The father of Shawna’s child sat beside her as she called the Pregnancy Decision Line. She wanted information on how to get an abortion.
“I’m grown up,” she said flatly.
Her support system, however, could not meet her needs. The only person she had to support her emotionally was the father of the child, not her parents. Shawna insisted that she did not need to tell her parents that she was pregnant. What would they think? She was a young adult, still moving toward maturity. She already had a child — a toddler who drained her time and energy. She did not know if she could bear the burden of bearing and rearing another child while she was still young without significant support.
Shawna had been praying nonstop, but still could not decide if she wanted to keep her child or not. God had not directly answered her prayers. She kept calling out to God with no response, left to consider the decision with only human voices to listen to her dilemma.
That phone call changed Shawna’s mind. As she heard more about the surgical procedure for abortion, her eyes welled up with tears. She started sobbing. Watching her change of heart, the father comforted her as he sat beside her.
Abortion procedures are invasive, regardless of the method. Shawna had thought an abortion would be simple and easy, but the facts pierced her heart. She did not want her child to be torn apart or suffocated. She did not want her womb to be invaded with surgical instruments or saline solution. She no longer wanted an abortion.
Her newfound clarity left her determined to prepare for her baby’s birth.
Through her tears, she smiled and said, “it looks like I’m going to have to go through with having this baby.”