This is a true story submitted to us by Amber Newberry.
I was 19 years old when I found out I was pregnant.
I was convinced from the moment I saw the plus sign that an abortion was my only option.
I had a past–a past of assault and rape and I lived life believing that the only thing I had to offer the world was my body. It was the only thing I was good for. There was no possible way I could be a mother, there was no possible way the boy who had used me would be a good father, there was no possible way this child could be normal given my drug and alcohol abuse.
There was just no possible way.
So I made an appointment and went to the clinic. I was supported and loved by my best friend, who had offered me her everything, including being willing to raise this baby with me. I told her what I told myself, there was just no possible way. She drove me to the clinic.
Outside there were protesters, people holding signs and yelling horrible things to us, they threw trash at our car as we drove in.
They knew.
They knew I was trash. Didn’t they realize I was doing the world a favor? Didn’t they see there was no possible way that trash like me could bring a child into this world?
They set my resolve.
After my abortion I was sent home with my best friend as if nothing had ever happened. The process was as simple as getting a tattoo, the result a thousand times more permanent and traumatizing.
Much later in my life I came to know Jesus, I came to know His crazy amazing love for me. I received grace and forgiveness. I learned that my sin was not who I was, it could not define me. I was a daughter of God–holy, righteous, and redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ.
I found the strength through Jesus to forgive myself, to begin to share my story, to live out this life not covered in shame but set free in mercy.
Then I found Save the Storks.
I learned about how they meet women in my scenario on the steps of abortions clinics–not with cruel words and trash but with love and kindness.
I learned that 4 out of 5 women who get the opportunity to see and hear their unborn babies via ultrasound chose life. I believe that. I never saw or heard my ultrasound. The clinic nurse told me to turn my head.
I learned that when a woman boards the Save the Storks Mobile Medical Unit she is not only given an ultrasound, but she is also given an incredible amount of resources to help her should she keep her baby–resources ranging from diapers and formula to job training and resume writing.
Then I learned the most important thing. I learned that even if a woman leaves Save the Storks and continues in to the abortion clinic, she is met again on the other side with love and grace and understanding.
She is given resources to help her cope with the oncoming trauma and grief that will soon consume her post-abortion.
I speak to groups all over and share my story. Inevitably, after I speak, women approach me with their own stories of abortions. Sometimes I am the first person they have ever told. Oftentimes they are still facing the consequences of their abortions.
An abortion is a trauma to your body and your soul and it requires healing. It requires that you speak of it out loud to someone safe. It requires that you return to your body after disconnecting from it. It requires that you acknowledge your grief and find forgiveness.
Without healing women who have had abortions can often suffer from depression, alcoholism, eating disorders, autoimmune diseases–the list could go on and on when trauma caused by abortions goes unhealed.
Save the Storks is there for these women too.
I have never been more proud to be a part of an organization. Save the Storks is committed to loving women radically. They are pro love, pro woman, pro family, and I am a better human for knowing and supporting Save the Storks.
I am thankful to be an ambassador on their behalf and in awe of an awesome God that would let me use this story for His glory.
Do you have an abortion story?
