Gloria’s story is not a pretty one, but it is an all too common one. At an early age she found herself married with 3 young children and living with an abusive husband in a low-income household. Her husband was on drugs and was slowly pulling her into that lifestyle. He was also in and out of jail.
During one of those times when her husband was in jail, she found herself getting involved with someone else and becoming pregnant.
Embarrassed and scared to tell her husband, she made the decision to abort her baby. Gloria felt she did not have any support and believed that abortion was her only option. She was not involved in a church and had no one to turn to and no one was there to help her or to tell her to keep her baby.
For Gloria the actual abortion was an awful experience, but she lived through it. But over the years thoughts of what she saw during the process came back to haunt her.
She remembers lying there during the procedure and turning her head to see the large glass container that was attached to the suction equipment that was used in the procedure. During that brief glimpse, she saw the hand of her baby touch the glass. That was a horrific sight that to this day she is unable to forget.
But life went on for Gloria. She moved around a bit with her family, making poor choices in her relationships and blocking the experience out of her mind.
Over time, she realized that God had forgiven her, but she had not forgiven herself.
It was hard for her to forgive herself because she realized that she had only thought of herself, she never thought about what was right, or what was best for the baby.
Over the years she has been able to move forward and slowly forgiven herself. She has grown closer to God and shares her story with pregnant women in her volunteer work at her local pregnancy center.
Even though her experience was over 40 years ago she still finds it difficult to understand how women can think “it won’t bother them”. In telling her story she tries to get women to understand that “a pregnancy only lasts 9 months but an abortion stays with you forever”, “you never get over it”.
In telling her story Gloria hopes to help other women see there is hope, there are people and organizations out there that can help them and encourages them to choose life.
If she had only one thing she could share with someone facing a decision of abortion, it would be “God has a way”!
Gloria’s story is one of redemption and forgiveness and now she shares that message with others.
** If you or someone you know has experienced the pain of abortion, please know there is hope and healing. Please contact Judy at 661-864-7508 for information on Redeemed, a post abortive Bible Study. **
