An unmarried woman who "fit the role of a perfect daughter and perfect Christian" in a very religious family in south-west Florida found herself in a major quandary when she discovered she was pregnant.
In her testimonial recently published by the pro-life group Save the Storks, the unnamed woman said she was stunned when her gynecologist told her she was carrying a baby.
At that time she was thinking, "I couldn't have a baby right now with everything that was happening in my life — large work commitments, a possible wedding in the future, and my mom's health. I could think of a hundred more reasons why a baby just wouldn't work."
She said she and her boyfriend, Dan, grew up in Christian homes and had been taught to wait until marriage before sex and pregnancy.
She felt she couldn't bear the shame when her family found out about her pregnancy.
"Being pregnant would mean that everyone would know who I really am," she wrote.
Despite her boyfriend's opposition, the woman decided to make an appointment at an abortion clinic outside their town.
"I knew abortion was wrong, but it was a wrong that I could hide," she said.
However, when a doctor was about to take her into the examination room, she walked out of the clinic instead.
And then she saw three words written on the side of a giant purple bus parked outside the building: "You Have Options."
A female member of the Save the Storks pro-life group then approached her and invited her and her boyfriend to come inside.
After the pro-life advocate presented to her the pros and cons of her pregnancy, she realized abortion wasn't an option.
"We decided to keep our baby! From that moment on, my heart has been filled with relief and peace," the woman wrote.
"We are so thankful for the counsel we received on the Stork Bus and the continual support we have found in the local pregnancy center," she added.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, an estimated 40 million to 50 million abortions are performed worldwide. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day.
In the U.S., nearly half (45 percent) of all pregnancies in 2011 were unintended, and about four in 10 of these were terminated by abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute in its January 2017 report.
The report said that approximately 926,200 abortions were performed in 2014, down 12 percent from 1.06 million in 2011.
