There are countless testimonies of women feeling a “deep emptiness” or “trauma” after an abortion. Others have experienced nightmares and depression. From mothers who’ve gone through the procedure, we know that it’s painful emotionally, mentally, and physically. However, testimonies have also revealed how the difficulty and agony of abortion is compounded when it’s done chemically, away from the doctor’s office. Pop star Britney Spears drove that reality home in her recently released her memoir, The Woman in Me, where she details her horrifying experience with a do-it-yourself abortion.
In the book, she disclosed her pregnancy with fellow pop singer Justin Timberlake. Although she felt deep love for Timberlake, according to Spears, he made it clear he was not interested in being a father. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she said.
Concerned about Timberlake’s disapproval, Spears agreed to have an abortion, even though in her words, “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it.”
Afraid of the public catching wind of her pregnancy — much less her abortion — she took it upon herself to carry out the abortion at home. She swallowed the pills, and it wasn’t long before Spears says she experienced “excruciating pain.” She wrote about “sobbing and screaming” and described it as “one of the most agonizing things” she had experienced in her life.
Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, shared with The Washington Stand, “My heart breaks for Britney Spears and the countless other women who have been coerced into having an abortion. In a country where a child can be killed until the moment of birth, the pressure on any woman who is unexpectedly pregnant to abort is immense.”
“How tragic that when Spears turned to the baby’s father for support,” Szoch lamented, “she was met with more pressure to pay for her unborn child to be killed. The pain and suffering she endured is not unique to her but is likely what most mothers who experience abortion feel.”
As she points out, it’s not just Britney Spears enduring this kind of trauma.
With the use of the abortion pill increasing, the number of women enduring pain like Spears is growing rapidly. Live Action, a pro-life organization, shared the experiences of multiple women who regretted their chemical abortions.
One woman named Monica swallowed her second set of abortion drugs and, like Spears, quickly felt horrible cramping. “Intense pain. Then it would go away. Then more pain,” she said. As she was curled up on her bed, “Each wave of cramping [was] a little worse than the one before.” She got up and begged her boyfriend to turn on the bath for her. Climbing into the tub, she then felt a pressure release. “The fetus was — it was floating in the water,” she said, her voice quivering.
Another woman named Leslie said her experience was “incredibly terrifying, isolating, and painful” and described the pain as “violent” and “unnatural.”
Still another woman named Salome shared, “I saw the most heartbreaking thing that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I saw my child … It was the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever created. And I destroyed it.”
Considering these women, Szoch emphasized that, “Abortions in America are not forced, but they are culturally coerced.” The media and pro-abortion groups like to pretend it’s no big deal to swallow a pill that destroys an innocent baby. Rather, they paint a picture that DIY abortion is convenient for getting rid of a “clump of cells,” and more comfortable since the woman is in her home. They ignore, though, the true suffering that takes place — once exclusively done by the hands of abortionists, and now increasingly by the hands of women in their own homes.
The Left denies the fact that they are destroying — not only children — but women, men, and families at large. They are demolishing unborn life, but they are also leaving lasting scars on the lives of those who fell victim to the lie that “abortion is health care.” Or the lie that it doesn’t affect anyone else. As Live Action’s Nancy Flanders put it, “When innocent lives are taken, all of society is affected … With abortion, at least one person is intentionally killed, and another is often left traumatized by the experience.”
But even if it were true that abortion only affected the woman having one, it remains that those effects are life-altering and, ultimately, irreversible. In some instances, they’re even life-threatening — especially in the case of chemical abortion.
A survey conducted by Operation Rescue, a pro-life group, stated how “367 surgical abortion facilities have permanently closed” since 2013. While this seems like good news at first glance, further examination shows these closures are due to the rise of medication abortions — with a 47% increase this decade alone.
Even more alarming, studies have found chemical abortion to be four times more dangerous than surgical abortion. Chemical abortion includes risks like hemorrhaging, sepsis, and infection — risks that have been linked to reported deaths. These chemical abortions are dangerous even with medical supervision, and yet, the abortion industry is actively pushing women to take the pills at home alone, where there is no medical supervision to monitor the process, the pain, or anything for that matter.
No wonder mental health problems are skyrocketing, and cultural division is rampant. Looking at the world right now, we have a war in the Middle East killing thousands of innocent people, children being stripped of their childhood in the name of LGBT “inclusivity,” and men being told their God-given role to be protectors and providers is toxic.
Ignoring God’s biblical mandates inevitably leads to the breakdown of society and the individual, because straying away from biblical mandates is straying away from how things were supposed to be.
And, on top of everything else, we women are being attacked in more ways than one. I believe glorifying God will always be the highest calling of anyone, and motherhood is certainly a gift and a blessing that is meant to glorify God. It is an immense honor for a woman to bear children, and it is something God created the woman uniquely to do. Abortion, the taking of the life God knit together in the womb, is “excruciating,” “agonizing,” and “traumatizing.” And the spike in chemical abortions is only spreading more pain.
Sharing her sadness over the current state of society, Szoch said, “I hope [Spears] is able to experience the love and mercy of God, and I hope men will learn how important of a role they play in their child’s mother’s decision to choose abortion or life for their child.” She added, “We need fathers to step up and be protectors of their children and supporters of their child’s mother — not to cower away in fear of the unknown. Abortion stops the heart of a child and breaks the heart — and sometimes the body — of that child’s mother, regardless of socioeconomic or social status.”
Abortion is nothing but destructive. Giving women easier access to chemical abortion is not simply making the problem worse, but it takes an already atrocious problem and spreads it like wildfire. Without pro-life heroes putting out the fires, the blaze of abortion will seek to creep over every state line. Its smoke pollutes the air with lies and deceit, and with the fan of pro-abortion activists, even closed doors won’t guarantee the fire stays out.
But as the pro-life movement has proved in the last 50 years since Roe v. Wade, heroes don’t give up easily.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Sarah Holliday serves as a reporter for The Washington Stand. She earned her undergrad from Boise State University in Creative Writing and Narrative Arts, as well as a Certificate in Arts and Theology from Reformation Bible College.
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