A father has contacted a mother and his son after he arranged for an abortion. “Roko, forgive me.”
Ivana Vrdoljak explained what happened when she found out she was pregnant in Germany. When she informed her partner, the father of the child, he pressured her to abort the child. Arranging and paying for an abortion, he took Ivana to the abortion facility. At the last moment, Ivana fled to Croatia.
Penniless and alone, Ivana contacted a crisis pregnancy organisation for help. Five months later, her son, Roko, was born.
During the pregnancy, Ivana heard nothing from the father. But after the birth, he contacted her and told her he wanted to see his son. When they finally met in Zagreb, he took his baby son in his arms and asked him for forgiveness. “Roko, forgive me.”
The father also gifted Roko a football shirt printed with the words, “It was worth being born.”
“You see, my son”, Ivana said to Roko, “it was worth it for you to be born!”
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Mothers face many different pressures to abort a child, sometimes from a partner or a family member. What women need is support and love, not abortion. While pregnancy is a challenge, the reward – a beautiful baby – is worth every struggle, every anxiety.
“Ivana is to be commended for fighting for the life of her son, Roko. She knew abortion would be wrong, whatever the circumstances, and refused to give in to pressure and fear.
“It also takes courage to admit a wrong and ask forgiveness. Whatever the reason was that made the father believe abortion was the best recourse, he now recognises his newborn child as the best gift he could ever have received.
“One of the tragedies of abortion is that so many fathers and mothers are robbed of this great gift – the blessing of a child and a family. This is the pro-life perspective that often goes missing today, but which we strive to promote every day.”
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