On September 10, 2016, Rachel's Hope
- Escondido/San Diego, San Diego Silent No More and North County 40 Days for
Life, co-sponsored the fourth annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted
Children. It was held at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carlsbad, CA, and
officiated by Father Michael Robinson who gave a touching homily and
led us all in song. Joanne Strantz did a wonderful job as emcee and Rosemary Benefield and Tony DePaola provided valuable insights and information in our fight for life.
As with planning any event, there were "bumps in
the road" (video camera and computer malfunctions), but God answered our
prayers and the ceremony went forward beautifully.
It was an honor to give testimony
and wanted to share my words with you....We are gathered here to mourn the innocent children lost to abortion and to raise our voices to heaven assuring them they will never be forgotten and proclaiming their precious lives matter.
It’s also an opportunity for me to share the truth of what abortion does. You see, two of the innocent children we mourn
today are Matthew Thomas and Sarah Catherine - my precious son and
daughter.
We all are aware abortion takes the
life of a child, but did you know there are life-long consequences for the
mother and those around her?
I didn’t. It took many years for me to understand that “To
choose is to lose”. Through choice, my
children lost their life. Through choice, I lost the chance to be a
biological mother because I had a tubal ligation at the age of thirty. I was punishing myself for the abortions … I
didn’t deserve to be a mother. I
eventually adopted, but through choice, my adopted son lost the opportunity to
have a brother and sister, my parents lost two grandchildren, my sister a niece
and nephew, two men lost fatherhood and my husband two more step-children he
would have loved as much as he loves my living son.
My choice resulted other
consequences as well. I tried to ignore
the loss through obsessive behavior, negative attention seeking and substance
abuse which grew over time, culminating into self-loathing, a loss of
self-worth and depression – which eventually led to my becoming suicidal and
being committed to a psychiatric facility.
Sadly, my experience is more of the
rule than the exception and does not limit itself to mothers but to all
involved in the choice to abort. Whether
the choice was made out of fear, embarrassment or intimidation, the loss is
there … sometimes not surfacing for months, years or decades later but always
brewing in the dark recesses of the soul.
Spiritually-speaking, I and
countless others hid from God and some still do, convinced we committed, “the unforgivable sin,” believing He could never
love, let alone forgive someone who had or encouraged an abortion. The shame
and remorse is immeasurable.
Statistics show that approximately
one-third of American women have had at
least one abortion by age 45. Yes, my
friends, one-third. Other studies have
shown about 1 in 10 of these women continue to attend church and many of them,
as well as those complicit in the abortion decision, are still suffering in
silence. They are our neighbors, co-workers, friends and fellow parishioners.
Which brings me to another reason
I’m here…..to assure those suffering in
silence all is not lost. We have a
merciful God who loves all of His children. Nothing, absolutely nothing is unforgivable in God’s eyes if we go to Him with
humble and repentant hearts. I pray their wounded souls can embrace His mercy and forgiveness and reach out for healing
thus receive what has been missing for quite some time …. Peace and Hope.
At this time, I ask you to stand and
pray with me the Prayer for the Unborn:
Although our video camera malfunctioned, we were blessed to have a volunteer who recorded the majority of the service via cell phone.
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