As a high school senior, Toni felt like she had her whole life in front of her, and she was excited for the possibilities.
That hope soon turned to fear when she realized that she was unexpectedly pregnant. “I was terrified and turned to anyone I could find to tell me that it would be okay, and that I could be a mom,” Toni said. Instead, she was met with only one option: abortion.
A friend told her that abortion was the only way, and that she had to do it. Even her boyfriend insisted that abortion was the best option. “You’re going to abort, right,” he plainly stated.
“He said, you don’t want to keep it do you?
Recounting her experience, Toni said, “I felt so alone. So, I did the only thing that I thought I could do. I called Planned Parenthood, and I made an appointment for an abortion.”
In Toni’s search for support and help, Planned Parenthood provided the exact opposite. Workers at the facility said they would use a fake name when they called her parents’ house, so that her family wouldn’t find out about the procedure. They also refused Toni’s request to see the ultrasound image of her baby at the first appointment. When she insisted, the worker looked Toni straight in the eyes and told her that the baby was not worth saving. She did eventually let Toni see the screen but said her baby was nothing, just a size of a pea even though she was 7 weeks along
When that same Planned Parenthood employee handed her a bag with abortion drugs, Toni didn’t see any other option but to take them. She was told that taking the drugs would be just like taking Tylenol.
After she took the drugs, nothing happened at first. When she called Planned Parenthood back to ask questions about the drugs, they hung up.
“I wasn’t surprised. Planned Parenthood wasn’t concerned about my informed consent when I took the drugs, and they certainly weren’t concerned about my questions after,” Toni said.
A month later while Toni was at school, her body started writhing from pain. By the time she made it to the nurse, she was hemorrhaging blood clots the size of her fists.
That was only the beginning of the trauma. Soon after, her boyfriend walked out of her life, and she was left alone to bear the lingering physical and emotional pain from the abortion.
Slowly, Toni began to pick herself back up and started using her story to help others. With time, she realized that she felt pressured into the abortion because she didn’t know there were other options or help available. “I wanted to keep my child but needed help,” she said.
Then her story took an unexpected and beautiful turn. Nine years after her abortion, her boyfriend returned, with a new, mature understanding of the role he’d played, and apologized. The two found forgiveness and growth, and they fell in love as adults and were married.
At their wedding, Toni and her husband honored their child by lighting a remembrance candle.
“I am lucky that my story doesn’t end with my abortion,” Toni now confidently states.
Today, the couple has four beautiful children. Together, they use their story to give hope to others who may find themselves in a similar situation.
Toni has made it her personal mission to speak up and seek justice for the unborn and for moms who are pressured and coerced into abortion.
“Is this the best they think they can do for the Black community?” she asks of Democrats.
“Instead of campaigning on abortion, why weren’t they campaigning on resources for Black moms and babies? Instead, their best solution is to decrease the Black population state by state.”
Toni reflects often on a treasured quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which says, “It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”
The majority of American voters believe that unborn babies should be protected from being aborted when they can feel pain by as early as 15 weeks. As pro-life Americans, we cannot allow this killing of unborn babies to continue.
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