Excerpted from a post at Braided Trails.
By the time Melissa Ohden wrote her book You Carried Me, she had already spent several years sharing her story publicly. That didn’t come easily to her – “I’m most comfortable behind the scenes, to be perfectly honest” – but she knew that speaking out was the only way to come to terms with being an abortion survivor.
Along the way, she found that her experience wasn’t unique. She connected with other people who were born alive after attempts were made to abort them. She later founded the Abortion Survivors Network, where she now serves as CEO. By 2022, nearly 600 people had reached out to ASN. Four years later, that number has doubled.
The network includes not only abortion survivors, but their family members as well, including mothers who gave birth after abortion attempts failed. “We offer healing support,” she says. “We are the only organization that has an online community not just for survivors, but for women whose abortions didn’t go the way they planned. We have a community for adoptive families as well.”
For more information about the Abortion Survivors Network and the resources cited in this interview, go to abortionsurvivors.org, and look for ASN’s posts on social media.
Melissa joined me on a video call recently to talk about ASN’s mission, the people it serves, and the publication of its newest resources.
Head to Braided Trails on Substack to read the complete interview.
Ellen Kolb 