An inspirational young woman

Your president Kelsey Hazzard here. Since most of my interactions with Secular Pro-Life supporters take place online, people are often surprised to learn that I’m 24 years old. This is usually followed by a compliment–“You’re so impressive! You’ve done so much for the pro-life cause at such a young age! You’re so amazing!”

Katie and Tyler

To that, I say: not compared to Katie Farrell, I’m not.

Katie and I were the same age; in fact, she was born very close to my due date. (I arrived three weeks late.) In 2010, at the age of 21, she became pregnant. Despite tremendous pressures, she chose life for her son Tyler. Not only that, she enrolled in a community college to further her education and create a brighter future for herself and her baby.

Tragically, in March of 2012, Katie was murdered. Her killer, an ex-boyfriend with serious mental health issues, subsequently committed suicide.

Katie’s mother, who follows Secular Pro-Life on facebook, reached out to us. She invited Secular Pro-Life to share Katie’s essay on abortion, which she wrote for a college English class just a month before she died.

And so I leave you with Katie’s story, in her own words:

I got pregnant at 21, unwed, young, and with a minimum-wage
paying job. All my options were laid out in front of me, messily, like an
opened bag of bird seed scattered out onto the bare ground. To keep, adopt, or
abort. I knew abortion wasn’t the choice for me, but like adoption, the choice
crossed my mind. Abortion would have been the easiest route; I could’ve gotten
rid of my son like he was just an insignificant flu symptom. I had health
professionals insisting I have an abortion and that raising my child was simply
something I couldn’t do at this point of time. Abortion was convenient, but I
rejected the idea. I had no support, but I stood my ground to keep and raise my
child; I chose to continue my baby’s life, what I believe he should inevitably
have the right to. Abortion is chosen everyday by women, unwed and even younger
than I, with health professionals everywhere promoting this idea that abortion
should be used as a form of birth control. You made the “mistake”,
now let’s abort the “consequence”, is what I hear when these
professionals are telling confused women that abortion is the most logical
choice. I don’t believe getting pregnant with my son was a mistake; it may have
been unplanned, but that is no reason for me to kill the unborn child growing
inside me that I had yet to meet.