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Post-abortive mothers share powerful pro-life testimonies at Canada’s March for Life – LifeSite

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — During the 26th National March for Life in Ottawa, Canada, women who have suffered abortions shared their testimonies of regret and urged other parents to choose life. 

On Thursday, two women joined thousands of pro-lifers to share their experiences with abortion, specifically the physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma that they endured after having killed their unborn babies. As part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, the women offered their sufferings as a means of exposing the truth about abortion and a plea for other men and women to avoid “mak[ing] the same mistake.” 

“We are here today to counter the illusion that abortion is no big deal,” Angelina Steenstra, national director of the campaign in Canada and the group’s regional coordinator for Ontario, said as she introduced the two women who shared their testimonies. “We’re here to reach out to people that are suffering the aftermath of abortion and to let them know that help is available.” 

“We’re here to provide education through our personal experience and to re-sensitize people who have been desensitized by abortion and to offer those who wish to do so, after they’ve received a measure of healing, to join the campaign to raise awareness across this country.” 

READ: MARCH 4 LIFE 2023: John-Henry Westen Gives ROUSING Speech to THOUSANDS 

Dale Barr from Cornwall, Ontario, opened her brief speech by saying that she chose to abort her first child at 16 years old, an act that she described as one she would “always regret.” She explained that, after learning she was pregnant, a so-called “therapeutic abortion committee” pushed her towards abortion.  

“They said it was a simple procedure with no ill effects,” Barr said. “I am here today to tell you it was not a simple procedure, and I experienced many adverse effects.” 

She described how the following 10 years were filled with “dependence on drugs and alcohol and promiscuity” alongside severe academic struggles and falling away from God. After getting married at age 25, Barr suffered five miscarriages which she “believed” was a sign of “being punished by God.” 

She said that she was finally able to “escape from my prison of pain and secrecy…through a post-abortion healing program called Rachel’s Vineyard.” Since 2004, Barr has turned to sharing her testimony at Canada’s annual March for Life. 

Decades after killing her baby through abortion, Barr is happily married with four children and 10 grandchildren and serves the dying through hospice nursing. She concluded her testimony by saying, “I stand firm in sharing my story because I want to educate the public that abortion is harmful emotionally, physically, and spiritually to women, men, and families so that it becomes unacceptable to recommend abortion as a fix for a problem pregnancy.” 

“I regret that I did not stand firm to protect my unborn child, and this is my story,” began Julia from Ottawa Valley. She described her life in the 1970s as a young working woman, engaged in sexual relationships and “firm in my belief…that contraception would prevent pregnancy—until I got pregnant.” 

She explained that neither she nor her boyfriend “could find the courage to stand firm to protect the life of our precious child.” The next day, Julia said, she “returned to work the next day on the assumption that I was perfectly okay.” Over the next several years—after having ended her relationship with the aborted baby’s father—Julia “found I was experiencing distrust, insecurity, anxiety and nightmares” until her “life was spiraling down into depression.” 

Twenty-three years after the abortion, Julia realized that her mental health struggles were a direct result of the unborn baby’s murder, after hearing the words, “if you are depressed from having had an abortion, help is available.” Moving forward, she began the healing process, which included repentance, accepting forgiveness, rebuilding trust, and returning to work. 

“My baby in my womb at the time was real,” she said. “And I have named her Marissa and I grieved the loss of her life.” 

Julia also shared that, over the past year, she came to understand that she had killed another child less intentionally, using contraception. She explained that at the time, she hadn’t fully known how the birth control pill works, but that she now understands “that one of the ways the pill works is it prevents the fertilized egg from implanting in the womb and the egg becomes homeless and is aborted.” 

“So, with much sadness and prayer, I have repented of these sins as I mourn David—I’ve named him David,” Julia concluded. “I now stand firm against the lie that contraception helps women. I stand firm against the lie that abortion fixes a problem.” 

Those interested in joining the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and finding resources for post-abortion healing can do so here  

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