{"id":60640,"date":"2015-03-15T11:51:08","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T15:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=60640"},"modified":"2015-03-14T01:30:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T05:30:27","slug":"pro-life-pastor-describes-his-mothers-pain-after-her-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-pastor-describes-his-mothers-pain-after-her-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life pastor describes his mother’s pain after her abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

In a 2014 article in First Things<\/em><\/a> \u00a0entitled \u201cMy Mother\u2019s Abortion\u201d, a pastor whose mother aborted his sibling gives a moving testimony and a plea for postabortion women to come to terms with their abortions and seek healing.<\/p>\n

Pastor Bob Vincent describes how his mother aborted his sister, who she later named Nancy. Vincent says:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Early in my ministry as a pastor, my mother told me she\u2019d had an abortion. It was for medical reasons, but it had haunted her down the corridors of her mind. She knew better than most people what was involved back then because she had taught obstetrical nursing at Vanderbilt University.<\/p>\n

My brother was born in 1939, and in between him and me, she had conceived a little girl whom she and my father named \u201cNancy.\u201d Their family physician and fellow Presbyterian, Dr. Bill Evans, advised her to let him take little Nancy before she was born\u2014that\u2019s how they knew that the baby was a little girl.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The abortion was done under the pretext that it was \u201cmedically necessary.\u201d However, this did not stop Pastor Vincent\u2019s mother from mourning deeply for her lost child:<\/p>\n

I have no idea whether this abortion was medically necessary back then or not; it was during World War II. I only know how this abortion affected my mother the rest of her life. She never got over it. Dr. Evans had killed her baby, and she had consented. She talked about it with me before Daddy died, and she talked about it as an elderly woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pastor Vincent witnessed his mother\u2019s lifelong grief. He says:<\/p>\n

My mother didn\u2019t need all her scientific knowledge to feel what she felt and be haunted by it for decades. What she felt when she knew she was pregnant was the presence of another human being. And when Dr. Bill aborted her baby, she felt her absence\u2014a quiet but profound emptiness. And it never left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Vincent has also counseled many women who have had abortions. He approaches them with love and compassion which can be clearly felt\u00a0in his words.<\/p>\n

He describes the guilt that they express to him:<\/p>\n

There is no easy way to get rid of guilt. You can\u2019t shove it down and pretend it\u2019s not there. You can\u2019t reason it away. Like midnight reflux of the soul, it comes up when you least expect it, when you are least prepared to deal with it. While you\u2019re lying in bed, half-awake\u2013half-asleep, there it is, wafting out of your subconscious mind and dancing before you, only to disappear again before you can wrap your rational mind around it. Sometimes it comes in your dreams. Sometimes when you are attempting to pray. There it is as a waking vision, blotting out the sun, bringing on the cheerless and withering cold when the sunshine of cheerfulness should be beaming down on you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a pastor, Vincent encourages women to turn to religion in order to find peace. He tells them that they must first acknowledge the painful truth, that they have been an accomplice to the killing of their own child. As harsh as this sounds, he believes this is the first step on the road to healing. He is not alone in this: many pro-life ministries also encourage women to acknowledge the reality of the abortion(s) in their lives, to admit to themselves what abortion means for\u00a0preborn children.<\/p>\n

As a means of coping, Vincent encourages women to ask God to take care of their babies in heaven. He then encourages them to accept God\u2019s forgiveness as expressed in Christian doctrine.\u00a0 Some women do find healing and comfort through religious conversion and prayer. Using religious belief as a method of coping with abortion is a common strategy that pro-life healing ministries employ. Vincent, as a pastor, encourages this route to healing.<\/p>\n

While Pastor Vincent\u2019s message is primarily aimed at women who have had abortions, his article contains a powerful message to pro-lifers as well. Pro-lifers should remember that when we speak out against abortion or advocate for laws against it, we are defending women as well as preborn children.<\/p>\n

Abortion kills babies, but it scars women too. It is the women who have to live with the guilt and grief in the aftermath of their abortions. Ministries geared towards helping women heal are a valuable part of the pro-life movement, but even pro-lifers involved in other pro-life activities can know that they are working to spare women from the trauma of abortion. Pro-life activism helps women too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a 2014 article in First Things \u00a0entitled \u201cMy Mother\u2019s Abortion\u201d, a pastor whose mother aborted his sibling gives a moving testimony and a plea for postabortion women to come to terms with their abortions and seek healing. Pastor Bob Vincent describes how his mother aborted his sister, who she later named Nancy. Vincent says:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":58702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPro-life pastor describes his mother's pain after her abortion - Live Action News<\/title>\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\/pro-life-pastor-describes-his-mothers-pain-after-her-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pro-life pastor describes his mother's pain after her abortion - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a 2014 article in First Things \u00a0entitled \u201cMy Mother\u2019s Abortion\u201d, a pastor whose mother aborted his sibling gives a moving testimony and a plea for postabortion women to come to terms with their abortions and seek healing. 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