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When Stephanie was a little girl, her biggest dream was to become a mother. She loved playing with dolls and playing house. However, growing up in a safe, loving household didn’t shield her from experiencing firsthand the callousness of the abortion industry.

Stephanie started dating a young man when she was 16 years old, and four months into their relationship she became pregnant. Stephanie heard about Planned Parenthood and assumed that they would be able to help her. To her, the name “Planned Parenthood” sounded like they’d help her with “planning to be a parent” and she hoped they would be able to provide her with answers.

On the day of her appointment, Stephanie and her boyfriend went to the Planned Parenthood facility but the workers did not allow her boyfriend to come into the building. She remembers getting ushered into a small, sterile room. There were no decorations on the walls, and it only had a desk and a chair inside. The Planned Parenthood worker showed Stephanie a speculum and taught her what would happen during an abortion. This all felt very foreign to Stephanie because she had never even had a pap smear before. As the worker showed Stephanie a tube that would be used during the procedure, Stephanie had an adverse reaction. She began understanding the reality of what would be going on during an abortion and became hesitant to go through with getting one.

At this point, Stephanie asked the worker, “Can I go get my boyfriend out of the car? I want him to hear what you are saying.”

The worker responded, “He can’t help you with this now, but we can.”

Stephanie was all alone.

The Planned Parenthood workers never asked about her parents’ consent or if she truly wanted to go through with the abortion. Stephanie hadn’t told her parents about her pregnancy because she knew they’d be disappointed with her sexual activity. Had her parents found out, they would have encouraged her to choose life for her unborn child.

No one at Planned Parenthood told her that she had a choice other than aborting her unborn child. No one told her that there were supportive, life-affirming options available to her. No one paused to see if maybe she wanted to take more time to think or pray about the decision.

Stephanie remembers undressing herself and waiting for the doctor to take her back to the abortion procedure room. She was told to get up onto the table and the doctor said that it would just feel like getting a heavy period. Well, Stephanie had never experienced having a heavy period before so she didn’t have a reference for what the doctor was referring to.

Once the procedure started, Stephanie began experiencing intense pain. She just kept telling herself, “These are cramps, these are what cramps must feel like.” Stephanie was squeezing the hand of the nurse next to her.

At one point of excruciating pain, the doctor pushed his hand down on her stomach and said, “You’re going to have to sit still.” Stephanie felt like she needed to cry, but she didn’t feel safe enough to let her true emotions show.

When the procedure was over, Stephanie remembers sitting up in the recovery room where she was surrounded by other women and girls. She recounts that no one dared to look in each other’s eyes. Each woman knew that they had just experienced something traumatizing, and there was nothing to be said about it.

Stephanie was not taken out the front door of the clinic once the abortion was done. Instead, they ushered her down a rickety fire escape staircase. Planned Parenthood sent a post-abortive, 16-year-old girl down a rickety fire escape to get her to leave the center. All by herself.

Stephanie recounts, “It was bad! As dangerous as the fire escape was, it was even more dangerous because I was groggy.”

After the abortion, Stephanie buried her pain deep inside her. She ended up experiencing trauma after trauma, including having another abortion and having a miscarriage on the night before her wedding.

Stephanie spent years battling anger and depression and found that many of her mental health struggles stemmed from her experience with abortion. After 32 years of marriage, she and her husband divorced which led to more spiraling. But the divorce also helped to give Stephanie the opportunity to finally come clean to her parents about the shame and suffering she experienced from her abortions. After she attended a post-abortion support healing retreat, she was able to get connected with a mentor who encouraged her to volunteer and help other post-abortive women. She was able to get help from post-abortion support groups, loving mentors and her relationship with God.

Stephanie is now starting her own ministry called “BulletProof Alliance.” She is passionate about educating women, churches and the political world that abortion is not health care. BulletProof Alliance will bring women together who have experienced abortion, giving them a place to speak with one voice to silence abortion through truth.

In her own personal abortion story, she felt alone and was not given full informed consent or the support that she needed in order to make a life-affirming decision. Now, her hope is to connect people from around the world to both educate and unite, so that no woman ever has to feel like she has no hope other than abortion.

Stephanie’s motivation for sharing her story and speaking out on behalf of women: “People don’t want to be alone. Women shouldn’t have to feel like they have to do this by themselves.”