I was 17 sitting with my mom in her room at a little round table. As we talked, I felt this incredible connection with her. I believe she felt it too and this is what prompted her to look at me with love in her eyes and say, “Missy, it’s a miracle you’re even alive!”
Growing up, I had often heard the stories of how I had been RUN OVER TWICE as a toddler by family members.
The second time, a truck ran over my body, stopped on top of my head, and in a state of shock the driver chose to back off of my body, crushing it for a second time – and I lived!
I thought this was what my mom was referring to … but as she continued to share, I could not believe what I was hearing!
She told me how she had met the abortionist in a bar, and followed him to an upstairs room where he assured her he could take care of her “problem.” She left there believing she was no longer pregnant and hemorrhaging so badly she thought she might die.
As a teenager growing up in the late seventies and early eighties, I was aware of the value our culture placed on the preborn who were arbitrarily labeled as “unwanted.” The message was – and still is – they are not valued as gifts. In fact, they are given no value! This impacted me and became a painful part of my identity.
Knowing that abortion was legal, sanctioned, and even celebrated by some is what hurt the most.
When I learned the truth about how I survived an abortion I felt hurt, confused, and devalued. And those feelings didn’t go away. In fact, for many years after my mom told me the truth, I still felt those feelings. I would wonder, “Are there others out there like me?” “Is there a support group? Are there others?”
It would be 38 years after learning that I had survived an abortion before I finally discovered the Abortion Survivors Network, and began to meet many other people like me. The last I heard there were almost 800 abortion survivors within the network.
Being a part of this Abortion Survivors community has changed my life! With their help, I’m learning to combat the lies of the abortion culture!
Words do matter! The abortion culture refers to “unwanted” preborn babies as a "choice" to let live or kill, referring to the preborn baby as medical waste to be discarded and/or their body parts sold to the highest bidder. Labeled as nothing more than a product of conception.
These cruel labels have consequences for mothers who regret aborting their babies and for survivors like me. As an abortion survivor, I identify with the millions of other so-called “unwanted” people – the “choices” who didn’t live.
I read a Fox News article, and the wording they used really bothered me. It read “Over 63 million abortions have occurred in the U.S. since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.” It would have been more impactful and more respectful if they would have said ”63 million children have been killed by abortion.”
Children are not abortions. Abortion is a procedure used to kill children! Abortion is not safe – it is brutal!
This op-ed was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America.
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