| "During one abortion, part of my baby was left inside … Abortion hadn’t solved my problem, it added to my pain.” |
Cynthia Collins, Louisiana State Leader
I was nineteen, a freshman in college and pregnant from my first boyfriend. A friend told us to go to Planned Parenthood. It was January of 1973 – same month, same year as Roe v. Wade. The counselor from Planned Parenthood sat across from me and said, “You can go to Washington, DC and get an abortion … abortion will be legal and safe pretty soon.” What I found out was that just because abortion is legal does not mean it is safe.
At the abortion facility, I was placed in a room with 40 other women. An empty fetal model was held up for us to see. The force of the suction was severe, and I began to bleed heavily. There was no doctor-patient relationship. I never saw the abortionist before the abortion, and I never saw him again.
Within a year I was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease, deeply depressed, full of guilt, and drinking heavily and using drugs. I left college after my sophomore year and began a destructive lifestyle of promiscuity, pain, and aborted pregnancies. Abortion hadn’t solved my “problem,” it added to my pain.
During one abortion, part of my baby was left inside me. Planned Parenthood had referred me to an abortionist who did menstrual extractions. I was given no anesthetic. After crying in deep pain, with my arms grabbing the wall, the abortionist looked at me in fear. He told the nurse that I was too far along. He told me to get up, get dressed, and get out. I continued to bleed heavily for days. I was admitted to the hospital for an emergency D & C to remove the rest of the baby.
For years, I denied that abortion was the cause of the pain and deep loss in my soul. I thought: The government mad, it legal, so it must be okay. I was never told that abortion could be damaging my body or that I was taking another human life.
One year after marriage, I miscarried our son, Peter. His death in my womb was due to the scarring in my uterus from the abortions.
When my son, John, was eight-years-old, he said to me, “Mom, I feel there was somebody else before me … .” Abortion does not end on the abortionist’s table. Abortion affects the generations to come.
Abortion hurts women, children and the families of Louisiana and this nation. Women deserve life-affirming alternatives for both mother and child – no matter how a child is conceived.
Cynthia is the Executive Director of the Crisis Pregnancy Help Center. She serves as Louisiana State Director and as a member National Advisory Board of Operation Outcry, a national network giving a voice to women and men who have experienced the trauma caused by abortion.
On August 28th, Cynthia evacuated Slidell due to Hurricane Katrina and returned to a home that had been filled with floodwater. Her family moved 11 times in eight months to remain in the area to provide care for pregnant women in crisis and their unborn children. Over the past 20 years, the Crisis Pregnancy Help Center of Slidell has provided life-affirming resources to over 23,000 women and given the choice of life to approximately 9,000 Louisiana babies.
Cynthia has helped thousands of women hurt by abortion on their journey to healing and abortion recovery care. She also founded Passion4Purity International and serves as Station Manager of WGON-FM (Generation Outreach Radio), a community radio station in the Slidell area.
Contact Information:
Louisiana Office: (985) 774-4610
National Office: (210) 614-7157
