Reclaiming Our Children

Long Ago and Now at Peace, One Woman's Story of Healing from Abortion

It all began because I believed my husband did not love me.  I should have never married him to begin with.  I was so young and naive.  I had just had my second child when I found myself pregnant again with a third.  We were only married 3 years, and I had hemorrhaged during my last delivery. I could not bring myself to have another child, so I called my sister and asked her what I could do.  She told me to take a hot bath with mustard.  It never occurred to me that this was a living being.  All I could think of was how devastated I was because my husband was fooling around. Our daughter was only about six months old.

In 1968, we had our third child, a little boy. I was raised to believe that divorce was not an option. After all, only Hollywood stars got divorced. So I persisted in trying to keep my marriage together as my husband continued with his unfaithfulness, his drinking, gambling, and abuse.  We lost our home and moved to Queens only to find out that I was pregnant again.

It was 1971 at this time and I told my husband to get out.  There was just no more love or respect for this man. He left on April 22, 1971 and I lost the baby in June of 1971.  I could have saved it if I wanted to, but of course that was not conceivable in my eyes at that time. I just let myself almost bleed to death before I went to the hospital. To me, this was an abortion of the mind.

Needless to say, all this impacted me greatly. I felt like a caged lion that had been let loose and my children were suffering greatly because of my mental imbalance, my suicidal behavior, and my need to find love which brought me to horrendous relationships.

I had lost all control of my emotions and found myself in a psychiatric hospital due to a suicide attempt. Only by the grace of our good God did I cry out for help, “Dear God, please help me!” And He did, just like that, miracle of miracles, right there in Beth Israel, Bernstein Pavilion, right there on the 7^th floor, He came to me.  My doctor could not believe the change which took place in me. He told me that it was miraculous and said that 90% of those who had my condition would eventually succeed in killing themselves.

Although I had that experience, I still continued in my illicit relationship and eventually found myself pregnant again, in love with a widowed man with 3 daughters.  Because his children did not accept me, I felt I could not have the baby, so I went through with a final abortion in 1976.  Of course, things did not work out with him either.

Once again, the Mercy of God intervened and this time, it really had a powerful impact on me.  This God of Mercy brought me to my knees and I found myself going to church and confession on a regular basis.  But, although I seemed to have found my way, I was still haunted by my abortions. Slowly, but surely, the Mercy of my God brought me to my haven of peace, and the post abortion ministry of Lumina.  The love there and all the other women who had suffered in a similar fashion helped me to know that there is a LOVE & PEACE which surpasses all understanding. ~ Janet

 *******

 Are you living in darkness and depression after an abortion?
Unable to get past the pain of your loss?
There is Hope.  There is Healing.  There is a way out of the darkness.
Email us at lumina@postabortionhelp.org.
Call us at 1-877-586-4621 or 1-718-881-8008. 

 For more information on post abortion healing, visit the Lumina website.

 

Related articles

Allowing God to Love Us

Women Hurt by Abortion

Words for the Post Abortive from Soon-to-be-Saint!

NYC Women's Group for Sexual Trauma

The CatholicPsych Institute will be offering a special topic group therapy program in NYC for women who have suffered from sexual trauma. If you or anyone you know has suffered some kind of sexual trauma at any time in life, please email drgreg@catholicpsych.com for more details. Please share this status to get the word out for the NYC area.

Gloria Steinem and The Bondage of the Freedom Medal

This week, President Obama awarded writer and activist, Gloria Steinem, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian Medal of Honor.  When I saw it, I could not help but note the irony. Steinem, a woman who has contributed to the bondage of millions of women who are suffering as a result of abortion, has been given a medal of freedom!

A pro abortion activist, Steinem says she has worn a bracelet for years for Rosie Jimenez.  Rosie Jimenez was a 27 year old student and single mother who died in 1977 from an illegal abortion. Gloria and others blame her death on the Hyde Amendment which eliminated federal Medicaid funding for abortion.  Rosie, pregnant and unable to pay for an abortion, traveled to Mexico for an illegal abortion and subsequently died from septic shock.

Gloria could easily fill up her arms with the bracelets of the over 400 women who have died from legal abortion since 1973, (and that does not include stats from California, New Hampshire, or abortion deaths attributed to other things). Sadly, those women do not seem to move Steinem, because in reality, she is concerned with keeping abortion legal and not concrned about the the safety of women.

In her self esteem book, “Revolution from Within, Gloria speaks of her breast cancer which she states was “making her a little bit more conscience of time."  Still, she fears the coverage of breast cancer screening outweighs another “huge health issue," because “one in eight women get breast cancer, while one in three women need an abortion in her life.”  You have to wonder what motivates someone to be so enmeshed that care for breast cancer invokes fear of neglect of abortion.

Then you learn Gloria herself had an abortion at 22 years old. While I am sure she would deny any negative impact on her life, you cannot help but wonder how much of a role it has played in the road she has taken. In an interview for her book she said, “being a social activist can be a drug that keeps you from going back and looking at yourself.”  How true!  Countless women spend their lives justifying and rationalizing abortion so that they do not have to go back and look at the reality of what they have done. I hope this medal does not send her even deeper into that denial.  Working in the post abortion ministry, I see the immense damage abortion has done to millions of women and, though she may not realize it, Gloria herself. How ironic that the thing you would give your life for is the very thing that destroys your life.

However, there is hope. In a recent homily, Pope Francis reminded us, “Dear brothers and sisters, let us be enveloped by the mercy of God; let us trust in His patience, which always gives us more time. Let us find courage to return to his house, to dwell in His loving wounds, allowing ourselves to be loved by Him and to encounter his mercy in the sacraments.”  I pray that Gloria once again becomes more conscience so that she may be enveloped by the mercy of the God of all people, allowing herself to be truly loved as the woman she was created to be.

*******

Are you living in darkness and depression after an abortion?
Unable to get past the pain of your loss?
There is Hope.  There is Healing.  There is a way out of the darkness.
Email us at lumina@postabortionhelp.org.
Call us at 1-877-586-4621 or 1-718-881-8008. 

For more information on post abortion healing, visit the Lumina website.

Ministry to Prisoners, After Abortion

It has recently been put on my heart, as well as others in the ministry, to begin to visit women's prisons in order to reach those post abortive. 

"God Offers Forgiveness, Healing and Hope," is a free, downloadable PDF booklet from "The Word Among Us," for any woman suffering from the effects of an abortion. 

The Father’s Heart

I Am My Heavenly Father’s Beloved Daughter

“I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).

God, how could you love me? I’ve had an abortion.

“You are my child, and I am your Father” (see 1 John 3:1).

But God, I’ve killed my baby. Am I still your child?

“It is my desire to lavish my love on you” (see Ephesians 1:3).

God, I don’t deserve your love.

If you’ve had a conversation like this with God, you are not alone. Many women who are suffering emotionally, spiritually, or even physically from an abortion have such thoughts. But starting today, your heavenly Father wants you to know and experience—for the first time or at a deeper level—that yes, he loves you, and yes, you are his child, his beloved daughter. That is his heart’s desire. And he is saying to you, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity. (see Jeremiah 29:11-14)

*******
For more information on Hope & Healing After Abortion, please visit the Lumina Website.

The Gratitude of Albuquerque

“This was a clear counterpunch to the Republicans and right-wingers who came from out of state to push their agenda on us,” Sam Bregman, Chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party said after the defeat of the abortion ban in Albuquerque yesterday.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, one thing that hit me more than ever when I read the article, “Albuquerque Voters defeat Antiabortion Referendum,” in the New York Times, is how grateful I am that I do not see the destruction of the unborn as a victory.

God knows it is nothing that I have done that warrants this. In fact, I am only too aware that my actions leave me even more appreciative of the gift that God has given me when it comes to life. Having had an abortion myself at 16 weeks, I am all too aware of the development of a baby. My little Joshua surely was just that, a tiny baby boy deserving of the gift of life God wanted him to have.  After my saline abortion, I was left to gaze at his tiny hands and feet as he lay in the bed beside me at a local hospital, remembering that I could not believe this was actually allowed.  Seventeen years old, coerced, and blind to the development of a baby, the fact that this was actually allowed stunned me and left me reeling for years.

Now, over forty years later, it is not only allowed, but people are celebrating the victory of lifting the ban of aborting unborn children over 20 weeks.  A part of me wants to believe that those who voted for this are ignorant of what they did. In my heart, I do not want to believe that people would actually think this is acceptable, but I know in many cases that is not true. Hearts are hardened, selfishness is rampant, and there are many out there who are firm in their stance of abortion any time, any way, and for any reason.

And so, I am thankful. It is easy to think I feel the way I do because I have good in me, but I know this good does not come from me. There is good in me because of the grace, love, and forgiveness of who through His mercy has brought me to Himself.

As someone who is prolife, I must always be on guard about the attitude of the Pharisee who justified himself in the eyes of God because of the good he did.  Instead, I am thankful to know through His grace, that I am, in fact, the tax collector, beating my breast with the words, “ Lord have mercy on me a sinner.”

Through the grace of God, who I have come to know and serve, and who bought my forgiveness by dying on the cross, each day I remember where I have come from and that it is by His grace alone that I am not one of those celebrating, and for this I am very grateful.

******

Please visit the Lumina Website for more information on Hope & Healing after Abortion.

When Abortion Hits Home

Those of us who have experienced  healing from abortion are only too aware of the impact it has, not only on our lives, but the lives of those around us. I think that the denial lived with following abortion shields us from not only seeing what we have done, but how this act has hurt others.

 

As we heal and find the forgiveness and mercy of God, we are able to understand more fully that it is not just us who are impacted, but all those around us and society as a whole. This reality can be difficult to face.  It is because of this reality that Lumina began post abortive sibling days and separate days for men who need to heal from abortion. Much more needs to be addressed, by God's grace, I am certain it will be.

 

 

 

Karen Swallow Prior's states in her article over at Christianity Today, "As more women open up, we’re faced with the heartbreaking realization that abortion affects us all."

 

Prior goes on in her Blog entitled, When Abortion Hits Home...

Feminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti, known for (among other things) advocating free abortions on demand and without apology, recently wrote an apology for her own abortion. Yet, she couldn't even use the word. Instead, Valenti's essay poignantly describes the dire medical circumstances surrounding her unplanned pregnancy, her adoring love for the toddler she already has, the loss of her hope to provide her daughter with a sister, and the traditions she has cultivated around the family table to pass on the her child, such as Sunday sauce.

So it is here, it seems—at the family table—that abortion has finally arrived in its collective meaning for all of us. The semiotics of abortion in American culture has evolved, and with it the images that give its meaning power: from the dark, dirty alley; to the clean, well-lighted clinic; and now, to the warm glow of the family dining room.

Read the rest of Prior's article here.

*******

Are you a woman, man, or sibling suffering from the effects of abortion? Lumina can help! Please contact us today at 1-877-586-4321 to find hope & healing.  Visit the Lumina Website for more information.

Remember that "nothing is definitively lost."  Blessed Pope John Paul II

 

 

The Triumph

The Knights of Columbus, Mamaroneck Council 2247 are hosting a screening of the documentary film "The Triumph", on Sunday December 8th, 1354 North Ave, New Rochelle @ 2 and 5 pm. The Triumph is about the reported apparitions of The Blessed Mother in Medjugorje.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at St Vito's Parish Center, Mamaroneck or by calling Jim O'Neill 914 220 2935 to reserve for one of the viewings.

 

http://www.thetriumph.org/

Upcoming Afternoons of Prayerful Remembrance - Save the Date!

An Afternoon of Prayerful Remembrance and Intercession (APRI) is, as its name suggests, a prayer service created in the spirit of the New Evangelization, for the entire local community. Acknowledging abortion’s universal impact through reflections and testimonies offered as part of the day, the prayer service offers the opportunity for all of us to come together in an extended period of prayer, contemplation, and intercession in the context of the Church’s Sacraments, seeking forgiveness and healing for our entire nation. This day of prayer includes an opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a period of silent Eucharistic Adoration, and concludes with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Click here for more detailed information about the service.

Here are some dates already on the calendar for 2014 - perhaps there is one near you!  Please join us!

January 11, 2014
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
St. Joseph Parish
512 S. Elm Avenue
Owatonna, Minnesota 55060
Contact: Mary Eisman 507-271-3164

January 11, 2014
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Archidiocese of New York
Church of St. Mary and Holy Name of Jesus
160 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401
Contact: Theresa Bonopartis
Phone: 718-881-8008
Email: lumina@postabortionhelp.org

January 22, 2014
Diocese of Fall River
St. Vincent De Paul Parish
71 Linden STreet
Addleboro, MA
stvincentdpattleboro@gmail.com

February 22, 2014
Diocese of New  York
St. Columba Catholic Church
Route 82
Hoewell Junction, NEW

Please visit the Lumina Website for more information on our ministry.

 

Securing Your Life By Your Perseverance
"If God allows you to undergo trials, He does so not in order that you give up or become discouraged in your endeavors to overcome the obstacles that lay before you."

(Behold I Stand at the Door and Knock, pg. 44

My Abortion

A great  response on Albert Mohler's blog to the New York Magazine, "My Abortion" article...I agree that this article was a weak attempt to destigmatize abortion but as I written over and over, it is not going to work because the stigma is not coming from the outside but comes from us knowing we are taking the life of our own child no matter how much we try to deny or rationalize.

Their Abortions—What Do These Abortion Testimonies Really Reveal?

Friday • November 15, 2013

A signal event in America’s long trial over the tragedy of abortion occurred this week with the publication of a cover story in New York magazine that was simply titled, “My Abortion.” As the cover advertises, the article features “twenty-six personal dispatches from a culture war without end.”

The issue is riveting, offering testimonies from women who have aborted their children—some of them repeatedly. Meaghan Winter begins the article by setting the context in 2013, forty years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, believing that it has settled the issue.

The rest is here: http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/11/15/their-abortions-what-do-these-abortion-testimonies-really-reveal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlbertMohlersBlog+%28Albert+Mohler%27s+Blog%29