by ROWENA OREJANA
When American Claire Culwell calls on people to stand up against abortion, it is because she had a
very personal experience of abortion. She survived one.
Abortion survivor Claire Cullwell
Ms Culwell explained to participants of the 2015 Eucharistic Convention in Auckland on April
11 that she is a contradiction in terms: an introverted Texan. However, finding out that her life is a gift in more ways than one had pushed her out of her shell.
“For 21 years, I lived my life as if it was a given. I woke up every morning and I took my life for granted,” she said.
She lived across from a Planned Parenthood clinic, saw the people who stood there praying and offering pregnant women alternatives to abortion and thought, “That’s great but you do that. I’m an introvert. I don’t want to mess with such a controversial issue.”
The 27-year-old was adopted by her Christian missionary parents. So was her sister. When her sister met her birth mother, Ms Culwell thanked her sister’s birth mother for giving birth to her sister.
“As I thanked her for my sister, I realised there was a woman out there who had done the same thing for me, but I haven’t thanked her,” she said.
As hers was a closed adoption, it was harder to track her mother. Fortunately, the woman who processed her papers knew her and was able to help.
One Christmas Eve, she received a message that her birth mother wanted to meet her. “That was the
greatest Christmas present ever,” she recalled.
She met her birth mother and thanked her for the gift of her life. During one of their meetings, her birth mother told her she had a twin brother who was aborted.
Her birth mother’s parents were divorced. She became pregnant at 13. Her mum (Ms Culwell’s grandmother) was convinced that she was too young to become a mother and took her to an abortion clinic when she was five months pregnant.
“People at the abortion clinic told that her life would go back to normal. She wouldn’t have to face the embarassment of being pregnant. She would have no financial responsibility,” Ms Culwell related. “My mother’s life never went back to normal.”
After the abortion, Ms Culwell’s mother’s stomachwas still growing bigger. Her friend at gym class suggested she go back to the doctor because things didn’t seem right.
By this time, Ms Culwell’s mother was six months pregnant.
The clinic told them it was not equipped for that type of abortion and recommended a clinic
in Kansas. By the time they got to the Kansas clinic, the doctor told them he could not perform
an abortion because Ms Culwell’s mum was already going to deliver the baby.
Ms Culwell said for the first two years of her life, she had to undergo multiple body casts because her spine was affected by the abortion.
“People ask me, ‘Aren’t you angry?’ My answer is no, because I was raised by a loving family,”
she said. “The second reason is, at 13, if I put myself in my birth mother’s shoes, if my mum said
the best thing for me is to have an abortion, I can’t tell you I won’t do it.”
Ms Culwell said at the time she found out all about this, she didn’t think God was calling her to this kind of ministry. “I was an introvert. But God kept asking
and asking. And I finally said yes,” she said.
Before she went out to share her experience, she asked her birth mother first. “It was her deepest, darkest secret. She gave me her permission. She told me she didn’t want another little girl to have an abortion,” Ms Culwell said.
Ms Culwell called on everyone to stand up against abortion, women as well as men. “I believe that when men stand up, the whole world will see an end to abortion,” she said.
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