This past March, Emily Letts created a media firestorm by filming her abortion and posting her documentary as a testament to how wonderful abortion could be. In a follow-up article in Cosmopolitan, she gushes about her abortion as a positive and even joyous experience. This portrayal stuns all who value life from the moment of conception and prompted understandable outrage. However, it is important to remember that Emily Letts is only twenty-five and still has a lot of life experiences ahead of her. It is not surprising that right now she feels the need to gloss over the harsh reality that she killed her unborn child and pretend that abortion is actually a good thing. Her perception may be very different in a few years.
Just ask the women involved in the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. They offer heart-wrenching testimonies of problems with subsequent infertility, difficulty forming relationships, depression, substance abuse, low self-esteem, overwhelming guilt and many other painful sequelae to abortion.
Singer Toni Braxton
Singer Toni Braxton is among the recent voices to express regret and remorse over an abortion. In her memoir, Unbreak My Heart, she talks about how she found out she was pregnant while she was undergoing intensive therapy with isoretinoin (commonly marketed as Accutane) for acne. She was advised to get an abortion because of the potential for serious and even fatal fetal malformations as a result of the use of isoretinoin. She admits that even if she had not been on the medication she probably would have gotten the abortion because it was not a convenient time for her to be pregnant, but the risk of birth defects made the decision seem justified. However, afterwards she was wracked with guilt. She attributed everything from her own health issues with Lupus to her parents’ divorce as a consequence of her abortion. She subsequently had two sons, the youngest of whom is autistic. She openly wonders if her son’s autism is a punishment from God for her abortion.
There is no question that Ms. Braxton faced a daunting challenge when she found out that she was pregnant. The potential health effects on her unborn child due to isoretinoin exposure included deformities of the central nervous system, head, face, and heart. Certainly, the risks for these abnormalities were very high, but they were not a certainty. Abortion must have seemed like the easier solution at the time. But as she and countless other women have found, the long-lasting physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual scars of abortion run very deep.
It is sad that abortion is seen as the answer to potential birth defects. Every pregnancy is a call to a woman to be the mother of a specific child at a specific time in a specific set of circumstances. Sometimes she is called to be the mother of a perfectly healthy child whom she will see grow to adulthood. Sometimes she is called to be the mother of a child who will never take his first breath. Sometimes she is called to be the mother of a child with special needs and challenges. Sometimes, a birth mother is called to entrust her child to others who can give the care she cannot. Whenever a woman chooses to have an abortion, she explicitly rejects her calling. While she may have other children in the future, she can never go back and be a loving mother to the child she aborted. It is no wonder that women suffer when the reality of their action sets in.
Yet God does not wish such suffering upon us. I think Toni Braxton is very misguided when she views her son’s autism as some sort of Divine justice for her abortion. In the Gospel of John, Christ’s disciples asked Jesus whose sins were responsible for a man’s blindness. Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (John 9:3).
No child is ever a punishment. Instead of characterizing her son’s disabilities as the fruit of her past misdeeds, I suggest to Ms. Braxton that her son presents a chance for her redemption. She rejected a child with potential birth defects. God has given her the opportunity to embrace mothering a child with actual special needs.
I pray that Toni Braxton will find a program like Project Rachel so that she can find hope and healing after abortion. There is no sin beyond the reach of God’s mercy including the sin of abortion. God is offering full forgiveness to Toni Braxton and every other woman who has aborted her child. May they each find the grace to accept it.
Dr. Denise Jackson Hunnell is a Fellow of Human Life International. She graduated from Rice University with a BA in biochemistry and psychology. She earned her medical degree from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. She went on to complete a residency in family medicine at Marquette General Hospital, Marquette, Michigan.
Upon completion of her training, Dr. Hunnell served as a family physician in the United States Air Force. She was honorably discharged. She continued to practice medicine all over the country as her husband’s Air Force career kept them on the move. In order to better care for her family, Dr. Hunnell retired from active clinical practice and focused her professional efforts on writing and teaching. She has contributed work to local and national Catholic publications as well as to secular newspapers including the Washington Post and the Washington Times. She also teaches anatomy and physiology at Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus. Her affiliations include the American Academy of Family Physicians, The Catholic Medical Association, The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and the National Catholic Bioethics Center. She received her certification in health care ethics from the National Catholic Bioethics Center in 2009.
Dr. Hunnell has been married for nearly thirty years to Colonel (ret) John F. Hunnell, an Air Force test pilot. They have four children and are blessed with two grandchildren so far.
