Jennifer Milbourn spent years feeling distraught and ashamed because her mother had attempted to abort her. She hid the truth about her past while struggling silently with the knowledge that her own mother had wanted her dead.
Then, God changed her life and helped her to forgive her birth mother.
Now, Milbourn, 44, of California, shares her story publicly, knowing that God has a purpose for her life, according to The Epoch Times.
“It could be for my kids, for sure. It could be so my husband and I could be together,” she told the newspaper. “There’s a mission here. This is why God saved my life 44 years ago … to put my life on the line and continue to speak out for His babies that are being killed every day.”
In 1978, Milbourn said her biological mother had a vacuum aspiration abortion in Illinois, but the procedure failed.
“My head wasn’t going to fit in the vacuum tube once they started the procedure,” she said. “The clinician had to pull back … it [hurts] to know that my mom was thinking of herself at the time and didn’t see me as a person. I’m not a disease that needs to be taken care of.”
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In September of that year, Milbourn was born suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome; she spent the first several years of her life being treated for the condition, according to the report.
Her aunt and husband adopted her as an infant, and, at age 19, she learned for the first time about the abortion attempt on her life, Milbourn said. The news broke her heart, and she spent years telling no one about the abortion or the trauma she was suffering.
Years later, after becoming a Christian and deciding to forgive her birth mother, she slowly began to heal. Milbourn said it also helped when she began connecting with another abortion survivor, Melissa Ohden, founder of the Abortion Survivors Network.
“I got Melissa’s email and I sent her an email … she responded back with kindness and love that only another abortion survivor can really convey. In that moment, I knew she was the real deal,” Milbourn told the Epoch Times.
Then, in 2020, she met Dr. Kathi Aultman, a pro-life advocate and former abortionist, and their interaction made a huge impact on them both.
“[Kathi] was actually watching me tell my story and she interrupted, started crying, and said that it was really common for most clinicians or abortionists at those small clinics to not know the next steps in an abortion, meaning that the person who performed the abortion on me didn’t know how to tear the limbs off a baby,” Milbourn told the newspaper.
Through tears, she said Aultman described her survival as a miracle and then admitted that she would have made sure Milbourn was dead if she had been the abortionist.
“She told me why she was crying was because she was so well trained, … she knew exactly how to tear apart a baby, and that if she had been my abortionist, she would have completed the procedure,” Milbourn said. “It was definitely a very humbling, sobering moment.”
Today, Milbourn works with the Abortion Survivors Network and shares her story across the United States to help people understand the value of every child’s life. On March 6, she is scheduled to speak at the California March for Life.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of babies have survived abortions. Others include Gianna Jessen, Claire Culwell, Josiah Presley and Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Abortion Survivors Network has connected with approximately 650 abortion survivors to-date, but there likely are many more.
