Post-abortion healing at the University of Kentucky
Debbie Picarello and Sandie Sendall speak with UK students about their abortion experiences.
We are so thankful for ministry partners like Deeper Still, an outreach to post-abortive women (and soon post-abortive men as well). Two of their volunteers, Debbie Picarello and Sandie Sendall, both post-abortive themselves, joined us for GAP at the University of Kentucky. Debbie shares her experience:
Visiting the University of Kentucky was a wonderful experience. Sandie Sendall, a friend and past Deeper Still participant, helped man the post-abortion healing table. Both Sandie and I have experienced the negative consequences of having the “choice” to have an abortion. We came to offer not only our personal experiences with abortion, but also to offer the hope, healing, restoration, and reconciliation only Jesus can offer.
The Deeper Still table, stationed in between the Planned Parenthood table and the GAP display, gave us plenty of opportunities to speak with college students and older adults. There were two signs on our table. One said, “I’ve had an abortion. You can ask me anything.” The other declared “Freeing the abortion wounded heart…Deeper Still.”
Many students stopped by just wanting to know what Deeper Still was, both pro-lifers and pro-choicers alike. I had numerous opportunities to share that abortion comes with a very high price tag, a price to be paid for many years to come after the procedure that was supposed to help me “get on with my life”.
This table became a place to come and share personal pain. One male student’s girlfriend aborted their baby a year ago and he was hurting very badly. We gave him local info for Rachel’s Vineyard which offers ministry for men. Deeper Still has the vision to offer free healing retreats for men wounded by abortion, yet currently only offers ministry for women.
Another young woman had been raped and was looking for help. We referred her to Jane, a GAP volunteer who also worked at one of the crisis pregnancy centers in Lexington. Jane and Sandy were able to pray with her and exchange contact info.
Another young male college student told us how he was almost the victim of abortion, due to his problematic conception. He was exceptionally glad that we were all out there standing for life. Many pro-life students said they were so glad we were there. We had the opportunity to speak with and challenge protesting medical students, as well as several of the Planned Parenthood students.
We were only 2 of the several post abortive women who volunteered to help with GAP at UK. I am convinced that having post abortive women and men at these GAP’s strengthens the impact it has. There is power in personal testimony that could not be refuted. We left the students with a lot to think about.
Tags: abortion pictures, Deeper Still, GAP, Genocide Awareness Project, Planned Parenthood, Post Abortion Healing, University of Kentucky
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Campus Debate (GAP). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “Post-abortion healing at the University of Kentucky”
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April 13th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I too believe it is valuable to have post-abortive women and men at GAP’s. “Reproductive Freedom” comes with a terrible and painful price tag. If you were purchasing an inferior product wouldn’t you want someone to steer you away from investing in it?
Some will say that GAP displays are insensitive to those who have had an abortion. In my case as a post-abortive woman, it was a very small lapel pin in the shape of baby feet that sent my mind/heart into sheer panic. That was the beginning of my taking responsibility for the lives of the four babies I killed. The healing continues today:Abortion lasts forever! Thank you Genocide Awareness Project and brave students of EKU!
October 11th, 2015 at 12:36 am
How can you be in awe of the hypocrisy of pro-choicers? We want to give women in these dealcisbpe decisions a choice, something you aim to rid us of. If I was raped, I would certainly not want the trauma of keeping it, so how dare you try to speak for all women by saying that this senario should speak for me. I don’t know if it ever occurred to any of you pro-lifers, but abortion is completely optional. If you don’t agree with abortion, don’t do it. Don’t try to police my rights.