Today is Thursday, November 12th, 2009; Karen's Korner #1694
For several days earlier this week, our local Christian radio station hosted its annual Share-a-Thon fundraiser. I was to be a guest for part of an hour at one of their early broadcast hours.
When I was sitting waiting for my turn, one of the gals doing some of the paperwork and taking calls was Roxie Richard. Roxie was wearing a pin which simply said, "I regret my abortion."
What did that mean, I wondered and I asked for more details?
It seems that Roxie had an abortion 31 years ago and it caused lots of difficulty for her in an already difficult life.
She was in early 20s, living a less-than-stellar life of drugs and all the other trappings that might go with that lifestyle.
"I went to the emergency room one evening," she said. "I had been doing drugs and couldn't keep anything down. I had 11 x-rays and had my stomach pumped for hours. It was in the morning when I met with an angry doctor who sat down and flipped open a chart and pointed to a red ink mark with a circle around it; he said I had tested positive for pregnancy."
It was strongly suggested to Roxie that she have an abortion. Since she was single and living with a guy, she agreed to the 'simple procedure' and rode three hours to Iowa City for the abortion. "I sat by a wild-eyed red-head who reassured me that the procedure was simple and quick. She was having her sixth abortion," she said.
Roxie was somewhat convinced until she was lyiing on a bed, where the nurses spread her legs and before she knew it, she heard a sucking sound. "It took a bit for me to realize the sucking sound was coming out of me," she said. "I started fighting and begging them to stop. They tried to calm me down by saying it was nothing and they'd be done shortly." For the first ten miles on the way home, she would have to stop at times to 'puke her guts out'.
Intermittenly she would moan between what she had done and sleeping. "When I got home, I grabbed a cold beer and some drugs before heading for my pool league," Roxie said.
But the difficulty wasn't over, it was just beginning. "I suffered three miscarriages before I had our son who is now 24," she said. "I was a control freak, a drug addict, angry and bitter. I had trouble looking at myself in the mirror. I had constant self-destructive thoughts and I forgot how to hold my head high. I believed that I was selfish. I thought I was unlovable by anyone....especially myself."
Roxie said for a number of years she would be with the guy 'who had the most drugs at the time'. "I was always in a hurry," she said. "I couldn't understand myself and I couldn't define my problems."
BUT she praises God for introducing her to Silent No More Awareness & Rachel's Vineyard Abortion Recovery Retreats. "These programs help people like me," Roxie said. "They helped me to recognize what my problems were and how much that 'simple and quick procedure' was affecting me. God has touched me in places that I never knew were broken."
Roxie now has a song in her heart, a spring in her step, and a purpose in her life. She is married to the love of her life. Her business card states she is now 'Regional Coordinator-Iowa' for Silent No More Awareness.
And her healing continues as she talks and shares her life with others.
And wearing the pin? "God puts people in my life all of the time because of it," Roxie said. "Like me, they or their families are hurting. God can help; God can heal."
Her healing poem:
My babies have a name,
I will never be the same.
Life is not a game;
not even for a minute.
Jesus is my lifelife
And I will never forget it!
She's free and she knows it!
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