The night after her abortion, then high school student Shelley Goodell got out of bed in the middle of the night and ran to her boyfriend’s house. She had had an abortion to continue her schooling, without telling her parents.
“That night I tried to sleep but didn’t rest. My dreams were full of agitation. In the middle of the night, I sneaked out of my house and ran. Don’t do anything physical for a few days until the risk of hemorrhage is past, echoed the nurse’s voice in my mind. I didn’t care. I couldn’t hold the emotional explosion inside of me that I wasn’t supposed to be having. I arrived at my boyfriend’s, sneaked up to his room, and woke him up. We both cried. I told him I thought we had done the wrong thing, and he agreed. I asked him why he didn’t say so before. He said he was afraid I would be mad because I was the one who had to carry the baby.
The baby – not a procedure or tissue or trash – the baby, our baby…All we could do was cry and realize the awful truth.
I skipped school for the next month. All those things I wanted to protect were meaningless to me.…. I sank into deep depression.”
Wendy Williams, Ann Caldwell, Empty Arms: More Than 60 Life-Giving Stories of Hope from the Devastation of Abortion (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Living Ink Books, 2005) pp.129 – 131.
Editor’s note. This appeared at Clinic Quotes and is reposted with permission.
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
