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She sat across from me at the start of her junior year in college with plans for an internship in government and aspirations for work with law enforcement in the future. Smart. Driven. Yet, on her intake form she had chosen “Abortion,” as her pregnancy decision. This pregnancy couldn’t have come at a more “inconvenient” time in her life. So many of her plans and dreams would be dashed if she were to carry this baby to term. What made it more devastating was that she had a steady boyfriend, so she’d taken care to prevent this from happening. She’d been on the birth control pill for two years already, and she’d never missed a day! But her at-home tests and Daybreak’s test all came up with the same result. Positive. How could this have happened?
During our session, Bonnie (name changed for privacy) shared that an abortion had already been scheduled out of state the following week. She was aware that she was past the date of a legal abortion in South Carolina (6 weeks or when heartbeat is first detected). Bonnie’s mother knew and was helping her, yet she was afraid to share the news with her father.
I asked her about her relationship with God, and though she said she believes in God, she was on a journey in her faith. I shared some of my personal journey toward faith in Jesus Christ and how He’s helped me through some very difficult times. She engaged and I encouraged her to consider taking a step in faith to accept Jesus as her Savior, in her own time. She did say that she wanted to find a local church home. I made sure to tell her of many who have nurseries and daycare for children. I also shared adoption as an option and gave her material on both abortion and adoption for her to take home to read on her own. I also spent time explaining some possible after-effects she might experience if she went ahead with the abortion: these being emotional, psychological, and physical concerns. I also spent time sharing that God had plans to give her a future full of blessings if she would trust Him with her life and her baby’s life. I also assured her that Daybreak was here to help both with counseling, and with baby items through a program offering online sessions on pregnancy and parenting, as well as Bible studies. Completion of this program would allow her to shop for baby items in our boutique if she decided to parent. I told her that even if she went ahead with the abortion and she found she needed some support afterward, Daybreak offers a biblically-based post-abortion recovery program leading to forgiveness and healing.
As she left, I had concerns that she would still head to Planned Parenthood in North Carolina for her abortion. I prayed mightily that God would work in Bonnie’s heart and mind. And, He did work, but not as we expected. A week after our session, she and her boyfriend had an argument and it was then that she took the abortion pill though I didn’t learn of this until she texted back two months later after a few of my attempts to see how she was doing. She shared that she had taken the abortion pill and she was sure it had worked. But, when she went to Planned Parenthood to get on the birth control pill again, an ultrasound revealed that she was almost 20 weeks pregnant! She had had no idea. She shared that she would be seeing an OB/GYN that very week and that she planned to parent this baby. Praise the Lord! He works in mysterious and unexpected ways. What a Savior!
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