Girls don’t get abortions because they want to. They do it because they think they have to.

I was a bawling, crying mess. Honestly, I don’t know if the pregnancy center was open that day, or that early, but I called and talked to Theresa on the phone. I said, “I’m trying to get an abortion, and I need to know what my options are.”

“You need to come talk to me,” she said.

I found a sitter for my older child, and immediately came in. We talked for a long time. I really thought that abortion was my only option. Theresa gave me factual information about abortion: what was going to happen, and how they do it. “It’s not as easy as just not being pregnant any more; there will be emotions afterwards.” One thing that really stuck with me was when she said, “You will always look at babies that are the same age as yours would have been, and you will feel like you are missing something.” I had never thought about that. All I could think of was, “I’m scared, I can’t have another kid, I have to stop this,” but I had never thought about the lifelong aftereffects. Even just five years from now, would I look at a five-year-old child and think, “my baby is supposed to be that age?”

Now I get to experience my daughter growing up; but she wouldn’t be here if Theresa had not met me at the door that day. I had thought abortion was my only choice, but God brought Theresa along to say, “you can do it, and abortion isn’t really what you want.”

My decision to choose life was the best decision, because now I have my little girl, and someday she will affect someone’s life. That would not happen if Choices Pregnancy Center had not been there to encourage me, guide me, teach me, pray for me.

*not her real name