermath:
“My baby was 22 weeks, I was five and a half months pregnant, when I was told that she had water on the brain (hydrocephalus) and was advised by my doctor to “terminate the pregnancy.”
It was explained that the abortion would be a simple procedure. My husband and I were told we could leave this behind us, get on with our lives and try for another baby…
It was not, as the doctor described, “simple.” At the abortion clinic no one asked how I was or explained what was happening to me. I felt alone, afraid and devastated. While I sat, waiting for the doctor to arrive, many nurses and workers in the abortion clinic casually walked by me. I sat there for hours. Tears streamed down my face but no one talked to me, no one acknowledged my pain.”
After the abortion, she says:
“The day after my abortion, I felt numb. I left the abortion clinic with no baby to bury, no doll-size casket, no funeral service, no grave to adorn with flowers. I vomited in the parking lot and rode home in silence.
No one brought meals, no one sent cards, no one called, because I had been too ashamed to tell anyone what I had agreed to do. In the weeks that followed, I tried to bury the memory of the abortion and not look back.
In the months and years afterward, there were clear signs that the scars of my abortion existed, but I didn’t recognize them at the time. Interestingly, I assumed I was doing just fine. But below the surface, I was unusually fearful.
As time went on, I often had the sense that I wanted to run and I had repeated nightmares of running from something horrible. I would awaken panicked, unable to sleep the rest of the night. There was an internal sadness, not visible to the world.”
Quoted in Janet Morana Everything You Need to Know about Abortion – For Teens (Gastonia, North Carolina: TAN Books, 2021) 82 – 83
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