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I write these words chiefly to women and girls who have had an abortion. Still, it is my humble hope and honest prayer that anyone weighing this life-versus-death choice might also read them with an open mind and a hearing heart. I share these truths in love. Some of you already know them. Others deny them. Yet truths they remain. It is through obedience to Christ and in the authority of His Spirit that I write you this letter. It may be difficult to read, but I pray you will read it.

September 14, 2012 (Mercatornet.com) - In a study published last week in the European Journal of Public Health, Priscilla Coleman and colleagues report that mothers who have experienced natural pregnancy loss or induced abortion are more likely to die over a 25-year period than those who have experienced only giving birth. Dr Coleman, a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University, responds here to MercatorNet’s questions about the study. What was your aim in this study? The study was undertaken to provide reliable data pertaining to the relative risk of death associated with distinct reproductive...

August 13, 2012 (KellyClinger.com) - Wednesday is late term abortion day at Orlando Women’s Center (the clinic where I had my abortions 12 years ago). When I first started visiting the sidewalks of abortion clinics to pray and minister, I had no idea that late term abortions were even legal. I remember hearing about the Partial Birth Abortion Ban in 2007 and assumed (like most) that this stopped abortions late in a woman’s pregnancy. Shock can’t even begin to describe my feeling when I first counseled on late term day. “These girls are so pregnant,” I kept thinking to myself....

...feeling the pressure to conform, Kristen gave in to her 16-year-old boyfriend Carl’s continual pestering for sex when her parents were out at work one day. She... anticipated a romantic encounter. But the harsh reality was that losing her virginity so early turned out to be one of the worst experiences of Kristen’s life. It has also had lasting repercussions, since she is convinced that having sex at such a young age made her far more promiscuous in later years than she otherwise might have been. ‘We had sex on the bathroom floor because it was the only room with...

May 22, 2012 (The Crescat) - The bumper sticker read, “Having an abortion does not make you un-pregnant, it makes you the mother of a dead baby”. The word “mother” struck me because “mother” is such a powerful word. It conjures many meanings, and when a woman becomes one she is fundamentally changed. “Mother” as a verb means to nurture, care for and protect. “Mother” as a noun means a female person who is pregnant with or gives birth to a child; or a female person whose egg unites with sperm, resulting in the conception of a child. By this...

Once, at a smart wedding in Northamptonshire when I was about 30, someone handed me a newborn baby and my skin broke out in hot hives. In Brazil, I met a ten-year-old street kid. I fed him, let him sleep and shower in my hotel room, bought him clothes, and felt an overwhelming desire to protect and nurture him. I had never before felt such a forceful maternal instinct. These events were profoundly physical reactions, both shocking to me. Just around the time of my trip to Brazil, the ghost of my never-born came back to haunt me. I began...

I had a surgical abortion when I was 20 years old. I don’t remember many details. But what I do remember was not pleasant.I don’t remember how far along I was in my pregnancy. I do know that I paid $500.00 for my abortion.I went through a group counseling session with several other women. My “counselor” told me that she had 9 previous abortions. I think she said it to make us feel better somehow…and it worked.I don’t remember walking into the exam room. There was a nurse there giving me IV drugs to help me relax. I can’t say...

A guest writer for the New York Times has described her daydreams about the infant daughter she aborted, but says that she is thankful she has been spared the “agonizing sadness of guilt and regret” suffered by countless other post-abortive mothers, and that she doesn’t grieve the child lost to abortion. Susan Heath of New York described her gratitude for the ease of obtaining her own abortion at Planned Parenthood years ago when, after bringing four children into the world, her contraception failed. “I’m pregnant but I’m not trapped. All I had to do was call the clinic and make...

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, March 12, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – American Idol judge Steve Tyler and his then-girlfriend still regret her abortion. So does former Britney Spears backup singer Kelly Clinger. So do millions of other famous and anonymous women across the country and around the world. Not Amanda Chatel, a self-described “selfish” New York-based freelance writer. In an online article posted on the website The Gloss on Friday, she claimed she had an abortion in 2005, calling it “the best decision of my life” and writing that she prefers the companionship of her Jack Russell terrier to motherhood. Chatel left...

Note: Kelly Clinger, a performer and former backup singer for the pop star Britney Spears, had two abortions when she was in her early twenties. She blogs about her pro-life activities here. January 26, 2012 (KellyClinger.com) - This morning I returned to the clinic where I had my abortions 12 years ago to pray for and plead with moms not to make the decision I made so many years ago. As I pulled into a parking spot, I sat in the car for a minute and closed my eyes. I wanted to pray that I wouldn’t fall apart; but before...

A difficult letter for a pro-lifer to read came up on Salon yesterday: I apologize if this is lacking in eloquence, but it is honest. ... It was a very early, first-trimester abortion, but nevertheless, I was pregnant and I chose not to continue the pregnancy even though deep down I desperately wanted a child. I made this choice based on my relationship with the baby’s father who dropped me off at the clinic and I never saw again .... I am only 25 (24 at the time of the abortion), but I am now convinced I missed my only...

Chelsea Handler: Had an Abortion, "Teen Moms Make me Want to Kill Someone" Hollywood, CA -- Chelsea Handler, the host of the popular late-night television variety show Chelsea Lately, is making waves with recent comments about teen pregnancy, and she has admitted she had an abortion as a teen herself. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/24/chelsea-handler-had-abortion-teen-moms-make-me-want-to-kill-someone/

NEW YORK, May 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Kassi Underwood’s life after abortion is one that no one would envy. But in an op-ed for the New York Daily News on Monday, Underwood, a writer based in New York, explained how she still refuses to judge abortion despite enduring immense grief after having ended the life of her baby. In the piece, entitled “Get your politics off my grief after abortion,� Underwood notes that groups such as the American Psychological Association have claimed that post-abortion syndrome does not exist - but this has not stopped her from feeling acutely the loss...

TERRACE, British Columbia, April 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A British Columbia Green party candidate in Canada’s upcoming federal election said he’s glad he decided to “get rid of” his unborn child and appeared to imply that pregnant women look “like the back end of a bus.” “I am sick to death about hearing murdering babies,” said Roger Benham, Green candidate for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, in a candidates’ debate April 20th.  He told the audience that he had conceived a child with a woman when he was 25.  “Thank God we decided to get rid of it,” he said, according to the...

As the CR vote comes to a climax again next week, I wanted to share an incredible story with the LifeNews blog readers.  We’ve seen the Live Action undercover videos of Planned Parenthood’s protection of racists, rapists and sex traffickers but their movies come to life when SFLA directly works with Planned Parenthood’s victims.Melissa Pereira, a pro-life student leader at Caldwell College in New Jersey, sent me her story last week after winning the “Tell Congress” video contest and her interview with the National Pro-Life Youth Podcast. It is so powerful, I want to share it with you. As...

Jane Russell SANTA MARIA, California, March 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Several decades after an abortion left Jane Russell unable to bear children and spurred her to become an outspoken pro-lifer and adoption advocate, the silver screen beauty died yesterday at the age of 89. In lieu of flowers, the family of the born-again Christian actress is asking for donations in her honor to Care Net, a pro-life pregnancy resource center network. Jane Russell, the brunette bombshell of the films Mad Men and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, whose image became a popular pinup for World War II servicemen, passed away of respiratory...

He opened his Women's Medical Society at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue in 1979. Although he was not certified as an obstetrician or gynecologist, he performed thousands of abortions over the years, "specializing" in illegal late-term abortions and killing hundreds of viable babies, the grand jury alleged. But instead of using traditional abortion methods, Gosnell preferred to induce labor, according to the grand jury. That occasionally resulted in live births, a complication that the doctor would handle by stabbing scissors into the newborn's neck to sever its spinal cord, the grand jury charged.

Two pro-abortion research have set up to try to disprove a study  showing women who have abortions are more likely to have suffer from a variety of mental health problems than women who carry to term.Published by Professor Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, the study showing women having abortions were at greater risk for anxiety as well as mood and substance abuse disorders.Julia Steinberg of the University of California, San Francisco, and Lawrence Finer of the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion group that is a former affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion...

Author's note: This piece is co-authored by Jeanne Monahan.This Father’s Day will be a celebration for dads all over the country, an opportunity for children to thank and honor their fathers. Yet for many men, the memory of involvement in a past abortion, of “cards they will not receive,” will be painful and palpable. In a debate where the primary focus is a woman’s body and a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a child to his or her delivery, the “other partner,” the father of the baby, is rarely given consideration, and is often completely disregarded...

Tim Pawlenty, the pro-life Minnesota governor and potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, is drawing cheers and jeers from pro-life and pro-abortion groups for declaring April as a month to help women negatively affected by their abortions. As LifeNews.com first reported two weeks ago, Pawlenty and Texas Gov. Rick Perry both declared April as Abortion Recovery/Awareness Month. Lisa Dudley, Director of Operation Outcry, a group that helps women who regret their abortions speak out, told LifeNews.com at the time that Pawlenty's move showed he has an "understanding of the consequences of abortion" and a " willingness to protect women and the...

Commentary by David Bereit, National Coordinator, 40 Days for LifeMarch 23, 2010 (40DaysforLife) - As this 40 Days for Life campaign continues, the need for prayer for an end to abortion grows clearer each day -- as does the need to pray for healing for those whose lives have been turned upside down because of their experiences with the pain caused by abortion.Lynda said that through her efforts with 40 Days for Life, she often meets both women and men "who come to confess an earlier and much regretted decision to have an abortion."She had one person tell her, "I...

Commentary by David Bereit, National Coordinator, 40 Days for Life March 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A young woman walked up to the 40 Days for Life vigil outside an abortion center in Austin, Texas recently. She signed up to join the others in prayer ... and then immediately sat down on the sidewalk and started to cry. One of the volunteers stopped praying for a moment to approach the young woman, whom she had never met before, and asked her if she needed a hug. This volunteer assumed that the thought of what was going on inside the abortion facility...

An important but often unacknowledged angle of the abortion debate involves the serious effects that legalized abortion has on men. A recent scandal surrounding John Edwards, former North Carolina Senator and U.S. presidential candidate, brought this issue into plain view. Mr. Edwards publicly acknowledged an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter in the summer of 2008, a few months after pulling out of the presidential race. Even after admitting to the affair, however, he continued to deny having fathered Ms. Hunter’s daughter, Quinn, until January of 2010 when he finally admitted that he was, in fact, her father. A former aide...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from researchers at a university in New Zealand indicates 85 percent of women who had abortions report negative mental health issues as a result. The report is the latest from professor David Fergusson and his team showing abortions cause problems for women.The University of Otago team examined the medical history of over 500 women and concluded having an abortion generally “leads to significant distress in some” women who have them.It noted women reporting adverse reactions to their abortions were up to 80 percent more likely to have mental health problems and risk...

The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention. Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise." Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would somehow make them disappear, would confirm their utter impossibility. That Irene Vilar embraces the role of motherhood is a grand incongruity,...

An addiction that only motherhood could cure Irene Vilar tries to explain the pathology that led her to abort 15 pregnancies The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention. Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise." Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would...

A self-confessed abortion addict has revealed how she had 15 terminations in 17 years in an extraordinary act of rebellion against her controlling husband.

In 'Impossible Motherhood,' Irene Vilar, now a mother of two, writes of what led her to have 15 pregnancies ended. Reporting from Denver - Irene Vilar's house, a charming old place on a leafy block outside Denver, is a monument to her mothering. Half the downstairs has been transformed into a preschool, with picture books, educational toys and art supplies in organized disarray. Outside, her little girls, 3-year-old Lolita and 5-year-old Loretta, are decorating the walkway with brown-eyed susans plucked from the garden. It is a scene of almost magical domesticity. Inside, their mother, a striking 40-year-old literary agent with...

Fifty one rejection letters -- that is the number Irene Vilar received before she finally found someone to publish a tale so extreme it would surely be fiction if it wasn't her personal story: A woman who says she had 15 abortions and describes it as an addiction. The book, Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict -- a graphic and disturbing tale of one woman's abortions and her personal quest to understand her actions -- is bound to provoke a fury when it is released next week. It is no surprise that publishers backed away. Ms. Vilar says the...

Should doctors and hospitals be required by the federal government to maintain a national network of electronic health records for every individual in America that indicates, for example, whether that individual has had an abortion, a sexually transmitted disease, a mental illness or a drug problem? Such a system has already been mandated by the stimulus law enacted in February, and politicians in Washington, D.C., would now prefer not to answer straightforward questions about it. Americans should not let them get away with it. The stimulus law provided for “the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure” that would...

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions... Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions in 16 years. Pro-choice, she hopes her shocking story will spark a national discussion on abortion, one that won't compromise a woman's right to reproductive freedom. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed...

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Her book, "Impossible Motherhood," which will be released by Other Press on Oct. 6, chronicles her own dark choices: 15 abortions in 16 years, much of it as a married woman. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed "an inkling of hatred." Vilar has scheduled only closed-door interviews and will not do a book tour. At the urging of her husband,...

Milwaukee, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Project Rachel, the organization that has helped thousands of women rebuild their lives following the problems and pain of an abortion, is marking 25 years of ministry. The anniversary is a bittersweet moment because the need for such a group only arises out of death, pain and heartache. Vicki Thorn founded the ministry, which started as a project out of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and she has seen the physical and emotional scars of an abortion in the bodies and hearts of countless women. She told the Catholic News Service the anniversary has been "an awesome...

Like many black women, I once believed the doctor who told me my babies were no more than "a blob of tissue." I wanted to believe it. Eventually, I realized I was wrong, that I was a secondary victim of abortion. I repented and found healing through God. Today, I work in the civil rights movement of the our century -- the right of every one of every race to live... Abortion has taken a gruesome toll on the black community, killing more than AIDS and crime combined. Some 14 million black babies have been aborted since the 1973 U.S....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a new national survey conducted by the Polling Company for the pro-life organization Americans United for Life, a majority of Americans say they know someone who has had an abortion. A majority of those surveyed also believe that abortion hurts women. The Polling Company, a nationally known firm, asked the questions about abortion's effects during a May 17-18 survey with 800 adults across the country. Asked if they personally knew someone who has had an abortion, some 68 percent said they know a woman who had one while 30 percent said they did not. Of...

Contact: Margaret, 888-735-3448, ext. 251; Georgette Forney, 412-398-7885; both with Silent No More Awareness CampaignSTATEN ISLAND, NY., May. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Leaders of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign (SNMAC), the world's largest network of individuals harmed by abortion, responded today to Planned Parenthood's new Mother's Day appeal and urged post-abortive women to seek healing."Just when it seemed Planned Parenthood's Mother's Day fundraising letters couldn't get more hypocritical, this year they've brought in a children's author to say we should honor mothers by donating to the nation's largest abortion business," said Janet Morana, co-founder of SNMAC.   "Honoring mothers by giving money to Planned...

A play created by a member of a Minnesota theater company aims to be an alternative to "The Vagina Monologues," a popular campus play but one that is often criticized for its sexual explicitness. Jeremy Stanbary of Epiphany Studio Productions says his play, "The Vitae Monologues," portrays powerful stories of hope and healing from women who have suffered from the psychological and physical effects of abortion. Stanbary, founder and executive director of the Minneapolis-based Catholic production company, was inspired to write this play a few years ago after hearing women and men speak publicly of their experiences dealing with post-abortion...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The organizers of the 40 Days for Life campaign say their joint effort with Silent No More, a national group for women who have had abortions and regret their decision, was a success. Shawn Carney tells LifeNews.com he is hearing stories of how it was a positive impact for participants and their communities."Women -- and men -- who've experienced abortion stepped forward with signs reading 'I regret my abortion' and 'I regret lost fatherhood,'" he said. "The need for post-abortion healing increases every day, but so does the invitation for hope and healing after the...

Go to the blog for the the video that accompanies this. This is MY personal story... *** My Journey Through Abortion and Backby Shari My story starts in my childhood. I grew up with 2 alcoholics and a stepfather who sexually abused me. My parents divorced when I was 9 years old and my mother quickly remarried. The sexual abuse started within a month of their marriage. I was never raped, but it was always threatened and I lived in constant fear. What a terrible thing for a child to live through. I looked at my kids at 9 years...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life movement has a rich history of focusing not just on the death of an unborn child in an abortion but on the pain and regret millions of women fell following an abortion. Some of those women who wish they could undo their abortion decision and choose life will speak out again at this year's March for Life. Members of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, a network of men and women harmed by abortion, will give their personal abortion testimonies at Thursday's event.They will join the hundreds of thousands of marchers in the...

Intense feelings of guilt, shame, and anger are reported by many women who have had abortions. Psychologists generally agree that about 10 percent of the 1 million women who have abortions each year experience severe emotional trauma following the procedure. There is no consensus, however, about how many women experience less severe symptoms, collectively known as post-abortion syndrome or post-abortion emotional distress. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry indicated that 50 percent of women who have abortions experience post-abortion emotional distress. Another study conducted by Dr. Phillip G. Ney and reported in The Psychological Aspects of...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- While numerous studies confirm abortions cause women subsequent mental health issues, abortion advocates downplay them so abortion isn't seed in a negative light. But one doctor who counsels women after abortions says the proof is in the actual experiences of women who regret their choice.Dr. Linda Mintle, who counsels women after abortions, says she sees problems such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse on a regular basis in the women who have had abortions."Abortion is a loss," Mintle told CBN News on Wednesday."It's a loss of a life and so it only makes sense that even...

Balitmore, MD (LifeNews.com) -- The lead author of a study last week denying that abortion increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems for women is responding to criticism of his research. Johns Hopkins University professor Robert Blum specifically responded to LifeNews.com articles taking the study to task.Blum's team at JHU examined numerous studies and drew the conclusion that abortion doesn't increase the risk for mental health problems.LifeNews.com interviewed Bowling Green State University professor Priscilla Coleman, whose own research shows women having abortions are more likely to suffer from depression or abuse drug or alcohol.Another critique of the JHU...

Study finds depression suffered by 80% of women who abort Madrid, Dec 9, 2008 / 03:52 pm (CNA).- A study by a group of experts in Spain has revealed that 80% of women who have had an abortion suffer symptoms of depression, while 40% have considered suicide.The study, carried out by psychiatrist Carmen Gomez-Lavin of the University of Navarre, also uncovered other symptoms that affect women who suffer from Post-Abortion Syndrome.  These include sexual dysfunction (40%), drug abuse, especially among adolescents (30%), behavioral changes (60%) or irritability (70%).During the process and in the year that follows an abortion, the study...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study from pro-abortion researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have ignored the link between abortion and depression but women who have been victimized by abortion say they know the pain they feel. Leaders of Silent No More say nothing can dismiss the heartache they and millions of other women have from past abortions.Georgette Forney, one of the co-founders of the group, had an abortion early in life and has been living with the guilt and regret ever since.“As I and thousands of Silent No More women can testify, the ones playing politics with...

No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others. "The best research does not support the existence of a 'post-abortion syndrome' similar to post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. Robert Blum, who led the study published...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- British advice columnist Dear Deidre is at it again on the issue of abortion and, this time, she is playing down a teenager's emotional devastation from an abortion. Her column comes days after three separate studies showed women who have abortions suffer significant mental health problems.An unnamed teenager wrote to Deidre -- confiding in her about the emotional pain she continues to experience following the abortion."I should be happy because my life seems perfect at the moment, but all I do is cry and shout at everyone for no reason," the teen says. "I'm 17. Some...

Women who have an abortion are three times more likely to develop a drug or alcohol addiction and 30 per cent more likely to have mental disorders compared with other women, research has revealed. The evidence from two studies comes as the number of women having an abortion in England and Wales exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year.More abortions – 57,000 – were carried out on women aged 20 to 24 than any other age group. However, there were 4,400 on the under-16s.Anxiety and drug abuse are the most common mental problems after an abortion, according to...

Washington, DC -- A new research study featuring numerous controls and a national data set finds a link between abortion and psychiatric disorders. The study directly contradicts the report the American Psychiatric Association released in August claiming abortion causes no mental health issues for women. The research team found induced abortions result in increased risks for a myriad of mental health problems ranging from anxiety to depression to substance abuse disorders. Ultimately, the authors write that abortion is directly "responsible for more than 10% of the population incidence of alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, drug dependence, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and bipolar...

BALTIMORE, November 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Though she had practiced the procedure as a student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine by scraping out a piece of fruit with razor-sharp abortion instruments, Lesley Wojcik learned that her training could never have prepared her for a real abortion. What caught her off-guard, says the second-year med student, was the brutality of a procedure that subjects women to extreme pain. In a Washington Post article detailing her journey to become an abortionist, Wojcik describes how during her first witnessed abortion, she recoiled in horror as the mother began letting out...