There’s always a cost to freedom, and in the case of “reproductive freedom,” I think it’s important to ask, who’s picking up the bill? Every year, countless women experience an unplanned pregnancy. Planned Parenthood attempts to offer a “plan” where there isn’t one: abortion . Capitalizing on uncertainty and fear, its plan includes death and lifetime trauma for the bargain amount of $600.
The destructive long-term psychological effects of this irreversible choice are not listed in the fine print. For me — and 70% of post-abortive women like me who report that abortion was inconsistent with their values, unwanted, or coerced — abortion wasn’t freedom, and we are still paying the price.
Raised in an impoverished, broken home where at least one parent was addicted to drugs and abuse was present, I am the type of woman Vice President Kamala Harris claims to be protecting when she goes hard for abortion “rights.” She asserts that underprivileged women are at the top of the list among those hurt by the pro-life laws of two dozen states.
I was 20 years old and three months postpartum when my boyfriend coerced me to abort my second pregnancy. He shoved the money in my face, told me to “get rid of it," and threatened to put me and our son out if I didn’t. My choices were abort or be homeless. The sleeplessness that comes from caring for an infant and a difficult cesarean delivery with subsequent hemorrhaging left me too physically weak and emotionally vulnerable to fight.
As a victim of abortion coercion, I know that Harris doesn’t speak for most women who’ve had abortions. As long as we remain silent, Harris and company will go unchallenged in the loud, false narrative they use to gain political advantage.
She wasn’t there to aid me as I lay on a table in a dimly lit back room in obvious distress. Tears flooded through my pinched eyes while I refused to look at the monitor. If the abortionist were truly pro-woman, she would’ve asked me if this was my preference. If she were a healthcare professional, she would have asked about my postpartum mental state. She wasn’t any of these things because I’d already paid the money, and there are no refunds on abortion.
Whether you agree that abortion is harmful or not, you must agree that it’s messy. This is a complex issue that requires a thoughtful and lengthy response, but Harris’s only answer when asked repeatedly what limits on abortion she would support is that she will reinstitute Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land.
Ironically, while Roe was in effect, babies in some states had more protection than they do now. Democrats have made it legal in certain states to abort for any reason through all nine months, even removing laws against especially gruesome partial-birth abortion, which is a proven risk to the life of the mother. If there is any integrity in our Constitution and Lady Liberty isn’t breathing her last breath, then it is only a matter of time before our unborn children are entitled to its protection.
In the meantime, I would like to remind Harris and the Democrats that the Constitution they exploit by citing “freedom” is the same document that is supposed to guarantee protection to me, a citizen of the United States injured by the negligent practices of an abortion business.
Harris is noted as the first vice president to campaign at a Planned Parenthood office. In her speech, she claimed to advocate for the women suffering in silence. But what about the women who walked out of Planned Parenthood significantly and permanently diminished?
When she remains deaf to the voice of millions of voters like me, it is willful denial. This strategic stunt revealed obvious bias since she used her previous position as California attorney general to demonize pregnancy centers and back wildly unconstitutional legislation that would force centers to refer for abortion, violating the conscience rights and religious beliefs of many centers and their staff. When she is celebrated for using her power to cut off aid to underprivileged women, thereby corralling them into trauma, it feels like our nation has officially run out of heroes.
In reality, the heroes are thousands of community organizations, such as pregnancy resource centers, that are stepping in to clean up the destruction left in the wake of “reproductive freedom.” Harris and the organization bankrolling her rhetoric, Planned Parenthood, offer no aftercare support to those injured by their profit-driven political agenda. To do so would counter their lie that abortion is safe and harmless.
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In contrast, post-abortive peer coaches at life-affirming centers nationwide are guiding those injured through the process of emotional healing because the extent of the recovery Planned Parenthood offers is a protein bar. Such centers offer a robust range of other material, financial, and educational support addressing the holistic needs of mothers without inflicting psychological damage. Today, I work with H3helpline , offering women the support and healing I didn’t have.
Women, especially the underprivileged, can’t afford a president such as Harris, who has a proven record of abusing power for personal ambition. She has repeatedly shown by her actions that she is not the ally of every woman and uses them as a shield to advance the exploitative and coercive abortion industry. It's up to us to keep her out of the White House this November and to fight for candidates who value us and don’t just value abortion.
Lorien Hershberger resides in Florida, where she is a pregnancy center volunteer, nationwide post-abortive recovery coach, and certified doula. She advocates for the humanity of the preborn in the legislature and cultivates pregnancy resources for rural communities.
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