During a recent online fundraising event for presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rejoiced that a central theme of the Harris campaign is the freedom to choose abortion.
Buttigieg went on to proclaim that “men are also more free” in a country with unlimited access to abortion care.
“Abortion care” in a Harris administration would mean the promotion of abortion, without restrictions, through all nine months of pregnancy. On her to-do list would also be the nullification of existing pro-life laws on the state level.
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From January to May 2024 women and men of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign shared their moving testimonies of abortion regret at Marches for Life in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Canada. The stories of these mothers and fathers are a lightning bolt of truth, striking at the ignorance and misinformation of abortion radicals like Harris and Buttigieg.
One testimony featured a father named Marc. His brief message was memorable as he shared with brutal honesty the truth of his role in a past abortion:
“I was an accessory to murder. Of course, it was legal. It was right after Roe v. Wade, but it was still murder.”
Marc’s words might strike many as extreme, insensitive to those who have exercised their reproductive rights. Yet, his words are not said in judgment of others who have had abortions, nor do they reflect an excessive self-condemnation.
We know that some women and men assent to abortion due to ignorance and misinformation. Many others, under great duress, experience various degrees of manipulation and pressure to abort their preborn child. For these parents, a program of healing after abortion can provide a safe place to share their story honestly, and express their feelings of anger, grief, and betrayal.
But for Marc, it was important to publicly acknowledge how he came to understand his role in the death of his child, and how he acted with callous thoughtlessness at the time of the abortion decision:
“It struck me like a thunderbolt. What have I done? How could I have been so blind? I look back at that time and I am completely ashamed, knowing what I know now.”
Marc goes on to share how the science of fetal development helped break through his denial and made him realize “what a horrible choice I had made.” Facing this truth began his transformation in faith:
“That was the beginning of my path to redemption. As I grew in faith, I realized I needed to repent and seek God’s forgiveness. I realized that our abortion was an insult to God. I offended Him deeply.”
We grieve with Marc that the abortion took place, and his precious child was denied the right to life. Yet, we also rejoice in a heart transformed by humility, and trust in God’s grace and mercy. The fruit of this humility and trust brings men and women real freedom, not the deceptive freedom of reproductive rights.
An important part of Marc’s message is an invitation to those who have suffered the loss of their preborn children to find emotional and spiritual healing in the Lord.
What a blessing to the pro-life movement, and our nation, when women and men receive the call, after attending a healing program, to become advocates for life and healing.
Tweet This: What a blessing it is when women & men receive the call after attending an abortion healing program to become advocates for life and healing
Saint John Paul II spoke of this reality in his beautiful message to mothers and fathers who participated in a past abortion, or multiple abortions:
“If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance…as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life…you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life." - Evangelium Vitae, Paragraph 99.
Editor’s note: Kevin Burke, MSS, is a pastoral associate of Priests for Life and co-founder of Rachel’s Vineyard. An expert on men and abortion loss, he is the author of Tears of the Fisherman and co-author of Rivers of Blood/Oceans of Mercy. This article is a Pregnancy Help News original.
