On Friday, as I stood at the Face the Truth staging area at our site near a Taco Bell at 79th and Stony Island Avenue on Chicago’s South Side, a young woman drove up and asked to buy one of our red Truth Tour shirts. She then sat in her car eating her lunch.
About 20 minutes later, this young woman rolled down her window and asked if we had any information about counseling after an abortion. I brought her a Project Rachel card [PDF] with the number 800-848-LOVE for post-abortion counseling.
She then told me that looking at the pictures of the aborted babies is very hard. And she told me it brought back to the forefront her own abortion over 20 years ago. She talked about the fact that she knew it was wrong. She had repented and she believed that God had forgiven her. But still she felt the need to talk to someone about her own personal experience.
Project Rachel Helps Women Deal with Abortion
Project Rachel is an integral part of the pro-life movement. After 38 years of legal abortion in America, there are millions of women wounded by abortion. Society tells them it is their right and people comment that she made the right decision for herself at the time.
But most women would rather that someone cared that she had a child and she lost that child. Even though it was through a choice she made, she still feels the loss and regret that comes with losing a child.
Our Face the Truth Tours may seem harsh to some. There are those who think it is uncharitable for us to display the graphic images that may cause some women to remember their own unborn babies who might look just like those pictures because they were victims of abortion. But we know from talking with many women that seeing those images can also be an opportunity for healing and forgiveness.
We distribute the Project Rachel cards when we hand out literature to passing motorists and pedestrians during our Truth Tours. Who knows how many people who encounter our signs are suffering from a past abortion?
Women and men who ignore the repercussions of choosing an abortion bring that pain into their relationships. A past abortion can cause anger, resentment, an inability to trust, unwillingness to truly love. Confronting the abortion and seeking forgiveness begins the healing process and frees the individual, man or woman, to embrace all of God’s blessings.
Yes, it is hard to see the pictures, as the young woman told me on Friday. But she told me she wanted to talk to someone and deal honestly with her abortion. She shed a few tears that day. She will probably shed more. But she is on the path to healing.
We want to bring healing to all those who are suffering from an abortion, and to help women choose life so that they never have to live with the regret of an abortion.
Pray for all those who are victims of abortion.
