Showing posts with label Abortion Recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abortion Recovery. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

From the Director, Tim Bond

Recently social media has been filled with undercover videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress. These videos revealed conversations with Planned Parenthood employees and executives, showing their nonchalant, cold, and calculating attitude about life in the womb. They also exposed the reality of abortion providers who admit human lives are destroyed through the abortion procedure, yet simply don’t care.  As William Wilberforce once said, “You may choose to look away, but you can never say again that you did not know.

For most it’s possible to walk away from this discussion and go on with life wearing blinders, avoiding the harsh reality of abortion.  But many women and men don’t have that luxury.  The sights and sounds of those videos triggered a post-traumatic reaction of repressed memories and emotions from their own abortion experience.  One in three women under the age of 45 has experienced an abortion.  No doubt, many silent and hurting women have been wounded again as they came face to face with the reality about their “procedure”.   

Perhaps some experienced heightened anxiety, confusion, and nightmares.  Deeper depression, sorrow, and shame may overwhelm many.  Maybe some will return to their personal method of coping with the grief and pain by drinking, drugs and other addictions.  These strong reactions are normal.  The trauma of abortion can result in negative emotions and behaviors that last for years. Many go through life unaware that their damaged relationships, inability to bond with children, and their addictions are related to the trauma of their abortion. They live in despair with these and other post-traumatic symptoms, not seeing any hope for a changed life.

But there is hope! A percentage of these post-abortive women and men seek healing for their post-traumatic stress. Recovery and healing are possible through the support and care offered by post-abortion recovery ministries like PCC’s Hearts Restored: Healing After Abortion.  

The release of these videos has elevated cultural awareness of the abortion issue. It is also an opportunity to increase awareness that hope and healing is available. Please tell your friends, your church, and your family members who are hurting that someone cares.  Tell them healing is the best “choice”. 

What if, instead of shaming those who have chosen abortion in their past, we show them the Gospel of extravagant grace?  Now is the time to invite those with buried burdens to safely bring their brokenness and pain to those who want to help. Repentance is not about condemnation, but about experiencing restoration and freedom to live an abundant joy-filled life.

Perhaps you didn’t watch the videos, but just heard about them. Either way, you still must choose how you will respond to them. Please… don’t look away!  

Hearts Restored: Healing After Abortion support and counseling offers a compassionate and fully confidential way to address this pain and this now undeniable reality. Tell a friend to privately contact Sue Ketchum at 812-567-3150 and WomensHeartsRestored@gmail.com or Don Stuart at 812-720-0802 and MensHeartsRestored@gmail.com

Monday, March 2, 2015

'The Secret Shame of Abortion in the Church'


Shame has a crippling effect on living an abundant life as God intended. One out of every three women up to age 45 has experienced abortion. Consider the many women and men that suffer silently in our churches! They understand forgiveness and salvation, but healing is necessary to restore their broken hearts. Recovery studies offered by our Hearts Restored: Healing After Abortion program can confidentially help men who regret lost fatherhood and women who still suffer from their "choice".  This is a wonderful article about that devastating shame and the church's challenge to encourage healing: The Secret Shame of Abortion in the Church.

Someone cares. Contact Sue or Don

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Ramah International Seminar

From left to right: Sydna Masse, Tim Bond
and Nancy Knowlton
On Friday, October 24, PCC brought in Ramah International’s Abortion Vulnerable Training Seminar to Columbus, Indiana. Sydna Masse and Nancy Knowlton presented the seminar to over 80 attendees, including some all the way from Kentucky! It was a joy for us to be able to bring these presenters to Columbus, not only for our own staff and volunteers, but also for other ministry leaders.

Nearly 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion by age 45. We have no doubt that these numbers have affected you in some way. Even if you are unaware of it, there may be people in your circles of influence that have had an abortion.

Addressing a past abortion decision can often by difficult for those you have not made this choice personally. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, please do not hesitate to contact Sue, PCC Abortion Recovery Coordinator, at 812-567-3150 or by email

Friday, May 16, 2014

Hearts Restored: Healing After Abortion

According to research by Obstetrics & Gynecology LWW Journal published in 2011, 30% of American women will have an abortion by age 45.  Many women tend to think they are the only one hurting from abortion – as if no one else could understand how she feels. Silently these women suffer, but they don’t have to. If these words resonate with you, you are not alone.

“The sound of a vacuum, florescent lights, the smell of a doctor’s office, or the cry of a baby - those are some of the triggers that remind me of that traumatic day.” These are the words of women in my support group who years earlier experienced an abortion. The clinic told us it would be a “quick fix” and our lives would return to normal.

For most post-abortive women and men, life changes.  Guilt, shame, and regret crowd out joy and peace.  Coping with the secret of taking a life affects relationships, as we keep people at a distance to avoid judgment.  Memories, nightmares or hallucinations cause anxiety or give us reason to seek comfort in addictions.

Post-traumatic stress is real. A life was taken and our human nature is in conflict with the reality of our involvement. A mother’s nurturing instincts and a father’s protective internal nature are violated. 

To cope with pain many build a wall around his/her heart. Anger sometimes takes grip and often turns into rage and bitterness. Many women develop problems with future children: over-protecting or failing to bond. Many men develop a sense of powerlessness, depression or fear of failing financially, socially or relationally.

There are choices to be made: staying stuck in stress or the choice to heal. There is hope and freedom for the broken-hearted! There are women and men who have walked in your shoes yet chosen a path to heal. Because of their changed lives, they reach out to help others. Abortion healing is available, free and completely confidential. 

Hearts Restored: Healing After Abortion provides a support study that leads you through the pain, grief, shame, loss and anger to experience the freedom of feeling forgiven and set free. Finally surrendering your secret with safe people will lighten the burden of carrying this painful loss.

Moving on from the entanglement of past decisions is possible. Past choices do not need to be the end of your story. There is hope for a new beginning! I know. I have participated in a support group study and I’m free from uncontrollable anger. This helped to heal my marriage; I am a better wife, mother and a happier person. God has forgiven me and I have a new purpose to speak love and healing into the lives of other hurting women.

Hearts Restored serves Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Jennings and Shelby counties.  From teens to 90-year-olds, someone you know needs healing. To talk one-on-one with someone who understands and cares, or inquire about a small group study, call Sue at 812-567-3150 or Don at 812-720-0802.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Find Healing


Two new Bible Studies will begin on March 26th through the Abortion Recovery Ministry. The Forgiven and Set Free study will take place in Shelbyville with Chris Bullock and in Columbus with Sarah Dismore. Sarah recently made a video of her testimony which can be viewed on http://vimeo.com/38000318.


Through the Forgiven and Set Free study, women find a non-judgmental, confidential and safe small group environment where they can share their experiences, work through the pain and hurts surrounding their abortion and explore ways to find healing. In fact, many women have found healing through these meetings and studies and have had the following to say about their experience:


“The Forgiven and Set Free Program has liberated me, my marriage and my relationship with my children. It has moved me into a deep, intimate relationship with a heavenly Father who is big enough to cover ALL my sins!”


“I did not even know I needed to be healed! It was as if I was running a race unaware that a cart was attached to me that weighed me down and pulled me backwards. Now, I know that God is more than enough to forgive even me, remove the cart and send me soaring as a Forgiven Child of God....I have been given a new, fresh start to life!”


“I am in awe of how deeply God loves me. I could continue my entire life hauling my baggage and pushing it down when it flared up, but He has better plans for me. I could go on and on but truly, I just want to say thank you! Thank you for pushing me off the ledge of what I thought was a-0kay into a world of HOPE and Forgiveness. I am so very thankful. Praying Christ shines through the cracks in my pot!”


“The study allowed me not only to face my past decision, but learn that the God I so wanted to run away from, was with me all along. I was young, unprepared and unknowing of all the emotional and physical turmoil that that one decision could do to me. Through this study I was able to gain acceptance and forgive myself for my past decisions I have made and I am so thankful to God for healing me and giving me the life I have now.”


If you or someone you know would like more information about the Abortion Recovery Program or how to get involved in the Forgiven and Set Free Bible Study, contact Chris Bullock toll free at 877-8-HEALED. All calls are confidential. You may also visit www.afterabortionhealing.org for more information.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

No Cost Just Sacrifice




“No Cost
Just Sacrifice”
That was the title for this past weekend.

I was extremely honored to attend The Call Detroit 11-11-11 where
thousands came together in Ford Field to fast and pray for the city of Detroit and for our nation.

“It's a fast, not a festival” describes TheCall which has been gathering for over 10 years in stadiums across our country for Joel 2 solemn assemblies. I describe it as an honor because the very least I can do to petition for the lives of the unborn is to give up sleep and food for 36 hours. Being of one purpose with thousands of brothers and sisters is Christ who have the same passion is an amazing experience and one that touches the heart of God as we worshipped and cried out to Him in prayer.

11 of us from my church, Cornerstone Community in Seymour, drove up Friday, arriving for the beginning session at 6pm. The worship, the prayer, the praise, the breaking of barriers and restoration between ethnic groups, the repentance of the shedding of innocent blood in our land, are just a few of the things that took place during the 24 hour call which continued non-stop until 6pm Saturday.

I was touched as the truth about abortion was proclaimed through several personal testimonies from representatives of Carenet. The reality of the black genocide through aborting Africian American babies was startling to hear as the National Pro Life Black Community leaders shared of their movement to put an end to this unjust bloodshed.

I am more grateful than ever to be a part of putting an end to this ugly thing called abortion.
One day at a time, we each are making a difference in saving the life of a child.
I am honored to be involved in the work of the Pregnancy Care Center.

Serving with you,
Marge Miller
Manager, Jackson County Center

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wonderfully Made

Taken from Melissa Ohden’s blog at www.melissaohden.com.


"I was aborted by a saline infusion abortion in 1977.

However, that attempt failed at ending my life, and instead of being born dead, I was born alive on the 5th day of the abortion procedure (yes, this is an absolutely true story…feel free to visit my website to see pieces of my medical records).

Although I was initially left for dead, the nurses and doctors quickly realized that I was alive, and they provided me with the medical care needed to sustain my life. Although I struggled with respiratory distress, seizures, jaundice, and required multiple blood transfusions and feeding through an intravenous line in my head, I was wanted.

My adoptive parents opened their hearts and their home to me, knowing full well that they were taking a chance on adopting a little girl who would probably not live for very long, and if I did survive, would more than likely be disabled. Knowing this did not deter them. They loved me, unconditionally, and it was their love, and the love of the doctors annd nurses who cared for me that helped me to not only survive after that failed abortion attempt, but thrive.

I may have been an “accident” (given name) to my biological parents, who were young college students at the time, but by the grace of God, my life took on new meaning.

It wasn’t until I was 14 years old that I found out the truth about my life, that I wasn’t simply given the beautiful gift of an adoption plan by my biological parents, but I had been aborted first. Certainly, it was God’s plan for my life that I am who I am, but I struggled with it for many years.

All of the given names of “aborted child,” “unwanted,” “unloved,” “accident,” “just a blob of tissue,” “choice,” “replaceable,” all took a toll on me from age 14 on. As much as I loved God, and knew He loved me and saved me for great purposes, I was burdened by the given names and fell silent to the world around me. I tried hard to excel in every other part of my life, in order to avoid facing the one true thing that the Lord saved me to do–share the Gospel of truth about abortion and about Him with the world.

It wasn’t until I wrestled with God over those years and finally accepted who I am and who He truly is to me that I was able to fully received my Secret Name, embrace it, and live it out fully in the world through Him.

I am now an international pro-life and Christian speaker, a Christian counselor, and most importantly, a mother. I am so grateful to the Lord for not only saving my life, but allowing me to wrestle with Him long enough to learn my name and be prepared for the fights that I fight in the world today.

I am no longer an “accident,” I am WONDERFULLY MADE!"


Want to hear more about Melissa's story? Go to www.focusonthefamily.com to hear a podcast where Melissa talks more about her incredible life.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

I Just Don't Understand

“I just don’t understand how anyone could ever do that”. I winced as I heard this statement voiced by an acquaintance. The person who made the statement was talking about abortion. Specifically, how could someone ever do that, have an abortion? I realized how a comment like this could cause tremendous harm and damage if said to a post abortive person who had not received healing. The person who made this comment was not trying to inflict guilt or pain, but words can cause much pain and suffering even without malicious intent. The old childhood ditty, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me”, is untrue.

The second thing I thought about is, how do I answer that question? How do I explain why people have abortions? I tried to explain that abortion is a desperate act and that most people do not want to have an abortion, but I felt like I was trying to justify it and that frustrated me even more. The decision is never morally acceptable, no matter how much a person agonizes over the decision. Yet the more I tried to explain the more inadequate I felt in helping her understand. Even though I did not feel bruised by her comment, I was very concerned that her lack of understanding and her lack of knowledge could cause other post abortive people to feel shame and self-condemnation. These feelings could keep them from ever getting the help they needed to face their past and heal.

The comment was a few years ago and since that time I have had many instances to talk about abortion and why people choose abortion. Simply put, abortion is sin. I retyped the comment made above and instead of the word “that” I put the word “sin” in its place, “I just don’t understand how anyone could sin.” Now, how does the statement sound? Hurtful, condemning, self-righteous? I believe the comment was made with no intent to wound but no matter the intent, we hear condemnation.

As lovers of Christ, we strive to be very careful with our words. We do not want to say anything that would cause anyone to feel judgment or condemnation. We are here to offer hope and restoration. The world is a place of unforgiveness and pain but when our clients walk into our Centers; they have entered a safe place, a place where the light of Christ shines. You’ve heard the following cliché’ many times, but it’s true,” you are the light of the world”. Christ is in us and we share Him with those we meet.

We choose our words carefully. We build up, not tear down. We love unconditionally. We don’t question why someone sins; we simply open our arms and show them the way to sin no more. That way is through God’s Son, Jesus.

By Chris Bullock
Abortion Recovery Coordinator

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Finding Forgiveness and Hope

This is an excerpt from the Abortion Recovery Bible Study, Prayer Intercessor Letter.

"Faith" seems to be glowing with the Holy Spirit. Her “breakthrough” last week has helped her to see more and more pieces of her life and how the many hurts and losses led her to sin. She has confessed her past sins and finds peace in knowing God has forgiven her. She stated she felt as if “a thousand pounds were lifted off her shoulders”.

She said the past week her soul has been grieving. But this is a cleansing for her and she feels relief and peace. She has never cried before like she has cried and it feels good to be able to release what she has always felt but she has never been able to express or let go until now.

Only God can do this and we praise Him! She is now working on forgiveness of those who have hurt her. She asks you to please pray she will be able to forgive all who have hurt her and that she will be able to let go of the hurt and pain. Pray too God will continue to reveal past memories necessary for her healing.

Join us in praying God's continued healing in the life of "Faith" and the other men and women currently going through the Forgiven and Set Free Bible Studies.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Abortion Recovery for Men

The Pregnancy Care Center is now offering an abortion recovery program for men. Abortion inflicts pain on men as well as women. Men are referred to as the "silent warriors" because often times they are silent about their pain, fear, anxiety, guilt, grief, depression and anger.

Abortion affects a man’s life, oftentimes causing problems in relationships; relationships with his girlfriend or wife, children, and often times with God. We know too that sometimes he may not think about the abortion until years later, but the secret is always there.

With the Pregnancy Care Center’s abortion recovery program, the post abortive man is walked thru the stages of post abortion stress helping him move out of denial about the past into acceptance and forgiveness. Men will learn how their "father-hearts" can heal.

The study will be starting in the near future, lasts for 11 weeks, and is completely confidential. For more information, please contact Morris Nading at 812-378-6068 or via email at morrisn@pregcarecenter.org.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Another Woman Finds Healing from Abortion

I took part in the abortion study recently in Shelbyville. I started out in the study thinking that I did not need it and that I had already been forgiven and there was most likely no further blessings there. Well, God in his usual way, used that study to increase my relationship with my 30 year old son--and to show me that my pride and shame had kept me from sharing my abortion and my heart with him in the past. On Mother's Day--I shared with my son about the abortion and it has changed our relationship. We cried together and he shared his heart about some things he had been holding onto. It was a very sweet time that I would not have wanted to miss for anything.

Also another way the study impacted me was in helping me realize the healing power of memorializing those who have gone before us. I work with families in counseling and I find now that I can encourage rituals and memorials as a way of healing and honor in a way that I would not have in the past. Memorializing my unborn child brought the grief cycle full circle and created a reality of the situation for myself and my family. I felt many prayers going up while I was in the study and I just want to say thank you and God Bless You.

DB

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