I swore I would never set foot in a Planned Parenthood again, but there I was, being forced by my abuser into getting my second abortion. Planned Parenthood champions itself as a bastion of women’s healthcare, but my experience with it demonstrated otherwise.
South Carolina, through its attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, is asking the Supreme Court to allow it to defund the abortion giant in the state by using Medicaid dollars for actual healthcare rather than allowing it to go to abortion facilities. Having been through multiple abortions at the hands of Planned Parenthood, I can attest to just how little Planned Parenthood cares about women’s health.
The first time, my then-boyfriend took me to a Planned Parenthood just to “talk.” I was 19 years old, unexpectedly pregnant, and terrified. Staff members conducted a sonogram they wouldn’t show me, and they vaguely hinted the pregnancy was “early.” I was brought into a room, and then a doctor gave me a drug to “calm me down.” When I woke up, I was in a different room, and the abortion I didn’t consent to had already been performed.
Two years later, under the control of my new, abusive boyfriend, I was forced back into this same clinic, pregnant again. There were bruises all over my body because my boyfriend was a drug user, an alcoholic, and often full of rage. No one at the facility asked if I was OK or needed help. No one asked me what I wanted, which was to keep the baby.
My abuser, who I thought had all the power, would not listen to my arguments that we could take care of the baby and everything would be OK. I thought about running out of the clinic, but where would I go? I should have fought for the life of my baby, but I was weak and easy prey for a predatory organization such as Planned Parenthood, so I went through the same process all over again.
The following day, after many hours of intense bleeding, I knew something was wrong. My boyfriend dropped me off at the emergency room before heading to the bar. Alone, I took a few steps into the lobby before I collapsed. When I came to, all I could whisper to the questioning doctors was, “I had an abortion.” They knew what to do because hospitals across the nation have faced so many botched abortions that they now have protocols to treat women abandoned by places such as Planned Parenthood.
They worked quickly to treat the infection in my body that was caused by tissue that Planned Parenthood left behind in a careless abortion. I received an emergency dilation and curettage procedure and repair surgery to my uterus, followed by a blood transfusion. If I had stayed home and fallen asleep, I may never have woken up.
No one forced me to have my third abortion. I did it because I didn’t want anyone to have me as a mother. I was broken and hopeless. These experiences had crushed me beyond repair, and I considered suicide.
Despite all I had experienced, though, God had not forgotten me.
He sent a friend from my old Christian high school to relentlessly love, pursue, and convince me to leave my abuser. Two years later, I met and married my husband, whom I have been married to for 25 years. God’s mercies weren’t done there. In an act of redemption thrice over, God gave me three beautiful children.
When they reached high school, I sensed God telling me He had something for me, and I told Him I would do whatever He asked. Now, I am the executive director of Genesis Women’s Clinics and Mom’s House in Pennsylvania, where I get to tell women my story every week and offer them truth and hope.
At Genesis, we show women their sonograms. We listen to their difficult circumstances, and we provide support that makes motherhood possible. We care for both mother and child.
In my fear and circumstances, Planned Parenthood only offered me one choice: death. It benefited financially from ending the lives of my children. I was left empty, physically damaged, and alone. Thankfully, God’s merciful hand rescued me and positioned me to offer the same life-affirming hope He showed me to so many scared and confused women.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD BRACES FOR SUPREME COURT FIGHT OVER MEDICAID FUNDING
So, I ask you: Does Planned Parenthood sound like a place that deserves taxpayer dollars? Does it sound like it offers real care to women? Or are states like South Carolina showing us that we can do better?
I hope and pray that the Supreme Court will see that we can.
Wendy Burpee is the executive director of Genesis Women’s Clinic in Pennsylvania.