The media regularly boost women sharing positive abortion stories while overlooking the women who regret their abortions – and the ones who choose life even in the face of hardship. But they exist, as one big name celebrity recently found out.
On March 1, actress Rose McGowan unabashedly revealed that she once had abortion after her birth control failed.
“I am not ashamed, nor should you be,” the 45-year-old tweeted to her 891,000 followers. “That 60% of those who choose to have abortions are already mothers says a lot- they understand more than anyone.”
But McGowan forgets that, to the pro-life movement, 100% of women who seek abortions are mothers. That’s because 100% of the unborn are living human beings – persons of inherent dignity and worth.
She continued by encouraging other women to speak out about their abortions while including “#HonestAbortion” in their tweets.
“I realized I could not bring a child- into my world and simultaneously change the world. I do not regret my decision and it was not made lightly,” she added. “My body, my choice, my life.”
Her tweets received hundreds of responses, and McGowan shared those from women who said they weren’t ashamed or didn’t regret their abortions. But many other women shared a different kind of story: that choosing to bring a child into the world meant changing world.
One mom, named Bonnie, shared photos of her five children with McGowan on Twitter.
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“These are my babies some were born in rape and some were conceived in domestic violence. I let each one live,” she tweeted. “The two youngest I felt like I had to abort. But could not. I can't imagine my life without them. They saved my life and helped me to heal.”
Another mother, named Brittany, expressed regret for her abortion three years ago.
“I had three kids already, almost died during the delivery of my 2nd & 3rd baby, my birth control failed and I didn’t know until it was too late. It was the most heartbreaking decision I’ve ever had to make. I’m still trying to process it,” she stressed. In a second tweet, she added, “So it’s been even harder to process my abortion because now I feel like it was all for nothing because I ended up having another baby regardless. It almost killed me AND her, but it happened. It makes me feel like a monster.”
One mother, Lisa, expressed she was sorry for Brittany’s “difficult choice.”
“I was a mom of 2 (youngest just 9 months & still breastfeeding) when I found out I was 4 months pregnant with #3,” she said. “My BC had failed! I didn’t want another child. I had her after/bc I heard her heartbeat..I just couldn’t kill her.”
When another woman asked Lisa if she ever regretted having her daughter, she responded, “Never.”
“She was born on Christmas Day,” she shared. “She’s beautiful, intelligent, a brilliant writer & poet. She gives the best hugs! Tears well in in eyes whenever I remember that brief period when my knee-jerk reaction was to not have her. I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.”
A mom named Heather chimed in, saying she was “saddened” that McGowan “missed out on life’s greatest joys of being a mom.”
“I was also a teenage girl that at 19 choose to have a baby instead of abortion,” she said. “At the time knew In my heart of hearts their was an voice inside me that knew this was wrong. I have a 20 year old son.”
In another response, Sally, a self-described liberal admitted, “Yes I had to make a choice.”
“At 17 I made the decision to have my baby and I gave my firstborn up for adoption because I wanted him to have everything he deserved that I couldn’t give him at 17,” she said. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done but he deserved life.”
Another woman named Olivia stressed, “I had my daughter at 16. Never considered an abortion. Hardest thing ever but she changed my life for the better.” She responded to another tweeter who said her dad told her mother “to abort me and she didn't ... I'm here because of her courage and love.”
Missy continued, “In 1976 I had an abortion because it wasn’t convenient at the time to have a child. It was the biggest regret of my life! Not a clump of cells like they said. Ultrasounds speak truth!”
These are the stories the media so often don’t tell the American public. Still, that isn’t keeping women like those listed above from sharing their #HonestAbortion and life stories online. That’s because choosing life doesn’t just change the world – it enables someone else’s world to come into being.
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