{"id":286755,"date":"2023-03-16T16:45:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T21:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=286755"},"modified":"2023-03-14T18:06:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T23:06:01","slug":"mary-sullivan-abortion-worthless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mary-sullivan-abortion-worthless\/","title":{"rendered":"Coerced by multiple parties to abort her child, Mary ‘felt worthless’ until years later"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In her memoir<\/a>, “<\/span>I Was Once Ashamed but I Am Now Forgiven: From Abortion to Healing,” a<\/span>\u00a0woman named Mary Sullivan wrote about her abortion and the negative effects it had on her life<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A troubled marriage and a one-night stand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sullivan wrote that she married her husband Mike when they were both teenagers. Together, they had two children, but then Mike began drinking heavily. An alcoholic, he refused to seek help. He stayed out late at bars and had affairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One day, Sullivan asked Mike if he wanted a divorce. To her dismay, he said yes. He said he wanted to date other people and encouraged her to date as well. The couple separated and filed for divorce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alone and facing the break-up of her marriage, Sullivan had a one-night stand. She said, \u201cI wanted someone to hold me \u2014 someone to care about me. It really didn\u2019t matter at that point.\u201d After she slept with the man, he left and didn\u2019t call her again. She says the encounter left her with \u201can empty feeling\u201d and regret.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, she discovered she was pregnant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coercion, lack of support, and a promise to get back together<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although she and Mike had separated, their divorce still wasn\u2019t finalized. When Sullivan told Mike about her pregnancy, he suggested abortion. Sullivan said, \u201cI told him I couldn\u2019t and wouldn\u2019t do that! How could he even think that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Together, they talked with the baby\u2019s father. Sullivan explained:<\/span><\/p>\n

[The baby\u2019s father] straight out said to abort \u201cit.\u201d To him, it wasn\u2019t a child, just an inconvenience, and a problem to be fixed. The baby was an \u201cit,\u201d as he put it. There wasn\u2019t any hesitation from him at all. He didn\u2019t want anything to do with it. To him, it was just a one-night fling. Mike looked at me as if to say, \u2018I told you so.’<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Still, Sullivan didn\u2019t want an abortion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike, however, continued to pressure her. Finally, he said he wanted to get back together and try to save the marriage \u2014 but only if she had the abortion.\u00a0Coerced abortions happen frequently<\/a>. One study found that as much as 64% of women who go through with an abortion do so because of\u00a0pressure<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Sullivan then discovered through a friend that the baby\u2019s father abused drugs, she worried the baby would be disabled and wasn\u2019t sure she could raise a disabled child, and two other children, alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said, \u201cI wanted our marriage to work out so badly. I asked myself over and over again, <\/span>Should I? No, I can\u2019t!<\/span><\/i> But then I made that awful decision to go through with the abortion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trying to back out repeatedly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sullivan went to a doctor\u2019s office for the abortion. She said the doctor and staff seemed to regard the abortion as \u201cjust another medical procedure that happened every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Sullivan, however, wanted to leave. She wrote:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026 I knew I was making a mistake and suggested to [Mike] that maybe this wasn\u2019t such a good idea.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I figured our marriage would be all right with a third child. I loved children, and having one more wouldn\u2019t be any different than having two. We could go ahead and have the child and no one would ever know that the baby wasn\u2019t his except for the two of us\u2026 I remember wanting to run out of there.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Mike insisted it was too late to cancel the abortion.\u00a0<\/span>As she lay on the abortion table, Mike stayed with her, making sure she went through with it.\u00a0<\/span>“He kept quietly saying, \u2018It will be all right. We talked about this, and this is something we need to do. It\u2019s for the best,'” recalled Sullivan.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The nurse and doctor looked at me and said, \u2018It\u2019s not that bad. It will only take a few minutes; you might feel a couple of cramps. It doesn\u2019t take long, and you\u2019ll be on your way.\u2019”<\/span><\/p>\n

A painful and traumatic abortion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The abortionist gave Sullivan a shot and told her it was now too late to stop the abortion. However, the type of abortion Sullivan had \u2014 a suction aspiration abortion (D&C<\/a>) \u2014 is committed with the use of medical instruments, not an injection. This is an indication that the abortionist may have been lying to her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sullivan described the abortion as being very painful, but said, \u201cThe pain was nothing compared to the pain I felt inside knowing what I was doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After the abortion, \u201cI felt like a part of me was gone\u2026 I felt sorry and regretful for what I had just done,” she said. “I wished I could turn back the clock. I felt worthless\u2026 I laid there thinking to myself<\/span>, I just aborted my child! Lord, what did I do? I just aborted my child<\/span><\/i>!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike, however, was \u201chappy and relieved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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