Women from all walks of life are starting to speak out on their experiences with abortion - and, more specifically, how they survived it.
On Tuesday, the BBC shared the moving account of Melissa Ohden, an abortion survivor with a particularly gripping story. Ohden's 19-year-old biological mother was forced into having an abortion by her mother. The plan was to abort her child by injecting toxic saline solution meant to poison the baby, which she would then deliver deceased.
But Ohden survived.
Abortionists dumped her little body into a medical waste bin, thinking her dead. She was discovered by a nurse who heard her weak cry and was immediately rushed to the NICU where, despite all odds and doctors’ prognoses, she survived. She was eventually adopted.
Ohden didn’t even know about the story of her birth until her adoptive parents told her the truth at the age of 14. Melissa’s birth mother was never told her baby survived, and had no idea until Ohden reached out to her via email -- 30 years later.
Melissa’s story is one of many. AnnaKatherine Clark is another abortion survivor who uses her story and her voice for those who can’t, testifying that fighting for a baby’s right to life is more empowering than any decision to abort. In a piece in The Precedent, Clark wrote, “The March for Life and the Pro-Life movement are what true feminism and the empowerment of women looks like.”
And there are so many stories like Melissa’s and AnnaKatherine’s -- all from women who fought for their right to life and are advocating for that right for others.