{"id":82248,"date":"2015-12-11T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T13:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=82248"},"modified":"2015-12-11T14:30:40","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T19:30:40","slug":"woman-left-abortion-clinic-i-saw-little-arms-little-legs-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/woman-left-abortion-clinic-i-saw-little-arms-little-legs-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who left abortion clinic: “I saw little arms, little legs, and a head”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jill has relentlessly worked to save lives for years. But the very first life she saved was the life of her own son. At the age of 26, her husband-to-be changed his mind on the day of their wedding – shaming Jill by refusing to even show up.<\/p>\n

After his embarrassing rejection, Jill\u2019s former fianc\u00e9 popped in and out of her life. She became pregnant, and he took her to \u201cabort their first little one.\u201d At the clinic, Jill saw the ultrasound of her tiny son. She writes: \u201cI accidentally saw my ultrasound when I went up to pay the Planned Parenthood cashier. I saw little arms, little legs, and a head.\u201d Jill writes that the photo was just sitting there on top of her file.<\/p>\n

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For any other woman who is sitting in an abortion clinic right now, wondering if she should leave, Jill shares this message \u2013 based on her own experience:<\/p>\n

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Leave immediately!! Trust your intuition!\u00a0God gives mothers nine months to become prepared for your child to enter this world; you have plenty of time to make plans and be ready for that angel to arrive!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While the ultrasound of her son struck Jill\u2019s heart with his beautiful humanity, she still hesitated to leave Planned Parenthood. Her baby\u2019s father wanted her to go through with the abortion. She tried to tell him about the incredible image of their baby son, but he refused to listen to her plea for their child\u2019s life or to consider what the mother of his child might want. She writes that she pled, \u201cThis is not right<\/em>. I saw the baby, on the ultrasound. We must<\/em> work this out; we must<\/em> leave this place.\u201d But all her former fianc\u00e9 could say was, \u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"While<\/a>

While Jill’s ultrasound was not this clear, she still knew her son was a precious child.<\/p><\/div>\n

Prior to accidentally seeing the ultrasound (which was not voluntarily offered to her as a factual, scientific representation of her baby), Jill had undergone counseling at Planned Parenthood. She thought it was quite a sham, and not at all helpful in making a decision. Jill describes that \u201cthe state-mandated \u2018professional counseling\u2019 consisted of two questions, a sigh, and, \u2018Well, it’s decided then.\u2019\u201d The clinic also had Jill \u201csit through a movie that described how the doctor would \u2018suction out this untimely pregnancy.\u2019\u201d She describes the movie as “extremely clean, like almost stick figures” – nothing like the reality<\/a> of abortion.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jill also remembers that the waiting room had very different women in it \u2013 two friends who were loudly laughing about the abortions they were having together after \u201csimultaneous one-night stands.\u201d An older woman \u2013 Jill guesses in her 40s \u2013 was \u201clooking miserable,\u201d and there were a number of college-age mothers. All the women were \u201cbeing shuffled from room to room by clinic staff, like cattle, really. Up to the payment desk for the privilege of paying Planned Parenthood to kill their child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill was very unimpressed with the standard of care at Planned Parenthood, sharing that it was practically non-existent. \u201cDressed in our gowns, we go to the doctor’s \u2018procedure\u2019 rooms, I slowly slide onto the cold metal table, next to a perfect silver tray lined with sharp polished knives of every shape & size.\u201d When an older woman came into the room, she informed Jill that the doctor would come in within five minutes, and without any offer of pain medication, stated that Jill was to \u201cbe ready.\u201d That, Jill writes, was \u201cthe extent of the doctor-patient consultation\u201d she received.<\/p>\n

Lying there on the cold table, Jill seized the strength she had as her son\u2019s mother to change her mind \u2013 and the course of two lives \u2013 forever. She describes what happened next, referring to herself as \u201cthe mother:\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Mother slips off the medical table, tears off the clinic gown, and rushes to take that first urgent, unforgettable step out of the abortion clinic. She’ll be Mother and Father to this special baby boy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere will you go? What will you do?” six staff members call. Over my shoulder I say, “I don’t know, but this, this I know is wrong!”<\/p>\n

From the corner of the room, a voice rises, someone whispers, “She could go…to Birthright.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Jill’s son, Nicholas<\/p><\/div>\n

When Jill did indeed go to Birthright, the receptionist there gave her words \u2013 and a blessing of sorts \u2013 she would always remember:<\/p>\n

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The first words out of the Birthright receptionist’s\u00a0mouth were, “Congratulations on becoming a mother! Congratulations on your motherhood!\u201d After so many “that\u2019s terrible” or \u201chow awful” or “have an abortion and\u00a0start your life over\u201d\u00a0\u2018s, it was really refreshing for someone \u2013 even one person \u2013 to\u00a0say something positive about the situation I was in.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jill hopes others will remember the attitude and words of that Birthright receptionist and share positive, encouraging words with any pregnant mothers.<\/p>\n

I asked her what she would want to say to other women who are being pressured into an abortion, just like she was years ago. She wrote:<\/p>\n

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My mother reminded me the baby was conceived in love, which didn’t stop me from going to the abortion clinic, but it did make me think twice.<\/p>\n

I would probably say,\u00a0\u201cThink back to when you were an innocent, invincible\u00a0little girl \u2013 what were your hopes\u00a0and dreams? Would that\u00a0strong\u00a0girl ever consider killing her baby? I know you planned\u00a0on growing up and meeting the man of your dreams, falling in love, getting married, having a family, but God has a different plan for you\u00a0now. Your\u00a0dreams have been dashed, I know,\u00a0but His plan for you now\u00a0is to start\u00a0that family: even if it is just you\u00a0and this beautiful baby, everything will be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And Jill certainly knows what she\u2019s talking about. She raised her son, Nicholas Joseph, on her own. Even though she says she experienced pregnancy discrimination at her job, Jill kept on going, doing what was best for the son she chose to love. After Nicholas was born, Jill explains how she got creative to make ends meet and to be there for her son: \u201cI started my own catering company. I prepared meals for medical staff three times a week\u00a0and later\u00a0took in children three days a week so I could stay home with\u00a0Nicholas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jill and Nicholas<\/p><\/div>\n

There hasn\u2019t been a day in her life that Jill has regretted her decision to get up off that Planned Parenthood table, saving the life of her son. She writes of her thankfulness for those who are praying for mothers and babies, for those who are working \u201cin offices, on computers, budgeting pro-life agencies, coordinating fundraisers, recruiting professional counselors with Masters Degrees, Sisters running Maternity Homes, donors giving baby layettes complete with crocheted baby afghans, men in pro-life marches, those who are building shelters, and parents who are telling their daughters, “I love you, always come to me in an emergency.”\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill feels a special thankfulness to the two evangelical women who were outside the abortion clinic on the day she walked out. She explains that they “tried to stop my ex from bringing me in by rushing us and saying, ‘Please don’t kill your baby! Jesus loves your baby!’ I’ve been able to go back years later and thank them for praying outside Planned Parenthood. One of the ladies and I are still friends, as she is still handing out flowers and resource brochures every Saturday at Planned Parenthood at the age of 84.”<\/p>\n

And to every pregnant woman, Jill writes: \u201cTHERE IS HELP.\u201d<\/p>\n

For resources and information see:<\/p>\n