Are you planning to continue the pregnancy?

Over the last few years, lots of women have shared their abortion regrets with us. In the collective, their testimonies are a powerful witness against abortion. They are painful, but well worth a read . Whether or not Post Abortion Syndrome is a real condition, and whether or not the women who have shared their stories with us can be classified as "clinically depressed," there is no denying the intense emotional pain that often follows abortion–a pain that doesn't seem to decrease with time. The story I'd like to share in this post came in via our "Share Your Abortion Story" form, but it is not an abortion story. It is a parenting story–a parenting story without regret, and it certainly merits a hearing too:

I am a single mother to the most wonderful human being. He's two and a half now, and he fills my life with more joy than words are really capable of
expressing. Without going into too much detail, I will simply say that I
found myself pregnant and alone in 2007. His father said if I refused to
have an abortion, then we were on our own. He tried a lot of different
tactics to bully me into an abortion, but I knew I couldn't do it. I
entertained the idea for about 30 seconds, then I almost vomited.

The time for choice isn't when there's a special little person growing
inside you. The time for choice comes when you enter a relationship. The
time for choice comes when you decide what methods of birth control are
right for you. The time for choice comes when you have sex. We were well
past those points.

My story isn't really all that special. There's nothing spectacular about
making some impulsive and poor decisions and getting yourself knocked up.
That's pretty easy to do actually. However, what I do feel compelled time
and again to share with everyone and anyone, is that I have NEVER, not for
one second, regretted the "choice" I made to love my boy. Not for one
millisecond have I ever wondered what life would be like without him,
because in reality, it would be meaningless. He is my greatest love, my
greatest joy, and my greatest accomplishment all in one.

I just wish there were more people there to take a scared, vulnerable,
hormonal pregnant woman and tell her, "It's going to be alright, and it's
okay to have this baby. That's an okay choice too." I wish there were people
there to show these women the resources that are out there to help her
beyond the ones that offer her, first, the option to kill her precious gift.
After all, that's the first thing the nurse on the appointment line offered
to me when she said, "Are you planning to continue the pregnancy?" I wish
the first reaction to a pregnancy in this world today was, "Wow. That's big
news. What can I do to help you?"

Age: 29
Location: Columbus, OH

Let's be the kinds of peopleshe describes, who help show women the resources that are out there. Let's help get them past the overwhelming pressure to kill their precious gift!