{"id":330018,"date":"2025-04-24T08:40:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T13:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=330018"},"modified":"2025-04-24T06:37:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:37:56","slug":"abortion-secret-15-years-realized-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-secret-15-years-realized-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"She kept her abortion secret for 15 years. Then she realized she needed healing."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Afton Brown had recently moved back to her hometown after living out of state for several months when she met a young man with whom she had an instant attraction. When Brown discovered she was pregnant after just a few months of dating, she was uncertain where to turn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown told Live Action News, \u201cI talked to my boyfriend about it, but neither of us knew what to do or how to handle it. We were both in shock. I was just 23 years old at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She turned to a family member who had been supportive of her romance for advice. To her dismay, the relative berated her, accusing Brown of getting pregnant on purpose and telling her to \u2018take care of it.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very angry and controlling towards me,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe she would act in this manner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown called another family member who told her that an abortion would be the best solution and offered to take her to the abortion facility. <\/span>\u201cIt all happened very quickly; I had no time to think about it,” Brown said. “It was very hard for me. I remember being sedated and crying. I was so distraught that my family member had to help me out of the facility afterward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A childhood friend was waiting for Brown outside after her abortion. That day, Brown noted, changed both of their lives forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was so traumatized that I had a hard time walking, my legs were so weak,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI took off work the next day and I told no one about my secret. I would keep that part of my life hidden for 15 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After she returned to work, she tried to close the door to that chapter of her life and move on as best as she could. She was never in contact with her boyfriend again after the abortion and eventually started dating a man with whom she would eventually marry and build a family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, she started volunteering for a local pregnancy support center. <\/span>Brown said, \u201cIt was sometime down the road that I told the director of the center that I had an abortion. I didn\u2019t think about healing, though I did begin to open to small groups of people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pro-life speaker nudges Brown toward post-abortive healing journey<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2022, at the pregnancy support center\u2019s annual banquet, speaker and evangelist David Williams told his experience of living a sexually immoral lifestyle and being complicit in two abortions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe talked about his anger issues as a result and that really resonated with me,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe said it didn\u2019t occur to him that he needed healing. Hearing that, it was as if a light went off and I realized that I needed to get healing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

READ: Book tells stories of post-abortion trauma\u2026 while oddly claiming women are empowered by it<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past years, Brown directed her pent-up anger against her family as a means of coping with deeply buried pain. Now, it was time to deal with that anger. She sought help from “Surrendering the Secret,” a ministry designed to help women and men heal from the grief of abortion through resources, training and connection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown said, \u201cI was encouraged to write a song or poem to the child I had lost from abortion. So, I wrote the song, \u2018I Didn\u2019t Know,\u2019 and when I sang it to a group of ladies at the center, we all cried together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She recorded the song on an album and the following year, sang at the annual pregnancy support center\u2019s banquet. She later recorded a powerful video, recently launched on YouTube, that walks though the journey of “Surrendering the Secret” and ends with her having a conversation with her daughter:<\/span><\/p>\n