The Choice - Chris' Story

Editor’s Note: Ohio Right to Life manages a pro-life pregnancy help site called Knowledge is Empowering. Sometimes, our visitors will share their stories with us – how their lives were changed by an unplanned pregnancy and/or how they were helped by a pro-life crisis pregnancy center. The story below is from Chris.

I was a 17 year old junior in high school dating a freshman in college. She was getting good grades at college and my grades were on the rise as well. We enjoyed her visits back home from college a lot. As you can imagine, our reunions were much like other long distance relationships. And one night when her parents had left for the evening, we engaged in an act that would change the course of our (my) entire lives. Six weeks after our reunion, she called me on the phone. I could hear her crying in the background.

She was pregnant.

My life that seemed to be on “cruise control” was a wreck in a five minute phone call. Raised as a Christian, I was about to embark on the most selfish feeling I had ever felt, and maybe that I would EVER deal with.

Until the moment she told me she was pregnant, I was pro-life. Not a staunch defender of the pro-life movement, but a believer in it none the less. How dare someone take the life of the unborn?

But the words I’m pregnant had a way of removing that belief that I had held on to in one fail swoop. In fact, at that moment I didn’t even remember feeling like some kind of defender of the unborn. It was instantly all about how quickly we could get rid of this problem! 

Julie continued to call me from school, usually in tears. She would ask me: What are we going to do? But I left no room to discuss possibilities other than abortion.

In doing some research about where abortions were performed, I finally came across one that would work.

My ‘prayers’ were answered.

Finally, I had found the place that could remove my inconvenient problem. We made an appointment and she secretly came home from school for the weekend. I somehow scrounged up some money and had just enough money for the procedure – I believe it was $235.00 for the abortion.

Little did I know at the time that the “issue” was not taken care of by the abortion. It was just getting started, and for the next few years I was unable to cope in my own prison that I had built for myself. My relationship with Julie eventually ended. I felt like I had destroyed her life because I wanted to be a ‘grown up’ so badly, but I was unwilling to take responsibility for my own actions. There were no options, there was only one decision I would allow her to make. I wanted to simply hit the reset button that was "abortion" and be left alone. As if that would be possible...how naïve I was then.  

I am now 41 years old and am happily married to a wonderful woman and have three kids. There are times I find myself looking at them and realize I am blessed beyond measure. I am grateful to God for giving me another chance at being a father.

Click here to read the whole story.