As a little girl, Michele Smith struggled with pervasive feelings of rejection and shame. She wondered why she was carrying such a burden for no apparent reason. The youngest of seven children in a large Italian family, Smith remembers her mother saying she didn’t have a name for her when she was born, so the doctor who delivered Smith named her.
Smith told Live Action News, “I didn’t know why, but my name was tied to my secret shame. It would be more than 40 years later that my mother would shed light on this mystery when she revealed a horrific secret.”
At 17, Smith gave her life to Christ after feeling the Holy Spirit beckoning her. She was raised in a Catholic household but felt she had always been searching for God yet couldn’t find the answers she needed to combat the rejection and shame she carried inside.
“When I surrendered to Jesus, I stepped into an intimate personal relationship with the Creator of the universe that would set me on a long journey of healing,” Smith said.
While pro-life principles weren’t discussed at home, Smith’s passion for life was ignited by her faith and her foray into motherhood.
Smith said, “When I became pregnant with my first child and felt life growing inside me, it really awakened me to the preciousness of life. As my five children grew into adulthood, I felt blessed that none of them experienced unplanned pregnancies.”
Three unplanned pregnancies put pro-life principles to test
But Smith didn’t realize that her advocacy for life would be put to the test three times.
“I received a call from my unmarried daughter one day who told me she was pregnant,” Smith said. “I was totally taken by surprise. I told her all babies are a blessing and that she would get through this with our love and support.”
A few weeks later, Smith received a call from her son who had been dating a young woman, informing her his girlfriend was pregnant.
Smith said, “I offered him the same words of encouragement I gave my daughter. I now had two grandchildren on the way, due just a few days apart and they were very much wanted.”
As if that wasn’t enough, when Smith’s other son visited with her shortly after the two phone calls, she told him about the two pregnancies. He confided to Smith that he, too, was expecting a baby with his girlfriend.
“There are now three unplanned pregnancies in my family and each situation was different,” Smith said. “Watching my children go through the challenges associated with the pregnancies was difficult at times, but we were grateful for these surprising blessings and that each of my children chose life for their babies.”
Forgiveness and a new calling
In 2020, when Smith’s mother revealed a secret she’d been harboring for almost 60 years, Smith had to draw on her capacity to forgive in a way she never anticipated. Her mother wanted her to know of the circumstances around her birth.
Smith said, “She told me she and my father were very poor, living in a three-room apartment with six children. When she got pregnant with me, she felt she couldn’t feed another baby, she was so desperate. She felt she had no other choice but to heed the advice of her doctor to end her pregnancy.”
The year was 1962, a decade before Roe was federal law. But her mother sought an abortion. The doctor gave Smith’s mother saline shots and 54 pills of methotrexate over three days. But the pregnancy continued, despite efforts to end Smith’s life.
Smith said, “Everything just clicked into place then. I finally understood why I felt the way I had as a child and why my name never felt quite right. I thanked my mother for sharing. Because I knew she had shouldered the burden of guilt and shame for so long, it was important that I forgive her.”
It was painful enough to learn of her near demise in the womb, but Smith also discovered her mother had tried to abort her older sister, Rose, just 11 months earlier.
“My mother had dubbed my sister and me ‘Miracle Angels’ and it was now clear why the phrase had meaning for her,” Smith said. “She was adamant that she chose abortion out of desperation. She didn’t have access to a pregnancy support center, sadly.”
Smith said, “I not only had to reconcile that my parents hadn’t wanted me, but the same doctor who tried to abort me also delivered me and then named me.” Yet as she was praying one day, Smith says God revealed to her that it was He who named her Michele, not her mother’s doctor.
“I later found my great-grandfather’s immigration documents and learned his name was also Michele,” Smith said. “I guess I was meant to have that name.”
Now 95 years old, Smith’s mother has given her daughters permission to tell their stories, which they do, as Ambassadors for the Abortion Survivors Network.
Smith said, “It’s a painful story but if it can save one life, it’s worth sharing. We want to give a voice to the voiceless. Abortion leaves a stain of trauma that’s hard to erase.”
As a mother of five and a grandmother of eight, Smith is grateful for the gift of life.
“It’s a blessing I survived, or my children and their offspring wouldn’t be here today,” Smith said. “Now, I have a mission to put a face to the abortion issue to show we have intrinsic value as human beings, even in the womb.”
