Abortion Activist Has “No Regrets” Aborting Her Baby: I Don’t Give “Much Thought” to It

Opinion   |   Conor Beck   |   Feb 17, 2016   |   10:33AM   |   Washington, DC

Many women report intense guilt years after experiencing an abortion, but administrative law judge Amy Oppenheimer writes in the Huffington Post of being grateful.

Oppenheimer became pregnant at 21 years old in 1973, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion. She writes that her relationship with her boyfriend was “unstable” and she “was just starting to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do.”

She says she could “not have imagined becoming a parent then.” In the piece “Still Grateful for My Abortion, 40 Years Later,” which looks back at her decision to have the abortion, she does not mention the unborn child she lost, but expresses thanks that she knew her decision was the right one “for me.”

More than 100 female lawyers including Oppenheimer signed a joint brief to the Supreme Court encouraging the justices to tear down Texas’s abortion restrictions in the upcoming case Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The law, which is scheduled to be argued in March, is responsible for closing abortion clinics that could not guarantee they could protect the health of Texas women. It has been credited with saving the lives of more than 10,000 unborn children.

Though Oppeheimer says she has not given her abortion “much thought” since 1973, a thought likely shared by the women filing the joint brief to the Supreme Court, not all women or specifically career-oriented women approached similar situations identically.

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The Federalist reported on two such cases recently. One concerned a student named Lori Sanders who became pregnant while 19 at Georgetown University. At the time, she was not conservative or even pro-life. But she could not deny the reality of the baby growing inside her, so she delivered and raised her child. Today, she is on the same career path she had dreamed of. Sanders laments those that abort a child to focus on themselves, for the loss of life and the false belief that life can be a roadblock to personal growth.

Sarah Joy Hays writes of her own experiences as a single 30-year-old with a college degree, an often neglected category of women who have abortions. Though she did not want to be inconvenienced, she says she “could not choose abortion.”

Hays credits her pro-life background for saving her son, and admits feeling lonely from being a rarely discussed demographic of unwanted pregnancy. She says that people should show women like her hope, understanding and support.

LifeNews reported the story of another college student, Rachel, who became pregnant with twins during her freshman year. Through the Students for Life Pregnant on Campus initiative, which offers support to pregnant and parenting moms as they pursue their education goals, Rachel chose life for her twins while winning awards for academic achievement and continuing on her path to medical school.

Until career women are offered a pro-life message, many women like Oppenheimer will celebrate abortion as a “freedom” that enables “education and economic security.” Some of these women will privately, and some even publicly, express guilt for their abortion. But extra attention needs to be brought to the demographic represented by women like Hays and Sanders to prevent the loss of more unborn children.

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