{"id":295435,"date":"2023-07-29T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=295435"},"modified":"2023-07-28T14:57:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T19:57:02","slug":"messed-up-pregnancy-resource-center-made-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/messed-up-pregnancy-resource-center-made-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"After \u2018I messed up,\u2019 pregnancy resource center made all the difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Daily Signal<\/a>) I had just returned from the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., when I looked down at the positive pregnancy test in my hand, my boyfriend at my side. Time stopped as I felt my heart thump faster and faster\u2014loudly\u2014and despair and panic set in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI messed up so bad,\u201d I cried as my knees buckled under the crippling anguish and disbelief.<\/p>\n

I had lived a double life for most of my teenage years. My extensive involvement in my faith community, athletics, and music masked a struggle with chastity that I secretly couldn\u2019t shake. Mothers would often approach me with their young daughters after I\u2019d finish singing at Sunday Mass, sweetly saying, \u201cMy daughter wants to be just like you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, behind the veil I presented to adults, I consistently bowed to the pressure of maintaining the \u201ccool\u201d and \u201cpopular\u201d reputation I had with my high school peers.<\/p>\n

For years, I rebelled from the countercultural example of my parents, who encouraged me to practice my faith in every way. I knew better, and even though I continued to fall, I felt that God was calling me to something higher\u2014to which my response was always, \u201cI\u2019m not ready yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news of my pregnancy came at the most inconvenient time and sank my confidence and self-esteem. As a freshman in college, I was just starting to find my footing. I had always been the \u201cbig fish\u201d in high school, and it had taken time to find my path in a bigger pond.<\/p>\n

Yet, while it cast me into a pit of self-hatred and despair, it simultaneously\u2014and miraculously\u2014provided an immediate sense of clarity and purpose. I had always been a pro-life advocate with the desire to be a mom someday.<\/p>\n

Despite my disappointment over the way it happened, I needed to make it work.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t know how to make it work, or who to turn to. I knew the embarrassment and pain it would cause my parents, and at the time, my boyfriend was not pro-life.<\/p>\n

A routine meeting with my cross-country team captain the next day, however, changed everything. She was the president of the Students for Life chapter on campus, and something told me I could trust her with my situation. I\u2019m so glad I did.<\/p>\n