The Truth Must be Told
By Camilla Gunnarson

Following the March for Life on Capital Hill in January 2003, where 200,000 people gathered to protest abortion-on-demand, one lone protester stood among 40 pro-choicers holding placards and chanting the mantra of women's rights. But this participant's placard had a different message.  It said, "I Regret My Abortion." Hoping to share her pain and remorse with these women, assuming they could empathize with her, Georgette met with sneers instead. Angry at the realization that these pro-choice women didn't care about women at all, she walked away, while the words, "the truth must be told," repeated over and over in her head. For Georgette, that incident spurred her on to start the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.

Co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, Georgette Forney was in Toronto on October 14 speaking at the Right to Life Association of Toronto & Area Gala Dinner. Her journey actually began twenty-five years before the Capital Hill experience. On October 4, 1978 at the age of sixteen and in her junior year, Georgette had an abortion. After her abortion, she decided that she would pretend that that day never happened.  She lived in denial for nineteen years. Then in 1994, as she was cleaning out boxes in her basement, she found her yearbook from her junior year.  Instead of seeing the pictures in the book, she suddenly could feel a baby in her arms. "I knew instantly it was my child that I had aborted.  She felt so soft," recalled Georgette. "I knew that I had missed out on parenting a wonderful person, who would have brought a lot of joy to the world." For the first time in nineteen years, as she felt her baby in her arms, she realized the full impact of her abortion. That day she started a journey that changed her life. With help and encouragement from a friend who had also had an abortion, Georgette began to attend an abortion recovery program. After years of believing that God could not forgive her, she finally realized that through Jesus' death and resurrection she was forgiven and that her daughter had forgiven her also.

Georgette began to share her story publicly. Later she took the position as Executive Director of NOEL, a life affirming Anglican ministry. Through her work she was asked to do peer-to-peer on-line counselling. She began to hear from women who had abortions. Each one of them expressed pain and regret. What Georgette has learned from her experience and from thousands of other post-abortive women is that abortion doesn't solve problems; abortion just creates different problems. "I cannot tell you how many women I have sat with as they cried and mourned for their babies," shared Georgette.

In the United States over 40 million abortions have been performed on women in the last 31 years. They have been told that abortion is a simple choice, leaving them unprepared when they experience the negative consequences afterwards. Consider some of the comments from women who have attended the Silent No More Awareness Campaign events that Georgette shared with the audience:

Susan said, "Abortion is a deeply traumatic experience and was so for me back in 1989. When I was in my crisis, my mother was gravely ill. I had no one to turn to, and those I did reach out to all said abortion was the best choice. I chose abortion because I felt it was my only choice, which means I had no choice. I went against everything that I believed in thinking it would spare my mother in her fragile condition. To this day, I do not remember the actual taking of my child's life. It was so traumatic that I left my body. Afterward, I remember thinking how now I pretended nothing happened and that was fine, when in reality something horrific had happened and I was not fine. I was forever changed. In order to continue to function and survive the trauma, I did what most women do - enter the phase of denial. Women literally go through a time of forgetting the child within her womb; it was tissue, it was a blood clot and it was not a child."
               
Melanie said, "I never told anyone in my family for years, and when I did, I was told they did not want to hear about it and I was not to talk about it. I was 'silenced' for years. Believe me, that only adds to the problem, which only permits it to take even a deeper root and stronghold in a woman's life. It is much tougher to pull on a deeply rooted weed than one that raises its ugly head and you reach down and pluck it out immediately."

Joyce said, "I was a crazy woman with a mask on. To everyone I looked like I had it together. My husband will tell you differently, my children will tell you differently. The warning label on abortion should read 'caution: abortion can result in years of grief, physical and emotional pain, mood swings, eating disorders, low self-esteem, health and relationship problems with your spouse and children."

Georgette shared that the decision to abort can even affect a woman's subsequent life choices. In her case, she married an older man who already had children because she believed that she had lost her right to have her own children.

The Campaign's website states, "Women's voices have been locked in silence due to pain, shame, denial and fear of judgement. But the Silent No More Awareness Campaign is an effort to make the public aware of the devastation abortion brings to women, men, and their families. The emotional and physical pain of abortion will no longer be shrouded in secrecy and silence, but rather exposed and healed."

The Campaign's three main goals are:

• Inform the public that abortion is harmful emotionally, physically and spiritually to women and others;
  
• Reach out to women and family members who are hurting from an abortion and let them know help is available;
  
• Invite those who regret their abortion to join the campaign in speaking the truth about abortion's negative consequences.

Since Canada legalized abortion in 1969, there have been 2,587,438 babies aborted. Every day in our country 300 women choose abortion because they feel they have no other choice.

The Canadian chapter of Silent No More Awareness Campaign was launched in May 2004, after the March for Life on Parliament Hill by Co-founder and Co-ordinator, Angelina Steenstra.  Like Georgette, Angelina had an abortion as a young teenager and regrets her choice. It took Angelina fifteen years before she could face the truth surrounding her abortion. "As I have moved through the grieving process, I have experienced healing forgiveness, freedom and peace. Although I have not forgotten, I'm no longer controlled by my past mistakes nor do I need the coping mechanisms I used to use to run from the pain inside."  Today, Angelina offers hope and healing to women who have experienced the pain of abortion. Angelina is scheduled to speak at LifeCanada's National Conference, November 17-19, 2005.