Quotations from testimonies

Here are some of the things which women and men have said at Silent No More events.

"Not a day goes by when I don't think of my lost child. When I wake up in the morning I know I've had an abortion. I would never wish this pain on anybody." Ruth (American SNM leaflet)
"I walked out as if nothing in my life had changed, but everything had." Mary (American SNM leaflet)
"Abortion didn't end my pain, it began it." Shelley (American SNM leaflet)
"I didn't defend the life of my own daughter. Based on misinformation, selfishness, fear, shame, I let her die to an abortionists knife and I died the same day." Scott (American SNM leaflet)
"When I left the clinic, I left part of me there too." Julie (American SNM leaflet)
"I feel numb and dead inside." Trish (American SNM leaflet)
"What about the women who get forgotten? I was unable to speak because abortion keeps you in isolation." Bernadette
"For all our liberation, women are still weeping." Bernadette
"Abortion was not the answer, it did not make my problems go away." Bernadette
"My first waking thoughts each day were of my abortions." Jeanette
"You can't take a life without affecting a life." Jeanette
"I swapped my baby's life for a mental problem." Tessa
"Despair and guilt took hold of me." Tessa
"I was a mother from the earliest stages of my pregnancy." Grace
"I became extremely depressed, I considered suicide." Grace
"I couldn't hold back the terrible emptiness inside me." Kathy
"In my diary I wrote, 'it's all over.' What a lie!" Sophia
"From deep within me came wrenching sobs." Sophia
"Something of me had died also, that day on the operating table," Margaret
"I want to speak the truth about abortion, exposing the half-truths and deception which have permeated our society." Margaret
"I felt I was paying for my actions and didn't deserve happiness." Julie
"I blamed him for allowing me to kill our child." Julie
"I felt directionless: all sense of purpose in life had evaporated." Emma
"The abortion overshadows my memories." Doreen
"The emptiness does not go away." Trina
"I had been in pain, but the mental pain afterwards turned out to be worse." Tracy
"How I wish I could turn back the clock." Tracy
"If only someone had told me the truth about the possible consequences." Christopher
"No-one told me that this 14 week pregnancy was in fact a perfectly formed baby girl." Mary Lou
"I felt I had committed the worst crime ever, and was afraid of being found out." Mary Lou
"I suffered years of torment filled with regret." Sue
"I had a lack of self-love that led to a suicide attempt." Irene
"I felt powerless and totally controlled." Lynn
"I felt a tugging sensation that haunted me for many years." Lynn
"I felt loss, emptiness, guilt and anger." Lynn
"He lost his only chance for fatherhood when I aborted our son." Lynn
"Abortion killed my baby, it also destroyed a large part of me." Tracy
"After 25 years my daughter still cannot process the loss of her child." Anne - A grandmother
"I suffered severe depression linked to two losses, my grandchild and my emotionally healthy daughter." Anne - a grandmother
"I cannot share memories with anyone, for I was the only one who knew my unborn child. Grieving for him is very lonely." Margaret
"I am grateful for the gift of my life, I am glad to be alive." Pamela - Abortion survivor
"Someone is missing from my life and family. I would have loved if my twin brother had survived." Pamela - Abortion survivor
"I have been a 'victim of choice' for 25 years." Elizabeth