Thanks
be to God!
He
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Therefore…stand
firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of
the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in
vain.”
1
Corinthians 15:57-58
July 17th
2007
Please
feel free to share my story.
My name is Danielle and this is my story. I have two little boys
ages 6 and 9. I had my first little boy at age 17. Believe me I have
never worked so hard in my life. However I decided to keep my baby and I
graduated college and now have a Bachelors degree. Yes it can be done. I
am now 27 and have been married for 9 years.
January of 2007, I
discovered that I was pregnant. I was horrified, my husband and I had
two boys and never wanted another child. We had just bought a home and
could not afford daycare, diapers and everything else that comes with
having a baby. We were already living paycheck to paycheck. I remember
huddled in the corner of a local grocery store crying hysterically
holding a positive pregnancy test. I called my husband on my cell phone
and he said don’t worry we will take care of it.
When I finally built up enough strength to go home. I immediately
began to find an abortion clinic and that is when I came across the "Hope
Clinic for Women" in
Granite City
Illinois
. When I visited their website it looked so nice, as if they cared so
much and would take excellent care of me. I live in
Missouri
and would have to cross over into
Illinois
. I called and made an appointment for the following Wednesday. I
was sick, just sick about the whole thing.
That morning I kissed my two boys goodbye, dropped then off at
school and my husband and I started off to the Hope Clinic, the place
that would change my core foundation and who I was forever.
We arrived early around 8:00AM, the clinic told me there would be
picketers but there was no one there yet…… There was a guard at the
front door; it looked like they had hired him straight out of a back
alley. As I went into the building I noticed the carpets had several
stains and were disgusting. I spoke to someone through the glass and
they had me slide my driver’s license underneath. Everyone
was cold and hateful, where was this wonderful comforting
environment that their website spoke of? I guess when you kill babies
all day, nice goes out the window.
I was taken to a waiting room to fill out the paperwork and was
told my husband could not come with me. The lights were dim
and there was soft music playing with nature like sound. They made it
look like you are getting ready to go into a spa, not to kill your baby.
I was sick, sick, sick, sick. Sick. As I read over the paperwork it
asked me questions like "Is
someone forcing you to do this?" I thought that they should be
focusing more on questions like "Are
you sure you what to kill your baby?" I stopped doing my
paperwork and looked at the people around me. They were all young girls,
16 years old, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger. They all
just stared down at their papers.
Then I heard my name called and I looked up to see a lady dressed
in blue scrubs. She took me to a tiny room and as cold and emotionless
as she could be, she asked me to lie down. She performed an ultrasound
and the monitor was faced away from me. Maybe
if it was faced towards the women then they could see the life they were
about to kill and they would have a chance to run away from the Hope
House and never look back. I heard her say you
are 19 weeks. 19 weeks!! How did this happen? I had been on the
depo-vera shot and not had any periods. How did I let this go so long
without knowing? Maybe I did know, but I wanted to pretend like it did
not happen, maybe I did not want to face what I knew was inevitable.
She continued, "You
need a second term abortion and it will take two visits", she
shoved the paperwork in my hand and told me to head upstairs. When I got
to the top of the stairs I could not believe my eyes there were several
girls all waiting to kill their babies. There must have been at 20 other
women all waiting and it was only 8:30AM. I began asking questions to
the person at the desk, she treated me as if I was a kindergartner. I
started yelling I am not 16
years old I am a grown woman with a career. And at that moment I
began to feel lightheaded, she shoved a book at me and told me to go in
a nearby room and read it. It was if she did not want to answer my
hideous questions about how they were going to kill my child, they’d
rather have me read about it from a book.
I sat down in the tiny room and opened the book. Again the book
started off about how I was in a wonderful place with safe doctors. What
a joke I thought, not only were the employees cold and cruel but the
place was disgusting and far from clean. If they call the Hope
House "state of the art" I wonder what a normal abortion
clinic looks like.
The procedure was a two day process. The first day doctor death
kills the baby and opens the uterus, it said that I would bleed heavily
until I came back the second day when he would suck the babies dead body
out. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they give you a Valium, if you
want, before the abortion to calm you down (I believe they give you it
so you are not conscious of what you are doing).
Everything started to become hazy. I set the book down walked
past the desk and down the stairs. It was there I began to faint and was
caught by my husband coming in from having a cigarette. "I
am 19 weeks" I said "19
weeks!!!" "Don’t go outside," he said. "Why?"
I stated. "Because you do
not want to see what is out there." "Yes I most certainly
do!!"
I ran past him and there in the parking lot were several
picketers. There was a huge poster of a 20 week baby that had been torn
to shreds by the killing machine. It was then I began to cry and a man
walked over and gave me a piece of paper, it said "small
victories" and he said gently you
don’t have to do this, we will help you. Small
Victories? As I looked at the piece of paper I knew that I didn’t
belong here and that is exactly what this was going to be, a small
victory for the picketers, but it was a HUGE
victory to me.
You see that huge victories name is Lilly
and she is now 1 month old. I
will always be eternally grateful to those outside that abortion clinic
that gave me the strength to save my babies life.
You see I was pro-choice, I truly believed that abortion was
alright and that it should be up to the woman to decide, but I also did
not belief in God. But as I pulled away from the death mill AKA "the
hope clinic" my beliefs changed forever. I never looked back
and I now know what is awaiting these poor women at the abortion
clinics. There are soooo many days that I look into Lilly’s blue eyes
and I think to myself, "I
almost killed this wonderful gift God has given me," and I
begin to cry as I hold her tightly in my arms. I just hope God has
forgiven me.
Please use my story in your fight to stop abortions. I do not
believe that I could have gone on living if I had made the decision to
kill my baby. You will suffer greatly!! You will go into a deep dark
depression and wish you could take it all back!! If you are not ready to
have a baby, please consider adoption. Did you know that they pay for
everything medical bills, rent, clothes, utility bills, groceries and
you get to see the baby and be a part of its life still!!! (if you want
to).
I did much research on adoption before I decided to keep my baby
and it is such a good thing. Adoption centers promise the same thing as
abortion clinics to be caring, warm and a safe place for you. The
difference is adoption centers are!!! They were willing to help me
financially, mentally, and physically. They also take good care of you
after you give the baby up for adoption.
This is definitely not the case with the baby killing mill, they
kick you out the door and hope you don’t bleed to death and show up as
another "abortion gone
wrong" story in the local paper.
If you do decide to
keep the baby and need help, look around your local town for pregnancy
crisis centers such as "Small
Victories" in Illinois or "Open
Arms" (in Missouri, were I went). They provided me with free
counseling, and helped me find a doctor, medical insurance and provided
me with a lot of items for the baby. I could talk to them at any time
and they never judged me, not once. If it wasn’t for that center I do
not know what I would have done.
Oh and my husband, he loves the baby more than anything in the
world, but don’t get me wrong you don’t need a man in your life to
raise a healthy, happy baby. Please
take it from someone who has been there and please do not have an
abortion. The Hope Clinic
for woman, how ironic.
Thank you Small Victories
Danielle
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