Hello! I’m Serena, I was raped at 13 years old and taken for an abortion. Our family doctor suggested abortion as solution to my trauma. I had never heard the word abortion and had no idea what it was.
When I was taken to the clinic, I just thought I was at a doctor’s office. I was taken to a room without my parents, and I had no idea what they the counselor was talking about. When they asked if I was ready, I nodded my head yes. When the abortionist came in the room he smiled and said this won’t take long. The abortion was the most painful thing I have ever experienced, and I began screaming, only for George Klopfer to yell at me. Years later I would find my mom’s journal, and she wrote she could hear me screaming, but they wouldn’t let her help me. After the abortion when it was time to leave, I hemorrhaged all over. I was not checked on but sent out the door. Our family never talked about the abortion again, but it changed our lives. My mom would end up in and out of mental institutions, my dad would leave our family, and my sister would struggle with addictions.
When I was 16, I would get pregnant again and this time would choose life. I would struggle in my marriage, with being close to my children, and with reproductive problems, which almost took my life, and a complete hysterectomy by 29. I would turn to drugs and alcohol to numb my pain, and one night after a heavy night of drinking, I knew I had nothing but to call out to God. He lavished me in His love that night, restored my family, and set me free from drugs and alcohol.
When someone asked me if I had ever been to a post abortive ministry, I honestly thought I had done a lot of healing but decided to go. My first retreat was Forgiven and Set free and God did a beautiful thing by allowing me to actually mourn the loss of my daughter. My family finally felt complete. A few months later I would attend a Deeper Still, and God would meet me once again and allow me to walk in further in my healing and freedom with him. I’m so thankful for the women who asked me to go.
Today I stand here to ask you to remember my story. It’s supposed to the be the exception to abortion, but God had created me to be a mother, even at 13 years old. Abortion hurts women. This is why I’m silent no more.