‘Their lives mattered. Their babies’ lives mattered. They should be alive and not dead! Where is the outcry?’
By Michelle Lyman
I was 17 sitting with my mom in her room at a little round table. As we talked, I felt this incredible connection with her. I believe she felt it too and this is what prompted her to look at me with love in her eyes and say, “Missy, it’s a miracle you’re even alive!”
Growing up, I had often heard the stories of how I had been RUN OVER TWICE as a toddler by family members.
The second time, a truck ran over my body, stopped on top of my head, and in a state of shock the driver chose to back off of my body, crushing it for a second time – and I lived!
I thought this was what my mom was referring to, but as she continued to share, I could not believe what I was hearing!
She told me how she had met the abortionist in a bar, and followed him to an upstairs room where he assured her he could take care of her “problem.” She left there believing she was no longer pregnant and hemorrhaging so badly she thought she might die.
As a teenager growing up in the late seventies and early eighties, I was aware of the value our culture placed on the preborn that were arbitrarily labeled as “unwanted.” The message was — and still is, they are not valued as gifts. In fact, they are given no value! This impacted me and became a painful part of my identity.
Knowing that abortion was legal, sanctioned, and even celebrated by some is what hurt the most.
When I learned the truth about how I survived an abortion I felt hurt, confused, and devalued. And those feelings didn’t go away. In fact, for many years after my mom told me the truth, I still felt those feelings. I would wonder, “Are there others out there like me?” “ Is there a support group? Are there others?”
It would be 38 years after learning that I had survived an abortion, before I finally discovered the Abortion Survivors Network, and began to meet many other people like me. The last I heard there were almost 800 abortion survivors within the network.
Being a part of this Abortion Survivors community has changed my life! With their help, I’m learning to combat the lies of the abortion culture!
Words do matter! The abortion culture refers to “unwanted” preborn babies as a Choice to let live or kill, referring to the preborn baby as medical waste to be discarded and or their body parts, sold to the highest bidder. Labeled as nothing more than a product of conception.
These cruel labels have consequences for mother’s that regret aborting their babies and survivors like me. As an abortion survivor, I identify with the millions of other so-called “unwanted” people, the “choices,” that didn’t live.
I read a Fox News article, and the wording they used really bothered me. It read “Over 63 million abortions have occurred in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. It would have been more impactful and more respectful if they would have said ”63 Million children have been killed by abortion.” Children are not abortions. Abortion is a procedure used to kill children!
Abortion is not safe, it is brutal!
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Below is an excerpt from a speech Lyman delivered in front of an abortion clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 25:
I have here in my hand from Operation Rescue thirty-nine documented cases of women who have senselessly lost their lives to the two billion dollar abortion industry!
Here are a few of their names. April was 29 years old and died from a perforated uterus, Diamond was 18 when she died from an incomplete abortion, and Melissa was only 14 years old when she died of respiratory and cardiac arrest at the abortion clinic.
Say their names with me: April! Diamond! Melissa!
Their lives mattered, their babies’ lives mattered, They should be alive and not dead! Where is the outcry?
Why was there not a public outrage over these senseless deaths? Who will demand justice for them? Women are dying, babies are being killed and families destroyed all in the name of so called “choice!” A Choice to do what? Violently destroy an innocent life, while lining the pockets of abortion industry executives? Abortion is a $2 billion industry, and this is why they push for so called ”choice!”
We hear story after story of women who felt coerced and unsupported as if they had NO Choice. Sixty-four percent of women who have had an abortion identified as feeling pressured to abort.
Women deserve better than abortion!
I, like millions of others, was that innocent and vulnerable so-called “unwanted” child in the womb, with intrinsic value!
Author, Abortion Survivor Michelle Lyman–
God not only spared Michelle’s life from an illegal abortion procedure, but by the time she was fifteen, she had escaped death at least two more times. Her story will inspire you as you hear of her miraculous survival, overcoming a traumatic childhood, and the restorative power of God’s love. She delivers the love of Christ in a message of hope, forgiveness, and redemption. She serves as an ambassador for Abortion Survivors Network.
Michelle passionately endorses Operation Rescue’s 24-page booklet Refocusing the Pro-life Movement for Victory available for free download.
This op-ed may be republished with inclusion of the following acknowledgement: “This op-ed was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Michelle Lyman, is an abortion survivor and ambassador for Abortion Survivors Network.
