In a recent op-ed for Newsweek, California woman Jessica Riojas shared an all-too-familiar story: when she found herself unexpectedly pregnant during college, Riojas visited a Planned Parenthood facility in order to discuss her options. Instead of offering her advice, however, counselors there told Riojas that the only “option” available to her was abortion.
Riojas explained:
… I found out I was pregnant. Like most other college-age women in my situation, I felt alone, scared, unsure of my future and incredibly underprepared. I visited a local Planned Parenthood, where a counselor tried to convince me that I was irresponsible, that I wasn’t ready to be a mom and that abortion was my only option.
Thankfully, something inside Riojas told her that abortion wasn’t really the only choice she had. She explained that while she considered herself neither pro-life nor pro-choice at the time, she had previously picked up a model of a 12-week preborn child at a Students for Life information booth. She liked the model, so she kept it in her car. After speaking with the Planned Parenthood counselors, she looked again at the model and knew that she would keep her child.
READ: Former abortionist confesses own abortion: I believed the lie that women needed abortion to succeed
Riojas says that she was the perfect target for the abortion industry: she didn’t have much money and she had hoped to finish her education. While abortion advocates say that women in these situations are unable to raise a child, Riojas knew better, and she proved them wrong. She said that during the same semester that she gave birth to her daughter, she earned a 4.0 GPA. She finished her undergraduate degree and went on to earn a Master’s in Speech Language Pathology and now works full-time as a speech language pathologist — all while being a mom.
“The abortion movement doesn’t want you to know about stories like mine,” Riojas said.
Unfortunately, Riojas’ experience with Planned Parenthood is common, but many women do not have the same positive outcome that she did. While Riojas understood that Planned Parenthood was selling her a lie, many women are led to truly believe that they have no other option. Live Action News has previously reported how Planned Parenthood lies to women and pressures them to abort. Some of these stories include testimony from previous abortion workers.
Planned Parenthood has a clear financial incentive to push abortion — its 2018-2019 annual report revealed that the abortion giant pulled in $110 million in excess revenue for the year. Abortion is by far the biggest driver of these profits. Former Planned Parenthood workers have admitted that they were given abortion quotas to meet every month.
Riojas recognizes that many women are pressured to abort because they find themselves in impossible situations. She said she wanted to share her story so that others can see that there is hope. “[A]bortion was not what I needed,” she said. “What I needed was real information about pregnancy and fetal development, the truth about what I actually can do as a pregnant student and people to offer me moral and practical support. The abortion facility didn’t tell me — and never would have told me — about any of that. But it was all available, and it’s available to women now.”
Pregnancy resource centers are located around the country, and they offer the support and services that women and families need to choose life. While Planned Parenthood sells the lie that abortion is the only choice, pregnancy centers provide the resources to help families in need.
“Don’t listen to businesses like Jackson [Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi], which use vulnerable women to sell their best — and only — product. Women don’t need abortion to be successful,” Riojas said.
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