Tara grew up in a non-believing home. Alcohol abuse and divorce led to instability as she entered her teen years and young adulthood. A pregnancy in her twenties was not supported by others in her life and ultimately, an abortion was procured. The trauma of abortion led to more problems, but her life stabilized and she married a good man. She experienced infertility and post-partum psychosis and believes there may have been a link to her abortion.

Charlie had an abortion in his past that he kept secret from his wife. At first, he suppressed it, and also became full of rage and shame. Even years of therapy did not help him connect the dots from his abortion history to his emotional and marriage problems. When he finally told his wife, he began to heal and eventually attended at Deeper Still Retreat where he went through a deep healing.

Charlie grew up very self-protective and felt like he was raising himself. He never felt like he had any guidance and saw coping through drinking. So, as he grew into adulthood, he followed that pattern of drinking and looking down on women. When his girlfriend got pregnant- there was only one thing he wanted her to do- get an abortion.

Even though Sheila has not had an abortion in her past, she understands how easily she could have had one when she was a pregnant teenager, because she did not know where to find help. This compassion has led her to not only help women who are in a crisis pregnancy, but also have compassion for those who have had an abortion and to help bring healing.

Sheila got pregnant as a teen, and although she did not have an abortion, she knew that one day she would be helping those with a past abortion. She relates with how easy it could have been to be pushed in the direction of abortion. Fortunately, her parents and the baby's father were supportive of her pregnancy and she chose life.

Pastor Mick Duffy from The Pasture, a church in Hudson, Illinois, talks about his experience with helping hurting people and the need for the church to address the specific needs of the abortion wounded heart. He has observed lasting healing among the several women in his church. He also discusses the need for men and those in ministry leadership to receive healing for their own abortion wounded heart.

Annette drew closer to God after years of destructive living and an abortion. She wanted to help others not to make the same decision she did, so she became a sidewalk counselor outside of an abortion clinic. She realized that she was doing the sidewalk counseling for the wrong reasons- as a form of penance.

Even though Annette grew up in a Christian family, she drifted from God and made increasingly poor choices until she ended up in a bad marriage and pregnant. She hid her pregnancy from her parents and her abusive husband by having an abortion, but then immediately regretted it. Her abortion led her farther away from God and into more destructive choices.

Priscilla Coleman has been published in a multitude of research journals, studying the impact of abortion. In this podcast, she addresses her meta-analysis published in the 2011 British Journal of Psychiatry, the pushback against it, and the way that some research on abortion is flawed, leading to misleading outcomes.

After her abortion, Alison ended up marrying the father of the baby. Her early years of marriage and parenting were full of over-protective parenting, anger, guilt, and shame. After she started attending church, she was saved and felt ashamed to share her story at church. After her retreat, that all changed.