After finding redemption in Christ for a past abortion, Terri Baxter’s heart was aflame with a desire to help other women like her heal. That desire led her to eventually start a national helpline for women. Though she has heard from women in crisis for years, she and her team say that recently, the stories of women suffering from at-home chemical abortions have increased in both number and intensity.
Post-abortive journey leads to the creation of a helpline ministry
Baxter started her journey as the director of a pregnancy resource center. There, she met post-abortive women and teen mothers and heard their stories of heartache.
Baxter told Live Action News, “It was clear to me that these women were still living in bondage and had not yet found freedom.”
For a time, she led abortion recovery programs. Then, at a CareNet conference, she met other attendees who worked for a national helpline. Baxter spent nine years working with the helpline program, which eventually expanded to minister to post-abortive women. One day, Baxter was invited to meet a lady who told her she saved her life.
“We don’t get to always know the outcome of our efforts and I was deeply touched by this encounter,” Baxter said.
When the helpline partnered with the United Nations, Baxter left that organization. She kept in touch with a co-worker who owned property in Texas where post-abortion retreats were hosted. The woman suggested Baxter launch a helpline specifically for post-abortive women, but Baxter demurred.
Baxter said, “When it was suggested I start the helpline under the umbrella of another company that already had a structure in place, I decided to take the leap.”
The 24-hour H3Helpline for “Help, Hope and Healing” takes calls from women contemplating abortion and directs them to pregnancy resource centers. It also hears from those who are post-abortive. All H3Helpline coaches have had abortions in the past themselves.
In recent days, the helpline has been getting an influx of calls from terrified women in the throes of chemical abortions or who have recently expelled their babies after taking misoprostol, the second drug in the abortion pill regimen. Told they would have only bleeding and mild cramps, some become violently ill. Most are inadequately prepared for the gruesome aftermath that ensues.
“These types of calls are getting more frequent,” Baxter said. “In many cases, women are seeing their fully formed babies in a glob of blood floating in the toilet and are traumatized. With easy access to the abortion pill, women are now becoming abortionists in their own homes. And while Planned Parenthood tells them to flush the remains of the baby, some can’t bear to part with their child, so their freezer becomes a makeshift morgue.”
Every state has varying laws regarding the disposal of aborted babies. Still, many end up in county sewers, trash cans, and incinerators.
While the helpline coaches aren’t trained to provide medical advice, they will urge a woman to go to the emergency room if there’s a concerning issue.
Baxter said, “Often, Planned Parenthood will tell the woman to say she’s having a miscarriage if she goes to the hospital, and some will because they’re afraid they’ll be penalized for taking the abortion pill, especially in a state where it may be illegal.”
Coaches take calls that depict unimaginable outcomes of chemical abortions
Chemical abortion calls can be especially intense. When Stephanie Jacobson, an H3Helpline coach, answered a recent call, the woman on the other end was wailing so hard that at first, Jacobson couldn’t understand what she was saying.
Jacobson told Live Action News, “She said she didn’t realize she was going to see a well-developed baby with eyes, arms, legs, feet, and hands. She had placed her deceased baby on the counter, and she didn’t know what to do with it. Her mother had gone to the store, and she was alone. She’s severely distressed so I tried to calm her down and suggested she get a clean cloth with which to wrap the body.”
Jacobson then told the woman there was healing in Jesus and that her baby had a purpose, even in death. Her words seemed to soothe the woman.
“Then suddenly, I hear a piercing scream, and the woman tells me she’s going to faint,” Jacobson said. “She discovered her cat on the counter eating her baby. She was frantic and inconsolable. I told her to go into her bedroom and shut the door. At that point, something inside of me just broke.”
At 1:00 a.m. one morning, H3Helpline coach Yolanda Yzquierdo received a call from a bewildered young woman who told her she was holding her aborted baby in her hands and the “string” (the placenta) was still attached. She didn’t know what to do.
Yzquierdo told Live Action News, “I told her not to pull it and that she needed to go to the ER. She sounded like she was in shock. She thought she was only nine weeks but was obviously further along.”
Another young woman’s boyfriend had given her the abortion pill without even knowing whether she was pregnant. “The couple had unprotected sex and he thought he would prevent a possible pregnancy,” Yzquierdo said.
It’s not uncommon, Yzquierdo noted, that complications arise during a chemical abortion and a dilation & curettage (D&C) surgical procedure is necessary because of an impartial abortion. Yzquierdo said, “Many of these girls don’t know how the pill will affect them. I talked to one whose friend sent her the pills. She didn’t know how the drugs worked or of the possible consequences.”
Elizabeth Jimenez’s caller was in her early twenties. She went to Planned Parenthood because she thought she wanted an abortion and was given three pills. She took the first pill, experienced pain, then took the other two. She was 21 weeks pregnant.
Jimenez told Live Action News, “She went to the hospital and told them she was confused about what she did. She regretted what she had done and wanted to reverse it. She didn’t realize she was killing her baby. At the hospital, she delivered the baby alive but was told the baby would die because ‘the machines were too big for the baby.’ She said they told her to hold the baby all day. After the infant perished, they put the body into a bag and zipped it up in front of her.”
The distraught young woman reached out to the H3Helpline for support. Her mother was upset with her for aborting her child. She was no longer in a relationship with the baby’s father. She believed in God but didn’t have a religious upbringing. She has a one-year-old toddler.
“I told her that unfortunately, this will be with her for the rest of her life and that we are here for her anytime she needed to talk,” Jimenez said. “She has a long road ahead of her, but I believe she’ll eventually get through it.”
