Hope for all women wounded by abortion

Deceived: God Brought Purpose From My Pain, by Molly S. White (Plymouth, Massachusetts: Elk Lake Publishing, Inc., 2019). Paperback: 188 pages. ISBN: 978-1951080761.

Deceived is the autobiography of a woman who was both a victim of, and complicit with, the untruth that the unborn may be simply disposed of for the social convenience of modern society. Her awakening to this outrage and her coming to terms with her own guilt led to her spiritual redemption and her heroic efforts, culminating in her election to the Texas legislature, to combat the scourge of abortion.

Molly White's story opens with a painful description of her first abortion of an unplanned pregnancy, which she approached with the "just a clump of cells" fallacy and all the rationalisations which support it. She was quickly disillusioned and emerged determined never to repeat the procedure.

A return to her social scene of drink and pool-halls followed and she was quickly into another relationship which resulted in another pregnancy — with triplets. Her partner, now husband, deserted her; but her parents became her support, as she eagerly embraced motherhood. Only one child survived and life was a struggle, until she became pregnant again from a one-night stand. This time her parents insisted on an abortion, which she undertook unwillingly.

She describes how she was numbed and consumed with unresolved grief, sublimating her angst into hostility towards men and delivering tirades about women's rights. Yet she married a doting young man from her youth in order to provide a father for her son, then soon divorced him.

Life changed for her when she met Ronald, a "cute cowboy" divorcee, whom she pursued and with whom she formed her first stable relationship, revolving around hunting, fishing, dancing and raising the sons that each had brought to the eventual marriage.

Nevertheless, Molly was far from healed. Her conversion to Christianity followed a chance conversation about "a man called Jesus", which led her to attend an evangelical church service where she made a decision for Christ. "I would like to ask Jesus into my heart," she told the preacher.

Instantly, the dark cloud of depression was lifted from her. She quit her job and finally became pregnant, only to miscarry. Throughout a subsequent pregnancy she was disturbed with violent dreams, including one nightmare in which future archaeologists are aghast at the remains of thousands of babies: "What kind of society would kill their children and dump their remains in landfills?" Nevertheless, Molly's beautiful daughter arrived safe and well.

The rest of her story takes us through her encounters with the ministries of the Temple Crisis Pregnancy Centre and Focus on the Family, her finding the therapy she needed, and her eventual involvement with this work. Her personal testimony of her abortions in the recovery group called Healing the Hurts of Abortion was a watershed moment and there followed volunteer work in the crisis centre.

The Holy Spirit inspired her to apologise to her parents for her sexually permissive youth and to forgive them for forcing her second abortion, and they — now converted to Catholicism — reciprocated. For the next decade she continued her pro-life work and marked the existence of her aborted and miscarried babies, giving them names and acknowledging dates such as that of her second abortion. Nevertheless, she continued to receive counselling.

Molly's public life began with her joining with Allan Parker's Justice Foundation, which was representing Norma McCorvey of Roe vs. Wade fame and others seeking to overturn their cases, as they were based on lies and fraudulent information. His project, Operation Outcry, assisted women hurt by abortion to share their stories publicly or by affidavit.

She threw herself into this work, which took her to Washington. There she found useful contacts in the George W. Bush administration and participated in the giant March for Life. She has also represented Endeavour Forum at meetings in New York of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Called by God, as well as by colleagues, to run for the Texas state legislature in 2014, she still continued to minister to women hurt by abortion. When she took her seat she was pitched in at the deep end on a panel run by a left-wing Austin newspaper where she was outnumbered in a discussion of the effect on women's health of recent legislation to restrict the operations of abortion facilities.

Upon being introduced as someone who had "struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse because of two abortions in her past", she responded spiritedly, defending both herself and the controversial legislation, which actually resulted in far better health outcomes for women. She cited cases of botched lateterm abortions, of bleeding women sent home or even dying, and Planned Parenthood denying any responsibility.

She sensed from the attacks on her by her most virulent opponent a post-abortive and hurt woman behind the bluster, which her opponent confirmed and claimed that it had only made her stronger. Molly tells us, "She's angry and still in the justification stage, which are classic mental health issues of abortion." She continued her own response with, "It's unnatural for we (sic.) women to kill our own defenceless children. That's the reason abortion hurts women physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually."

Molly concludes with her reflections on the power of personal testimony and that, after being saved and healed, we are commanded by God also to comfort those who are hurting. She explains that it is the power of testimony that leads us to our Saviour and exposes the works of the devil, changing hearts and even public policy.

This reviewer has often marvelled at the courage of postabortive women who have given such testimonies, without fully realising the actual theology which underpins their actions.

Molly White's is a familiar story on one hand, but on the other has unusual depth. Her raw descriptions of her earlier experiences and frank acknowledgement of her own culpability seem to belie the title of her book, Deceived. Then I came to realise that it was descriptive of all of the women who are duped into believing that abortion is a simple, painless and guilt-free solution to an unplanned pregnancy, together with the blasphemy that it is a human right.

John Morrissey is a retired secondary school teacher who has taught in government, independent and Catholic schools. He lives in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn.

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