A pro-life activist on Twitter asked for help when she encountered a mom facing an unplanned pregnancy who was considering abortion. With the help of some life-affirming stories, the mom chose life and canceled her abortion appointment.
It started with a tweet from Emily Rarick, who asked people to leave encouraging messages for the young mother. “I’m messaging with a 19-year-old who is 11 weeks pregnant and has an abortion scheduled in two weeks,” she wrote. “She is fixing to start her sophomore year of college and doesn’t see how she could finish school and be a mother.”
Rarick continued by saying she had offered to set her up with fundraising and a baby registry, but the mother was scared she would have to quit school — and her boyfriend was pressuring her to have an abortion.
I’m messaging with a 19-year-old who is 11 weeks pregnant and has an abortion scheduled in two weeks. She is fixing to start her sophomore year of college and doesn’t see how she could finish school and be a mother. Please leave her some encouraging messages below and pray.
— Emily Rarick (@emilyrrarick_) July 31, 2022
Rarick shared screenshots of their conversation with permission.
“I’m just so scared,” the mother wrote in a text message. “I don’t know if I can do this… I thought that a baby would be years down the road for me. I thought I would be done with school and married. Settled. I am so scared that [redacted] will leave me if I keep it. He is the love of my life. We have been together since I was 14… My world would come crashing down around me if he left.
“I don’t want to kill my baby and I don’t want to put it up for adoption. I couldn’t live knowing that my child was out there and that I could not see them and watch them grow. I’m going to talk to [redacted] again tomorrow and see if I can change his mind.”
In another update, Rarick shared that her boyfriend agreed to keep the baby after hearing Rarick’s own story, which is one of abortion regret following two abortions at age 18, just six months apart. Rarick wrote in a Newsweek op-ed of her own journey: “For years, I silently struggled. I cried myself to sleep night after night. I obsessed over the thoughts of my children. Wondering what their hair would have looked like, how their voices or laughter would have sounded, or who they would have become. The earth-shattering realization that I would never, ever be able to see them or know them in this lifetime took me to the darkest place I had ever been.”
The mom who chose life wrote to Rarick:
I called [redacted] last night and we stayed up until 3 fighting and talking but we’re going to keep the baby. I just can’t go through with getting an abortion.
I shared your story with him (I hope that’s OK). After he read it he said that he couldn’t do that to me and make me live with something like that for the rest of my life.
We are both still feeling scared about the future but I know that keeping our baby is the right choice. I think that in time he will be okay.
Others had also left stories of unplanned pregnancies, and how they were able to have fulfilling, happy lives after choosing life.
“Her parents weren’t married when she was conceived, and her father tried to get her mum to abort her, but mum knew it would be wrong,” one person wrote of their niece. “They had her, then married. Her Dad was So proud to give her away. A baby is never a disaster.”
“I did this. I got pregnant the when I was 19 in the middle of my sophomore year. My son was born in September 1991. I took a couple semesters off and lived with my parents. Then I went back to college. It was honestly a wonderful college experience. My son went to campus daycare,” another woman wrote. “Even back then family housing was available on campus for single moms. I got BA and Master’s degrees. My son has been the joy of my life. He’s 30 now and married with a 2 month old daughter.”
Another mom said her daughter was her greatest accomplishment.
“I had my daughter sophomore year of college,” she said. “I finished my degree. But honestly that accomplishment doesn’t hold a candle to the person I raised. She is my most important contribution to this world. And I know she will leave it better than she found it.”
Rarick finished the story with an update that the mother had told both of their families, and that they were excited and supportive. The story shows that life-affirming stories, support, and love can help people turn away from fear and choose life instead.
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