Students for Life America (SFLA) launched its ALMOST ABORTED video campaign in June, featuring poignant first-hand accounts of individuals who have narrowly avoided the devastation of abortion, and one, sadly, who did not.
“The ALMOST ABORTED campaign was a direct response to the $200 million spent propagating abortion extremists’ misleading claims,” said Jordan Estabrook, press specialist and online editor for SFLA.
“It takes stories from our campaign to counteract the fearmongering and one-sided storytelling of those who cheer and encourage the death of the preborn,” Estabrook told Pregnancy Help News.
The series of videos recount stories of pregnancies that were “Almost Aborted,” “Could’ve Been Aborted,” or were “Pressured to Abort.”
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‘Almost Aborted’
“My name is Vanessa Taylor, and I was pressured to have an abortion. This is my ‘Almost Aborted’ story,” Vanessa began her video.
When she found out she was pregnant, Vanessa was excited. She was pro-life and had always hoped to be a mom.
Her ex did not want to be a father, though.
“He said we had to make an appointment for an abortion right away,” Vanessa remembered. “I felt pressured. I didn’t know what else to do.”
She made an appointment at Planned Parenthood and noted, “they basically did not care about what emotional state I was in.”
“I stated that I wasn’t doing this for myself, that I wanted to do this for my boyfriend because he made it seem like we had no other choice,” she said.
“I took the first pill,” Vanessa said, “and I just couldn’t live with myself. I just kept thinking this is not what I want. I really want to meet my baby.”
Then she came across a pregnancy help center.
“They helped me tremendously,” Vanessa recounted in her video. “They told me about the reversal pill…that pill is progesterone which helps to reverse the first pill.”
“I had a 24-hour window with a 60% chance of it working,” Vanessa said. “I took my chances. I went to the clinic, and I saved my baby.”
“People just jump to abortion being their only option,” she added. “Abortion hurts women, hurts babies, and is not healthcare. Pregnancy resource centers actually help women who are pregnant and in need.”
“Meeting my baby was basically my favorite day of my life. I can’t imagine living life without her,” Vanessa said. “She’s my world.”
To view Vanessa’s full video, click HERE.
Christa Brown, Senior Director of Medical Impact for Heartbeat International, shared the impact of Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) with Pregnancy Help News.
“Every time I meet a child who was rescued from abortion through the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, I'm taken aback by the fact that they almost weren't here,” Brown said. “Yet as I hold a perfectly healthy, beautiful child saved for a purpose by a brave mother, I see all the love and joy brought, not only to this family, but also to this world.”
“There are now thousands saved by Abortion Pill Reversal and I often wonder what they will accomplish in this world and what a tremendous loss it would have been not to have them here,” said Brown.
‘Pressured to Abort’
Angela was “raised in a Christian home and was actively involved in the pro-life movement,” she said in her video segment.
Additionally, her father worked in a pregnancy help center.
“I grew up knowing all about abortion and the harm that it causes for both babies and their mothers,” Angela said.
Angela remembered the “complete shock” she felt when she realized she was pregnant after being raped by a relative of a friend.
“Fear led me to my initial reaction which was to call Planned Parenthood and schedule an abortion,” she said.
When she called a local Planned Parenthood facility, the woman on the phone said, “they could help me ‘take care of my problem’ and no one would ever have to know,” Angela said.
She scheduled an upcoming abortion but felt “completely overwhelmed by shame and by fear.”
“How could I choose to do something that I believed in my heart was wrong?” she questioned, “but how could I choose to do what was right?”
“But because of the work that my father had done,” Angela said, “I knew I could call a pregnancy center for help.”
Angela called and shared her story with a woman at a random pregnancy help center. She explained that she’d scheduled an abortion, and she was terrified.
Years later, Angela still remembers the woman’s compassionate response.
“Sex doesn’t make babies, God does…God is choosing to give you a life out of this terrible situation,” the woman told Angela.
“I know that you can do this,” the woman on the other end of the phone told Angela.
“I knew she was right,” Angela said. “God had a plan and a purpose for everything that I had been through.”
She called Planned Parenthood to cancel her abortion appointment. The woman who answered remembered Angela from her earlier call to schedule the abortion.
“Instead of speaking words of encouragement and empowerment, she spoke to my fear and my shame,” Angela remembered.
Angela recalled the woman telling her again, “We can take care of this problem for you, and no one would ever have to know.”
“No one would ever have to know?” Angela questioned the woman. “I would know. And God would know and that’s enough for me. You can cancel my appointment.”
Angela was in tears after hanging up the phone, but “this time, they were tears of hope.”
“The woman from Planned Parenthood told me, ‘You can’t,’ but the woman from the pregnancy center told me, ‘You can.’ The woman from Planned Parenthood spoke to my fear,” Angela said, “but the woman from the pregnancy center spoke to my faith.”
“The woman from Planned Parenthood left me feeling hopeless, but the woman from the pregnancy center left me feeling hopeful,” Angela said.
“I chose life that day and my daughter, my daughter,” Angela said, laughing, “just turned 10 years old.”
“Many people believe that rape should be the exception regarding abortion laws, but the truth is that the trauma of rape will never be undone by adding the trauma of abortion,” Angela said.
“My daughter was a huge part of my healing. God gave me life out of a situation that I thought would be the death of me,” Angela said.
To view Angela’s full video, click HERE.
‘Could’ve Been Aborted’
“This is my family’s ‘Could’ve Been Aborted’ story, Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America, began her video.
Kristan remembered the call that “turned my life and my family’s life upside down.”
“My newborn son, Gunner, had tested positive for cystic fibrosis,” Kristan said. His diagnosis hit her “like a freight train.”
“But in that moment, I made a vow,” she said. “A vow to fight for Gunner’s life no matter what.”
“Testing of children like Gunner and now my only daughter Gracie, who have cystic fibrosis in the womb, results in nearly a 90% abortion rate,” Kristan said.
“I constantly hear in the abortion debates how abortion must be legal, even in later stage pregnancies to avoid children like mine from being born,” Kristan said.
“Many mothers in my position face relentless pressure to choose abortion when they hear the CF [cystic fibrosis] diagnosis for their child - from their doctors, from society, the media, the abortion lobby and,” she added, “even those that they would expect to stand by them in their hardest of moments.”
“My children are not disposable,” Kristan said.
To view Kristan’s full video, click HERE.
‘Aborted’
One story in the campaign doesn’t fit the theme of the “Almost Aborted” framework; this video is captioned: “Aborted.”
Tommy shares his daughter’s ‘Aborted’ story.
“My daughter’s name is Clementine,” Tommy started. “She was five months along when she was aborted.”
“My daughter was healthy. I begged her mother not to go through with the abortion,” he said.
Tommy said his ex was “confused, she was uncertain, and she had doubts.”
“[Abortion] was an option, and she took that option, and she regrets it now,” he said.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye to my daughter,” he said. “I didn’t know about the abortion until after it happened. I begged [my ex] not to do the appointment. She told me that she canceled it.”
“My daughter was five months, and she was ripped apart,” Tommy continued. “My daughter doesn’t get a funeral; my daughter doesn’t get respect.”
“My daughter not only matters, but I do not want my daughter to be forgotten,” he said. “I want my daughter’s story to be talked about. I want her to be remembered.”
“I’m told by people, ‘Well, she wasn’t even a person she was just a fetus. She wasn’t even a baby,” Tommy said.
“Why isn’t my daughter human enough for people to care?” he asked. “Why isn’t my daughter woman enough for her to have a body and for her to have a choice?”
To view Tommy and Clementine’s full story, click HERE.
Estabrook said that 18.5 million Americans were reached by those who shared their stories in the Almost Aborted campaign, including states with pro-abortion ballot initiatives this fall.
“The results from Students for Life of America (SFLA) speak for themselves,” Estabrook said, but added, “Though the ALMOST ABORTED campaign has been completed, our work to bring awareness and change is far from over.”
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Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. heartbeat is currently the subject of two lawsuiots brought by state AGs concerning charing information on Abortion Pill Reversal.
