Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author. Live Action News has made minor edits for clarity.
In 2017, I suffered a major brain bleed. I had a stroke that lasted for an hour and 19 minutes. I was rushed to the hospital, and after crying out to God for more than half an hour, I truly thought I was dying that night. The doctors in Amarillo felt I needed to be transported by airplane to Dallas, but before I left the emergency room, my family came to talk to me. In my mind, they were there saying their goodbyes. I remember telling everyone what to do with my belongings. At that time, I didn’t have a written will.
While my family was waiting in the emergency room, my mother approached my sister, Kim. Kim and I have the same father but different mothers. My mother admitted to Kim then that when she was pregnant with me, she tried to abort me.
I made it through that difficult time, and after some time had passed, I got the courage to confront my mother about what she had told my sister — and she denied it. I tried repeatedly to get her to tell me the truth. Because of the relationship I have with my sister, I knew Kim would not fabricate something so dire.
My mother’s unwillingness to address the issue caused such frustration in me. To me, a good mother protects and speaks the truth, or at least should! I later learned why she had such difficulty facing the truth on the subject, but at the time, her avoidance of the subject made me feel like she was embarrassed and didn’t want me.
My faith in God was the only thing that kept me from losing my cool. I know what the Bible says about honoring parents. I thought I was honoring her by not pressing the issue, but inside it was eating at me. I have never paid much attention to abortion. I just knew God never would want us to abort a child. It is wrong.
Years later, the truth comes out
Years later, my mother had medical issues, forcing us to have to spend more than our usual time together. She had no one to care for her except me. One day while driving my mother home from work, the anger I had built up from her continued denial of her attempt to abort me came to a head.
I pulled my truck over and told her that if she would tell me the truth, our relationship would be better. Relationships are built on mutual trust and integrity. Without them we have nothing.
But she continued to deny it. “I told you I didn’t try to abort you!” she said.
I protested — and then she finally confessed. “Okay! I did try to abort you but I didn’t mean to lie!” she said. “I was afraid you would hate me for it!”
She continued to explain that back then at that time, she was poor, and she didn’t want to trap my dad in a marriage just because she was pregnant. My mother lived in a poor and abusive family; her mother was an alcoholic and died at an early age. She also had a father that was a womanizer and abused his children. Her relationship with my father was good, even though my grandmother didn’t care for my mother and wanted to keep the two of them apart.
While she said she tried to abort me, she didn’t explain how. And I didn’t pry. I just couldn’t bring myself to ask. And even while working toward making my city a Sanctuary City for the Unborn, I hadn’t pressed her for information on how she tried to abort me.
But eventually, I called my mother to specifically ask her that question. I was thinking she was going to say she’d used a coat hanger, but she didn’t. She tried to abort me by taking a bunch of medications. This could have not only killed me, but her as well.
Worthy of being killed?
My mother and I are not close, since it was my dad who raised me, but after my mother finally came clean and told the truth about trying to abort me, our relationship has improved.
And yet, I was never wanted by any of my dad’s wives. He’s been married four times. The first, my mother, tried to abort me.
The second wife tried to drown me in the bathtub.
The third wife, to whom he was married for 26 years, was emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive.
My dad’s current wife came to the city council meeting in opposition to making our city a Sanctuary City for the Unborn.
She wouldn’t speak to me or my sister that night at city hall. She just put her head down, walked into the city hall chambers room, and sat down wearing her green shirt indicating her alliance. Her actions that night spoke volumes.
To me, her being there was a knife in my heart. It made me feel like I was unimportant to her. I was worthy of being killed, in her eyes.
Telling my story
I was in the US Navy for 21 years. Going into the Navy was my escape from the home in which I was raised, although I had many thoughts of killing myself and running away from all the pain. I have been in many other situations where Satan tried to take my life but he never succeeded.
What Satan has used for harm; God is using for His good. I have been able to tell my story to a few, but not to a larger audience.
If my mother had access to the drugs they have now for chemical abortions when she became pregnant — mifepristone and misoprostol — or if she had gone to abortion groups like Planned Parenthood or even Jane’s Due Process, I probably would not be here to tell my abortion survival story. These organizations, abortion trafficking, and abortion drugs are the biggest threats to innocent human lives — and the reason we need Amarillo to be a Sanctuary City for the Unborn.
The journey of all the events, interviews, and people I have talked to since I have been a part of making Amarillo a Sanctuary City for the Unborn has been very cathartic. It has helped me to heal.
I am in the fight for my city to end abortion. Every day I have more healing, love, and forgiveness in my heart for those who wanted to harm me. We need to keep Amarillo safe for the unborn babies — we need to be a Sanctuary City for the Unborn. We have to end the attacks on the smallest and most vulnerable.
