{"id":252148,"date":"2021-08-31T12:42:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T17:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=252148"},"modified":"2021-08-31T14:47:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T19:47:31","slug":"teen-suffers-choosing-abortion-pressure-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/teen-suffers-choosing-abortion-pressure-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen suffers after ‘choosing’ abortion under pressure by family, friends, and baby’s father"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a book about post-abortion trauma and healing<\/a>, Sam tells her story about becoming pregnant at age 15. When Sam\u2019s mother found out, she demanded Sam get an abortion. \u201cThe word [abortion] hit me like an explosion,” Sam said. “What? An abortion<\/em>? That had never entered my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam’s mother tried to convince her abortion was the right choice, emphasizing what a burden a baby would be:<\/p>\n

Mom kept trying to get me to see all the things I would miss out on if I were to have a baby. All the parties and dances at school. All the fun. But when she asked, “Who’s going to take care of it? Me?” I didn’t know how to answer her.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sam\u2019s father also wanted her to have an abortion. Over the course of the next few days, both parents, but especially Sam\u2019s mother, pressured her. Sam says, \u201cIt was like finding out that not only was I outnumbered, but I was on the losing team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to the stress, Sam broke out in hives from head to toe. She\u00a0was even more hurt when the father of her baby also told her to abort:<\/p>\n

Secretly, I had wished he would want the baby. Somehow, we would make it work. Instead, he only thought of himself. He didn’t want to be saddled with a baby. He never asked me what I wanted.<\/em><\/p>\n

Didn’t he care about what this would do to me? To my body? To my heart and mind? Didn’t he care about the baby?<\/em><\/p>\n

After telling her to get an abortion, her boyfriend abandoned her. He cut her completely out of his life, ignoring her phone calls. It was clear she\u2019d get no help from him.\u00a0Desperate to find someone who’d support her wishes to keep her baby, Sam turned to her best friend:<\/p>\n

I called Marsha to tell her about the pregnancy, hoping to get some empathy for my situation. Instead, she said it would be crazy to try to have a baby at 15. How would I ever take care of it? I didn’t know the answer to that, but I knew abortion wouldn’t be right. Why wouldn’t anybody listen to me?<\/em><\/p>\n

The next day, Marsha came over with one of Sam\u2019s other friends. Her mother had called them and asked them to help convince Sam to abort. Sam\u2019s parents and her two friends all pressured Sam:<\/p>\n

They all ganged up on me, immediately shooting down all my objections. They insisted it wasn’t a baby at all\u2026 just a clump of cells. That didn’t sound right, but I was so tired of it all. I couldn’t fight it anymore. Without anyone on my side, I finally caved.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sam didn\u2019t have a single person supporting her. Everywhere she turned she was pressured to abort.<\/p>\n

Sam said that when she arrived at the abortion facility, \u201cI wanted to hide \u2013 just become invisible and walk out of the place undetected. But I didn’t have any superhero abilities, and what would I do then? There was nowhere for me to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abortion \u201ccounselor\u201d lied to her. Sam said, \u201c[E]ven though I would have been about 12 weeks along, she assured me ‘the pregnancy’ was just a blob of tissue.\u201d But in truth, at\u00a012 weeks, Sam\u2019s baby was fully formed. His or her heart had been beating<\/a> for months. He or she was already right or left-handed<\/a>,\u00a0could suck her thumb<\/a>, and had her own unique fingerprints<\/a>.<\/p>\n