(The Daily Signal) Katelynn Perry sat in her bathtub doing Google searches on her phone. Was there a way to save her unborn baby?
She had taken the first chemical abortion pill that day and had decided she was not going to take the rest.
After visiting Planned Parenthood, Perry says she “knew that taking that first pill was wrong,” adding, “I shouldn’t have let them influence me.”
Perry already had four kids when she found out she was pregnant with her fifth child, and given the financial struggles she and her husband were facing, she had decided to visit Planned Parenthood to discuss her options.
“When I tried to ask questions, they were kind of shot down. They weren’t really answered in full,” Perry said of her trip to the clinic. “They used a lot of medical terms that I didn’t understand.”
After taking the first abortion pill at Planned Parenthood, Perry was instructed to go to her local pharmacy to pick up the other pills to complete the abortion, but she decided she wouldn’t do that.
Her Google searches led Perry to Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Rescue Network website.
She called the number and spoke to a nurse who told her it was possible that her baby was still alive and could be saved. The nurse connected Perry with a pregnancy resource center about an hour away in Lynchburg, Virginia. When she arrived, the first step was an ultrasound to see whether the baby was still alive.
“We do the ultrasound; she still has a heartbeat,” Perry said of her baby. The medical staff at the pro-life center explained to Perry how the abortion pill reversal works through a 12-week hormone therapy.
Today, Perry’s baby girl, Aubrey, is just over a year old, healthy and “the sweetest little girl you would ever meet,” her mother says.
Editor’s note: This article was published by The Daily Signal and is reprinted with permission. Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News
Actress Jamie Lynn Spears has spoken out again regarding the pressure that was put on her to have an abortion when she was just a teenager. In an episode of “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!”, the now 32-year-old actress told her fellow contestants about how it felt to be pregnant at 16, and how the adults around her told her an abortion was her best option.
“When I first got pregnant,” she said through tears, “… They didn’t want me to have the baby.”
Spears was the star of Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101” when she became pregnant while dating her then-boyfriend Casey Aldridge.
She continued, “After I finished ‘Zoey’, I had the love of my life, what I thought, I decided to keep the baby. I was 16. The whole world was like, ‘You’re a s**t, you’re horrible, your life is over ‘… Because I got pregnant young and I was on a kids’ show.”
She said her parents had a “lot going on” at the time and were “sad” that she was pregnant. “I had to go hide away for a long time because they were relentless.”
Spears moved to Mississippi and “literally hid” she said. “I had paparazzi on me every day, they wouldn’t leave me alone. I just wanted to be normal. I wanted my baby to be normal.”
Spears successfully stood strong against the pressure to have an abortion. Her baby girl, Maddie Briann Aldridge, is now 15 years old, and Spears and her husband Jamie Watson have since welcomed a daughter, Ivey Joan, who is five. Spears recently filmed the sequel film to “Zoey 101” and is a regular on the Netflix series “Sweet Magnolias.” She also recently made her musical debut.
This isn’t the first time Spears has spoken out about the pressure she faced to abort her daughter. In her book, “Things I Should Have Said,” she explained that people from her inner circle “… came to my room trying to convince me that having a baby at this point in my life was a terrible idea… ‘It will kill your career. You are just too young. You don’t know what you’re doing. There are pills you can take. We can help you take care of this problem… I know a doctor.’” She added, “[E]veryone around me just wanted to make this ‘issue’ disappear” and “everyone was certain that termination would be the best course of action.”
She said what mattered most to her family and those in control of her career were her image and her income.
Her sister Britney was also pressured to abort
Like Spears, her sister, singer Britney Spears, also became pregnant unexpectedly when she was dating fellow singer Justin Timberlake. However, when faced with pressure from Timberlake to have an abortion, Britney agreed. She said the pregnancy was a surprise, but for her, “it wasn’t a tragedy.” She said if it had been “left up to me alone, I never would have done it.”
She added, “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.” Britney underwent the abortion in secret at home, “crying and sobbing until it was all over.”
Of the abortion, she said, “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
Abortion trauma and coercion
The pressure both sisters faced to have an abortion is unfortunately common. Sixty-four percent (64%) of women who have undergone an abortion have said they felt at least some form of pressure to abort — whether that was from the boyfriend or family members, or was due to educational or financial pressures. In addition, a study of women who have sought post-abortion counseling found that nearly 74% of those women felt some form of pressure to have an abortion. This disputes the idea that abortion is about freedom of choice.
Research shows that women who undergo abortions can experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. One study found that 20 percent of women struggled with clinical depression after an abortion. A study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, “Effects of Pressure to Abort on Women’s Emotional Responses and Mental Health,” found that women who reported being pressured into an abortion by either their male partner or a family member reported statistically significant levels of negative emotions surrounding the abortion, interference with daily life, intrusive thoughts, abortion flashbacks, feelings of grief about the abortion, and increased levels of stress when answering questions about their abortion.
By Nancy Flanders | January 9, 2024 LiveAction.org
Live Action has launched a groundbreaking web experience, allowing users to see firsthand how a preborn child develops in the womb, with interactive features through each day of development.
The Window to the Womb web app gives users the ability to truly see into the womb with medically accurate, lifelike time-lapse images. Though there are many apps and websites tracking fetal development, none have ever been presented in this way, or in such detail. Other tools available online only show a handful of images or animations to represent nine months of development in the womb, or even comparisons to items like fruit or household products.
“Window to the Womb” showcases each and every day of development with scientifically accurate, stunning imagery.
As users navigate the web app, they can choose to view a time-lapse of an entire pregnancy, or they can pause and interact with the images and videos, with facts about development available to learn more. Previously, Live Action launched the Baby Olivia initiative, which gave an up-close and powerful look at fetal development — but “Window to the Womb” builds upon this, goes into even greater detail with its day-by-day breakdown and interactive format.
It is a well-known fact that women who are able to view their ultrasounds — and therefore, see firsthand the humanity of their children — are significantly less likely to proceed with an abortion; this is likely why the abortion industry fights so hard to prevent women from seeing their preborn children. Additionally, the abortion industry has been known to lie to women about fetal development. This resource, using creative and innovative technology, will directly combat the lies of the abortion industry and reach pregnant mothers with the truth about the humanity of the children in their wombs.
Update: Britney’s book has been selling out! Pages 74-77 are important about her pregnancy. Some call their unplanned pregnancy an “oops” or a mistake. In the early 2000s the pop star who brought us “Oops! I did it again,” was hiding a painful secret.
She may have looked like a bubbly, happy 19-year-old with a boyband boyfriend posing on the red carpet. But 20-plus years later, after they had broken up, married other people and had children, Britney Spears shared the vulnerable moment she had an abortion.
Media outlets lit up when excerpts from her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” revealed she terminated her pregnancy after boyfriend Justin Timberlake told her he did not want to be a father. She said in the book she did not want to proceed with the abortion, “if it was up to me.”
For reasons unknown beyond the feelings of Timberlake, Spears went through with the process. How many 19-year-olds do we see in our centers with the same scenario?
How many girls come to us as abortion vulnerable or abortion minded because their boyfriend is “not ready” to be a dad? I read a column by a conservative writer after the news broke. He said something along the lines of “as if she couldn’t afford to raise the baby as a single mother making millions of dollars in record sales.”
The writer missed the point.
Spears obviously was not in economic despair.
She simply felt alone.
These young women cling to the men they love and will do anything to keep them close. And sadly, that includes taking the life of their unborn child.
Like most of these situations, Spears and Timberlake parted ways. And Spears was left with a gaping hole of grief.
The pop star was in the spotlight over the years for her mental illness and lashing out in absurd ways such as shaving her head and hitting a car windshield with a baseball bat. Her parents took charge of her life in the form of a conservatorship, likely due to her mental fragility. Thirteen years later she was released from the conservatorship following what came to be known as the “Free Britney” movement.
I must admit I was wondering what happened to her. It seemed to many as though she lost her mind. So many pop stars fall into drug addiction or alcoholism. This wasn’t the case for Spears.
Few people recognize the emotional impact an abortion can present within a woman. Spears just told the world that abortion is “agonizing.”
Finally.
Someone who was bold enough to share the horrors of abortion has spoken out. Will anyone take her seriously? Do people still think she is crazy?
There has been speculation about a music video she made in the early 2000s to her song “Every time.”
In it, she ultimately commits suicide in a bathtub, and she has an outer body experience. She is in a hospital room and there is a woman holding a baby wrapped in pink. The scenes keep panning back to the baby and to the pain in Spears’ eyes.
What if Spears had walked into a pregnancy center all those years ago? What if she met with one of our client advocates?
I’ve seen the Spears/Timberlake scenario play out many times in my office. I recently had a young woman of 19 wanting to go to college and to keep her boyfriend happy. We talked about how she could still complete college with a pregnancy. She believed that was possible. Yet she did not believe the boyfriend would be as supportive. Despite an ultrasound revealing a strong heartbeat, this young woman managed to take the abortion pill.
We are pro-women in our centers. We are here to encourage them and help them to see they can choose life and have a career.
Tweet This: We are pro-women in our pregnancy help centers. We are here to encourage them and help them to see they can choose life and have a career.
Nearly 70% of abortions in the U.S. are coerced, unwanted, or inconsistent with women’s preferences, according to a study released earlier this year by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
From my experience, I firmly believe 90 percent of these ladies do not want to proceed with an abortion.
Clearly, men have significant impact in a pregnancy decision. We can’t make the father come into the center with her. If they do choose to come, we can show him the ultrasound and offer him assistance as a new father. As centers we need to be praying about our men’s ministry. If a center does not have one, pray to begin one. These young men need our support as well and need to know how they can support their girlfriends when the line pops up on the home pregnancy test.
These “Justins” may not feel ready to be fathers, but we can encourage them through the process as well.
Even if she comes to our centers alone and follows through with the very painful decision like my client and like Spears, we can still offer them hope.
I always tell my clients that no matter what they decide, they can come back. I tell them there will be some grieving at some point. And I offer to lead them through post-abortive counseling.
Imagine if Spears chose life. Who would this young person be today? Imagine if she sought out help after her abortion and received counseling from a center. Imagine if she chose to understand her identity and value.
My heart hurts for her.
Many years of longing for this child have plagued her. We need to show Spears some grace and not condemn her. She is just as precious as the women who walk into our offices every week. If anything, her story could help someone in her very circumstance. Her words boldly written in her memoir and on display in social media could make one more girl consider choosing life over a boyfriend who may not be there next week.
Let’s pray the Lord uses her story. And let’s pray for Spears.
“Free Britney” has just taken on a whole new meaning.
Back in the 80s when I was in college (where else?), I had my first sexual encounter. I grew up Catholic but I became cold to it because it was too strict on “fun.” Well, my new mindset led me to my abortion.
Before I became sexually involved, I said to myself, if my contraceptive fails, I’ll just have an abortion. I spoke that flippantly about it. Though deep in my mind I KNEW it was wrong, I suppressed that voice of conscience and convinced myself, well, after all, it IS legal. Well, I had the abortion at the eighth week (I also convinced myself that the earlier I did it, the less wrong it would be. It’s twisted liberal thinking, I know.) I obsessed about what a 8-week old fetus looked like.
Naturally, once having been a pro-lifer, after my abortion I became an avid “pro-choicer.” I now know it was a defensive measure to justify the crime I committed. I became angry when shown pictures of aborted babies. I became a vocal left winger. I also spent a lot of the next years as a person with “unknown” unresolved anger. And of course going to Church and being prayerful wouldn’t do. That meant having to confront my sin. And I resolved to not have babies with my husband. I had become too selfish and lazy in my life of sin.
Just two years ago, by the grace of God, I found my way back to the Catholic Church, I confessed my sin, living the life God intended for me, had my first baby with my husband and I have NEVER been happier! And at PEACE! I’m no longer the angry person I used to be. I can’t wait to have more babies, and I am now an active and prayerful pro-lifer!
When we let go of God’s hand to walk our own paths, it leads us to hell.
Thank you for your time.
Julie
Dear Julie,
Thank you for sharing your story. It’s given me insight into how people gradually get sucked into accepting abortion as just another “reproductive option”. Somehow people can ignore the fact that an innocent life is being snuffed out with each abortion. This is a world that takes the most precious gift imaginable (LIFE) and calls it disposable and inconvenient.
Women need to be informed of what they are really saying “yes” to when they have an abortion. They need to know all of the harmful after affects of an abortion…both physical and emotional. They also need to see an ultrasound of their unborn baby before they make the decision. Many would change their mind, if they did.
Women need to be given other options besides abortion. Most abortion clinics do not readily give out that information. It is bad for business for girls to see the truth about abortion and what it really is. As one girl wrote to me recently, “when I called it a baby she (the nurse at the abortion clinic) argued that it was just a tissue not developed at all. I told her the stage it was at and she had no response except for “well I can’t do anything about that, you’re here”…” That nurse didn’t want to look at the truth either.
Somehow you’ve been given the eyes to see, and you are sharing this truth with others. Thank you. Please continue to stand up for what is right.
I am so happy to hear that you’ve finally found PEACE and JOY in your life!
