{"id":209806,"date":"2019-09-02T07:17:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T12:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=209806"},"modified":"2019-09-02T21:42:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T02:42:07","slug":"post-abortive-woman-disgust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/post-abortive-woman-disgust\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-abortive woman ‘disgusted’ by Planned Parenthood, helps others heal from abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(Pregnancy Help News<\/a>) – Karen Ellison, the founder of post-abortion retreat Deeper Still, was a 22-year-old Christian college student in 1981 when she found out she was pregnant. She grew up in a Christian home where abortion was seldom discussed, but she knew it was wrong.\u00a0Still, her parents encouraged her to have an abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were protective of and fearful for me,\u201d Ellison said, \u201cThere was a part of me that was going against my own sense of conviction, and at the same time, it was all very secretive. My parents wanted to keep it a secret, so it wasn\u2019t something that we were going to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing could have prepared Ellison for the mood at the Planned Parenthood clinic.<\/p>\n

In the waiting room before the abortion procedure, the other young women were cracking jokes and trying to make light of their dark situation. In the recovery room after the abortion procedure, no one was laughing. The very same young women who were cracking jokes were now crying, bleeding and moaning.<\/p>\n

One nurse said, \u201cLadies, I know this has been a very difficult day, but we need to be grateful that we live in a country where we have this freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being so disgusted by that, feeling like \u2018What are you talking about?\u2019,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cEven in 1981, it was evident in that clinic that they saw themselves as part of a larger movement to promote abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a month after her abortion, Ellison\u2019s boyfriend broke up with her. All of her rationale behind her decision to have an abortion seemed to dissolve. In the years that followed, Ellison felt too ashamed to even speak the word \u201cabortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just kind of gets stuck in your throat,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cYou just avoided the subject at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Karen Ellison<\/p><\/div>\n

Healing Begins<\/h4>\n

After some time, Ellison confessed her abortion to a woman at her church, and her healing began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord being the Lord would not let me stay in my cave and shame,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cHe just pursued me in all kinds of different ways. He brought me out of the dark place and it was just a whole healing process He began.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellison completed an internship and a volunteer training at a pregnancy help center in Virginia Beach. She led a\u00a0Women in Ramah<\/em>\u00a0(now called\u00a0Forgiven and Set Free<\/em><\/a>) Bible study for post-abortive clients and volunteers.<\/p>\n

Ellison got married, and in 1998, she moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. She began volunteering at another pregnancy center and worked in post-abortion outreach.\u00a0Ellison led two Bible study support groups, but something was missing. She had a retreat weekend for the last 3-4 lessons of the study and began working on the idea for a full retreat.<\/p>\n

Over the next seven years, Ellison developed the retreat under\u00a0Choices Resource Center<\/a>,\u00a0and eventually developed materials for other groups to use. In July 2008, the retreat, known as \u201cDeeper Still,\u201d became its own entity.<\/p>\n

Deeper Still<\/h4>\n

In spring 2009, Ellison held the first independent Deeper Still retreat. Today, the organization holds three retreats a year in Knoxville, Tennessee and trains others in how to host retreats as well.<\/p>\n

Deeper Still retreats involve teams, not just facilitators and co-facilitators. These teams decorate retreat environments with flowers and pass out gift bags, creating a warm environment for attendees. Worship music is played so that they can sense God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a lot of making the environment feel very warm, inviting, friendly and beautiful, so they can begin to feel peace, no matter where they\u2019re coming from,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cEven though they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re getting into\u2014everyone\u2019s always afraid\u2014when they walk in the door they\u2019re feeling the love of people already. We serve them in all kinds of ways and they feel the peace of God and they think that maybe they can trust us early on before we even do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the retreat, there are sessions and smaller groups are broken down by gender. Attendees and team members share their abortion stories, ask God for forgiveness and for the strength to forgive others, break strongholds and soul ties that caused them to have abortions, repent on behalf of the cities, states, and nations where they had the abortions, restore their identities as mothers and fathers, and plan for a hopeful future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when the weight of the guilt and the shame that they\u2019re carrying first starts to get broken off,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cWith every step, we see a countenance change with them, which is wonderful to see. The layers are being peeled off step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2009, Deeper Still has held 86 retreats with 897 participants and 1,300 aborted children spiritually reconciled with mothers and fathers. The organization has 13 regional chapters across the United States and a goal of creating 30 chapters by the end of 2020. In all of Deeper Still\u2019s training sessions and retreats, 35 states and 10 nations have been represented.<\/p>\n

\"\"

2018 Chapter Leader conference which includes almost all of their chapter leaders nationwide and some their core leadership team as well.<\/p><\/div>\n

In early 2019, Ellison published her first book,\u00a0Healing the Hurt that Won\u2019t Heal: Freedom for the Abortion Wounded and Help for the Church They Fear.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The book covers Ellison\u2019s own healing journey, the stories of others on their own journeys, and how abortion affects women and men emotionally, spiritually and relationally. It discusses God\u2019s justice and mercy, and how to forgive oneself and others. It also reveals how abortion wounds families, churches, the nation, and the globe, and how men and women can team up to stand for life. In addition, the book addresses why post-abortive men and women should seek deeper healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a deeper place of healing or understanding or freedom that the Lord wants to invite people to,\u201d Ellison said.<\/p>\n

The book also discusses how churches can boldly address the issue in a way that brings comfort and true healing. Seventy percent of women who\u2019ve had abortions consider themselves Christians, and 43 percent attended church at least once a month when they had their abortions, according to a\u00a02015 Lifeway research study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot many people realize that they know people who\u2019ve had abortions because it\u2019s something that no one talks about,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cIf you have an abortion-wounded heart, you\u2019re going to find some healing by reading this book. For those who are not post-abortive, they can read this and get informed, like \u2018Oh my gosh, this is what people are dealing with.\u2019 I really want to help equip people to walk in not only wisdom and sensitivity, but clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Pregnancy Help News) – Karen Ellison, the founder of post-abortion retreat Deeper Still, was a 22-year-old Christian college student in 1981 when she found out she was pregnant. She grew up in a Christian home where abortion was seldom discussed, but she knew it was wrong.\u00a0Still, her parents encouraged her to have an abortion. \u201cThey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":585,"featured_media":192813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,9455,4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPost-abortive woman 'disgusted' by Planned Parenthood, helps others heal from abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A post-abortive woman who was "disgusted" by the behavior of Planned Parenthood staff now dedicates her life to helping other women heal from abortion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/post-abortive-woman-disgust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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