DAY 31: Women do regret their abortions
This is not going to be easy to read. It’s about physical, emotional and spiritual pain. This is the account of women who have had abortions.
When I was a sophomore at Texas A&M, I heard women, for the first time in my life, give their testimonies about their abortion experiences. One was in the military, one was raped, one had been on drugs and one just didn’t feel she could afford a child.
I remember being unaware and naive about how abortion impacted women — but how could it not? Their testimonies were powerful and led me to dive into pro-life work even more.
Whenever I speak I always thank them for their courage to inspire me — and hopefully inspire YOU — to do more to end this injustice.
People with abortion experiences CAN find God’s healing. But there’s no question, as Linda said in a blog posting, that “women DO regret their abortions.”
“I myself had four abortions,” Linda wrote. “1976, 1979, 1982, 1985. This year — 2010 — in June, I only have begun to feel the release of guilt, blame and shame for what I have done. It took me 24 years before I attended a post-abortion healing retreat. It took me another nine years to be a part of the Silent No More program.”
(See http://silentnomoreawareness.org)
She has now prayed in front of the facility where she had three abortions. “I always deeply wish that there had been someone there for me in 1976 or any of my other desperate days,” she said. “I may have listened. And my children would have lived.”
“My abortion was over 30 years ago,” writes P., “and I still cry — when I know of a woman contemplating abortion, when I have prayed outside an abortion clinic and watched desperate women going in to kill their precious baby.”
She thanks God for her tears. “I know this is God’s way of keeping the memory of my child on my heart.”
“How could I have been so stupid?” Anne asked. “For many years I have felt personally responsible for one life being ended and a soul being sent to God. The burden is heavy! I regret my part in this more every day.”
Eventually, Anne turned to God for forgiveness and consolation. Still, “I cannot undo the killing of this precious life. Often, I think of the person he would have been.”
Vivian’s oldest daughter had an abortion at the age of 15. “I paid for the abortion and her father took her to the clinic,” she wrote. “Then later on, she had another one and I drove her there.” At the time, she thought she was doing the right thing to protect her daughter.
At that point in her life, Vivian was not a Christian. “I have since become one, and I had to ask the Father to forgive me for this horrible sin. I know He has — and now I pray for these mothers and fathers and especially for these precious gifts from God.”
Allison was praying in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion center recently. “The spiritual darkness was very apparent,” she said, “but despite this, a man had the courage to approach us so he could share his story after seeing a Men Regret Abortion sign.”
He had a very simple message. “I’m guilty of making abortion happen to my girlfriend years ago before I became a Christian,” he said. “Now I live with regret everyday — but I know I’m forgiven. It is good you people are out here. Spread the word!”
If you meet someone who is suffering in the wake of an abortion experience, you might suggest Rachel’s Vineyard, a group that offers post-abortion healing retreats. You can find out more about this effective, compassionate ministry at:
Here’s today’s devotional from Rev. J. Kirk van der Swaagh, Pastor, Conservative Congregational Christian Conference…
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DAY 31 INTENTION
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For the medical community, that the truth they know about the human body may become awe and wonder at the God who made it.
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SCRIPTURE
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Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
–Psalm 139:16
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REFLECTION by Rev. J. Kirk van der Swaagh
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Human beings — God’s tapestries.
Psalm 139 is a psalm that reveals the enormity and otherness of God. His divine attributes are on display: omniscience (2-4), omnipresence (7-12), loving-kindness (17-18), justice (19-20), righteousness (23-24), and omnipotence.
Yet, when it came to express this last attribute, what example did the psalmist use — God’s creation of mountains, seas, or far-flung galaxies? No, he used none of these. To express the wonder of God’s unparalleled creative power the writer mentions the fashioning of the human in the womb (14-16).
The Hebrew word used to express God’s forming of us in the womb, raqam, is the same term for needlework or embroidery. In other words, we are a tapestry that displays God’s artistic mastery.
And, like the artist who knows his creation down to the last detail, God intimately knows us. This reality provokes the writer to awe and wonder. He proclaims, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
What is true for this psalmist is true for each human being. Each is fashioned by God and known by him and we can proclaim on behalf of each, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
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PRAYER
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Gracious God, help us to appreciate the wonder and beauty of Your creation. Help us proclaim on behalf of every one of our fellow human beings, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” May the knowledge that we are intimately known by You shape our lives and actions. Amen.
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PRINTABLE DEVOTIONAL
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To download today’s devotional as a formatted, printable PDF to share with friends:
http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2009day31print.pdf
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For Life,
Shawn Carney
Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
PS: What’s new with your 40 Days for Life campaign? Please share the news with everyone! You can do so by leaving a comment below.
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:32 am
May the Lord have mercy on us.
Thanks be to Him for His gift of life. Amen
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:59 am
As a Pastor in North Louisiana, I prayed for 3 years ( I was transferred, or I would still be there) outside an Abortion Mill. After 2 years, just once a week, after Mass, with a small army of prayer warriors, rosary and litany for life as weapons, faithfully praying, I noticed less and less traffic. A few weeks later the “doctor” (abortionists are the refuse of the medical community) quit; the one to take his place had less and less time to give to this enterprise, usually on a Saturday Morning (although one Good Friday he was there, so was I, he killing, I battling, with a former patient of his and her adopted daughter. The woman was shocked when the abortionist left in his pick-up, and realized he had been her “fertility” doctor! The point: after three years of praying, the “Mill” closed! Amen! Prayer is very effective. Let us never give in to discouragement, but persevere – To God Be the Glory, and His is the Victory. If there is an Abortion Mill in your area, please go there and pray, regularly, even just for a few minutes. Watch God Work!
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:10 am
When I go to pray at our vigil in front of PP I often hold the sign “Women DO regret abortion”. I then stand in loving solidarity with all my “sisters” who still suffer because of their abortions. I stand in hope that someone entering the abortion mill will think again about the grave decision they are about to make and I pray the Lord will bring His healing to more and more women and men through this 40 Days for Life. Praise Him for the abundant fruits we are seeing this campaign!
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:43 am
Our Lady of Life please ask your Son Jesus to provide healing for mothers and fathers of aborted children.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Yes, we all know that our Lord is a forgiving God, but we never seem to find an end to our tears. It’s been 33 yrs and I still cry. I cry for myself, as well as, the women and babies who suffer. We reach out to those who are considering abortion so they may not suffer as we do. This is the first year that I have actually been outside a clinic in Hartford multiple days praying. It has helped me realize where I want to be. God bless everyone in this 40 Days and every day who is praying for the end to this tragedy.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:19 pm
3 years ago, I was driving on an errand while listening to a Catholic Christian radio station. I heard a compelling male voice speaking about the importance of praying in front of abortion centers…to give witness to Life…to ask the Lord to change minds and hearts…and in repentence.
To my surprise, at that very moment I was passing an abortion center and several people were praying in front of it! Screeeeech went my brakes. And, I turned around and joined those prayer warriors to pray for a few minutes – recognizing the prompting of the Holy Spirit from the radio. (Thanks Fr. Frank – keep it up!)
What I saw that first time has kept me returning to pray there.
I realized that abortion is not really about “choice”, it is more often about “abandonment”. Abandonment by family, the baby’s father, and even by well-meaning friends, and by the community.
The Tears I saw taught me more than any reading, pictures, or video ever could about the impact of abortion. It finally dawned on me that Every woman I knew who’d had an abortion – regretted the abortion.
I had always known that abortion was wrong and not something I could participate it. But, I incorrectly believed that I should leave that decision up to each individual woman.
*Seeing the tears and coersion with my own eyes,
*comprehending the horrible impact of abortion on the lives of women I know, *and (most of all) receiving light from the Holy Spirit
- these all change MY heart.
I now pray regularly at the abortion center and have been blessed to be present at numerous “turns” from abortion.
For those of you who are still too afraid to join us praying front of an abortion center, just place your trust in the Lord and ask for courage.
Praying for the first time IN FRONT OF AN ABORTION CENTER will be an amazing step on your personal spiritual journey.
It will change Your heart, and hopefully the hearts of many others.
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Life Matters – Perth & District Group have participated in the Prayer & Fasting portion of the 40 Days for Life Campaign for 2010. We have gathered together the different faiths in our community and beyond. Each of the Congregations or Parishes were asked to commit to specific dates to pray and fast to see the tragedies of abortion ended in our nation and aboard. The sense of unity and excitment to be part of a worthy cause was so uplifting. A cause that is so close to God’s heart. WE upheld the volunteers at Clinics in prayer, we prayed for our governments at every level, we petitioned the throne room of grace to touch the abortion doctors hearts and the nusres and staff that assist, also that the eyes of Planned Parenthood staff would be opened to the evils of their ways and repent and turn to receive God’s forgiveness and to promote life. We have also held a Kickoff Rally and Midpoint Rally when people were encouraged and commissioned to be a part of such a needed outreach. We have talked with some media (radio) and seen tears welling up in his eyes as we gave our story. The Lord is working through the efforts of God’s people as we are faithful to prayer and fasting.” Nothing is impossible with God .” Thank You for telling our Group about 40 Days for Life . God is so good.
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Proverbs 24:11
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter
Abba Father, today I pray for your daughters, the Daughters of the King.
The day our babies died a part of us died also. The medical community has no cure for the deep wounds of abortion. We come to you for the cleansing and healing that only your Holy Spirit can provide. We pray for that healing touch now in the lives of those daughters that have been battered, abused, and wounded: verbally ,mentally , emotionally,physically,sexually ,and worst of all spiritually.
May they come to you for the healing and leadership that will bring them eternal life. May your word become the foundation on which they build their lives.
Give them the wisdom and strength to resist anything or anyone that would deny them the full equality that your word says that they possess because they are made in your image and likeness.
Set your daughters free from the lies, distortions and chains of the enemy that tell them that they are less than what you created them to be. Increase their faith and help them to trust and obey your word.
Set your daughters free from the lies from the pit of hell that convinced them to allow the life of their unborn child to be destroyed, I pray that you would comfort them in ways that only your blessed Holy Spirit can do. Bring them into the healing light of your love and forgiveness. Comfort their spirit with the knowledge that those babies are safe in the arms of Jesus. Those children have escaped from this world of pain and suffering. They are alive and active in the Army of God in heaven. Now we must stand united together to protect our future sons and daughters from being destroyed. Give these wounded daughters of yours the courage and strength to stand against the enemy here on earth that continues to blow the flames of hell into our faces. When we are threatened remind us that the battle is yours and no weapon formed against us will prosper. After we have done all that we can do, help us to stand in confidence that you will protect and defend us. God will avenge His children.
Set your daughters free from the lies of those that would tell them that their only worth is to be found being a object of sexual pleasure for men that treat them as nothing more than an asset to used, abused and discarded when they no longer serve their purpose.
Set your daughters free from the lies of those in health professions that tell them that sexual promiscuity is normal and that there no boundaries by God or man that need to be observed.
Set your daughters free from the lies of leaders in high places that tell them they are can erase the mistakes of their sexual sin by destroying their unborn child.
Set your daughters free from the fear that they will not find acceptance and forgiveness for past sins in Christ Jesus..
Set your daughters free from the fear of Christians that would dare to treat them as less than forgiven and set free..
Set your daughters free from the fear that you can not, or will not provide for all their needs if they will only trust and obey your word.
Set your daughters free to forgive others as we would have you forgive us!
In His name, by the power and authority of Jesus Christ, the one and only Lord of heaven and earth and everything under the earth, we claim the full inheritance that is ours because of His death, burial, and resurrection.
He has set us free and we are free indeed!
AMEN.
October 22nd, 2010 at 5:40 pm
It is all true, it is a horrible experience and we need to let more know about it to they don’t make the same mistake as we have. Some of us were forced into our first abortion and come to regret it and it wounds us even more. And that wound never heals. So Please don’t force anyone to do this, try to inform them of the granity of it all and how it empacts your whole entire life forever and you can never change it once it is done. And you have to live with it forever.
October 22nd, 2010 at 5:40 pm
That is a beautiful and articulate prayer. Amen!
October 22nd, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Like David, as a post abortive woman, I cry to the LORD, in Ps 51.
1. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”
2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is every before me.
The entire psalm 51 has helped to sustain me..and I recommend it to
postabortive women.
David paid a price for murdering Bathsheba’s husband after she had become pregnant; their baby died, and the David had to live as a man of war thereafter…he had a horribly dysfunctional family, too.
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Today I watched a young blond teenager, leaning heavily on the shoulders of her mom and her dad, staggering painfully from Boyd’s late term abortion center. They placed her inside the car and sped out of the parking lot… It is an image that breaks my heart. Our nation is unabashedly teaching our young people to kill their own children. It is destroying lives, 2, 3, 4, 5, or more with each abortion.
I appreciate all your prayers for the babies and families, and I appreciate your prayers and encouragement for those of us watching the destruction in the battlefield. We really need it.
October 23rd, 2010 at 1:49 am
I just listened to the song “Can I live?” by Nick Cannon. Have you listened to it? There´s a verse that says: “What you want, morning sickness or the sickness of mourning?” Shocking, ah? I hope many, many mothers “make the right decision” and choose life for their babies.
October 23rd, 2010 at 1:58 pm
I discovered when I was 21 that my father had not died but that my parents did not marry. Only now at 48 did I meet my father who is 73 has been married 47 years to his wife and I have 3 half brothers and sisters. If my Mother had been in the cultural setting of today (save her supportative Catholic parents) I would have been aborted. I am the most like my Father out of all his children and I like and get on well with him. He asked me when we met “why are’nt you angry?” Why should I be? I have my life and I know him and my mother. The greatest gift another can give is life. God gave that to me through my parents. The next big gift I can give them is forgiveness because I love them!