an After abortion

REAL, CONFIDENTIAL, FREE, NON-JUDGMENTAL HELP TO AVOID ABORTION, FROM MANY PLACES:
3,400 confidential and totally free groups to call and go to in the U.S...1,400 outside the U.S. . . . 98 of these in Canada.
Free, financial help given to women and families in need.More help given to women, families.
Helping with mortgage payments and more.More help.
The $1,950 need has been met!CPCs help women with groceries, clothing, cribs, "safe haven" places.
Help for those whose babies haveDown Syndrome and Other Birth Defects.
CALL 1-888-510-BABY or click on the picture on the left, if you gave birth or are about to and can't care for your baby, to give your baby to a worker at a nearby hospital (some states also include police stations or fire stations), NO QUESTIONS ASKED. YOU WON'T GET IN ANY TROUBLE or even have to tell your name; Safehaven people will help the baby be adopted and cared for.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

A "New" Message

By Annie Banno

It’s been just over one month since I began “sidewalk counseling” at the abortion center. Already, I’ve delivered my story on a local TV show about post-abortive stress disorder and the healing I gained from Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats. The local paper has interviewed me twice for two different articles (my son was pictured in one, holding his sign at the abortuary). I’ve been recruited to become Connecticut State Leader for SILENT NO MORE. I took the Amtrak “LifeTrain” to last week’s March for Life with twenty-five fellow parishioners and 500 more from our Diocese. And I’ve been invited to contribute this column to Catholic Exchange.

Remarkable what our Lord can do when we let Him! Highly unusual? Only if one chooses not to view life through eyes of faith.

The March for Life was remarkable. It felt 14 degrees with the wind-chill, but the sun shone bright all day on the 100,000 life-advocates in attendance on the streets of Washington, D.C. There were many speakers: U.S. bishops, a U.S. senator, 11 congressmen, President Bush by phone from St. Louis; even an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, who lambasted Presidential-hopeful and pro-abortion Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman from my state of Connecticut, calling him “excommunicated” and blowing the shofar horn, the Jewish call to repentance. The speeches were inspiring.

But what stirred me the most were the two women who asked me, “Is that your story on your sign?” When I answered yes, they hugged me and said through tears, “Mine too.” I told them how brave they are; they thanked me for giving voice to our mutual pain. I told them about SILENT NO MORE, the organization helping post-abortive women find healing from their remorse. One wasn’t ready to “come out” but was getting there.

Looking back on the event, I remain less moved by the enormous size and tremendous fervor of the crowd as by the fact that God, through me, helped these two women feel less alone in their struggle of post-abortive grief and guilt. Three other women and two men thanked me for having the courage to hold my sign, and many others photographed it. It loomed high above most others since I’d made the handle very long and sturdy, and the sign itself very large. It was quite heavy, but I wanted many people to see it and likewise be comforted and encouraged.

My sign reflected a message that is relatively new to the pro-life movement. It is a variation of the message of SILENT NO MORE: “I regret my abortion.” Hopefully it is one that will transform the movement into one that gains the support and stirs the passions of an overwhelming majority of American women.

After nearly half a lifetime of hidden pain and regret, I have finally mustered up the courage to proclaim to the world: 24 YEARS LATER, MY ‘CHOICE’ HURTS ME STILL.

This was the first in a series of columns which originally appeared beginning on JAN. 28, 2003 for

© Copyright 2003 Annie Banno

Since the columns are no longer up on the CE website,
I'll repost them here. Though dated, I hope and pray there is much that still can be of some help.

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