Claire is a wife, a mother, and a daughter. She was born to a woman who had an abortion, but was able to survive. She shares her story of survival and how she uses her story to speak out against abortionists.
00:00:53.600When I met my birth mother, I found out that I had been affected by abortion because I had survived my birth mother's abortion procedure that successfully aborted my twin.
00:01:04.780I thought for sure that I would never be the type of person who'd been affected by abortion, but here I was.
00:01:12.000The face, the name, the story of the aborted child in the name of choice.
00:01:17.940From the beginning of the abortion debate, the pro-abortion side has always had one major advantage.
00:01:55.100In extremely rare circumstances, the victim of an abortion will survive.
00:02:00.720No one understands the reality of abortion better than these survivors, better than people like Claire Caldwell.
00:02:10.040Claire lives with the scars of abortion every day, and she is using her unlikely survival to expose the reality of the abortionist's butchery.
00:02:21.280Let's hear Claire's side of the story.
00:02:23.560Right now, I would strongly recommend you go to hallo.com slash choose life, because today's world is a scary one.
00:02:43.660Too many people don't seem to care about the truth, and I would suggest that that's all rooted in people becoming less or really just anti-religious.
00:02:53.560That's why it's more important than ever to keep our relationship with God strong.
00:02:58.980Hallow is the number one Christian prayer app in the United States.
00:03:02.180It's like Calm or Headspace, but rooted in Catholic faith.
00:03:05.960It is the perfect resource to deepen your relationship with God and find peace through audio-guided prayer and meditation.
00:03:13.100Several of Hallow's meditations encourage you to choose life and to pray for others to choose life, such as their Litany for Life with Lila Rose.
00:05:17.320I had not taken the time to reach out to find my birth mother, had not even really thought much about my birth mother.
00:05:24.720But I knew as I saw my sister's birth mother put a face with this woman who had given me my sister, given her her life, that I wanted to just thank my birth mother because I had an incredible life because of her.
00:05:40.340And I thought, you know, she probably thinks, like, she was the worst mom for me.
00:05:47.860I don't know the circumstances, but I thought maybe there's something hard in my birth story.
00:05:54.340And I wanted her to know that she was the best mother for me because she had given me my family and my life through adoption.
00:06:02.440And so I went home that day, and I talked with my family.
00:06:06.200We all agreed we wanted to meet my birth mother.
00:06:08.780And so I made the call the next day, and a woman named Debbie answered the phone to my adoption agency.
00:06:16.020And come to find out on the phone, Debbie was my parents' caseworker and my birth mother's caseworker now 21 years before I made this phone call to her.
00:06:28.300And as I'm describing who I am and telling her my name and that I wanted to find my birth mother, she says,
00:06:44.560And I thought that was the weirdest conversation.
00:06:48.760I mean, who keeps somebody's baby picture?
00:06:50.800I mean, mine, out of all the baby pictures she could have kept from all the placements that she's helped make happen through this adoption agency over more than 21 years because she'd been there even longer than that.
00:11:21.440And the walk, she said, let's go into this other room so I can tell you about what it was like being pregnant with you at 13 years old.
00:11:33.080And so we walked to this other room, and I remember she grabbed my hand as she led me into this other room as she was weeping.
00:11:40.000And her hand was shaking so much it was shaking mine.
00:11:45.020And I thought, what in the world could she be about to tell me?
00:11:51.480And we sat on this bed, and we turned to face each other.
00:11:55.500And she said, Claire, I was 13 years old.
00:11:58.660And she said, my mother told me that there was one choice for me by the time I got the courage to tell her.
00:12:05.920I was around five months along in my pregnancy, and she said I wasn't ready to be a mother.
00:12:16.100She said, we're going to go to this abortion clinic, and you're going to take this to your grave.
00:12:21.160Nobody's going to know that this ever happened.
00:12:23.880And you're going to shut up about it, and you're going to do what I'm telling you to do.
00:12:30.840And my birth mother was driven to a nearby abortion clinic in Oklahoma, and she had a D&E dismemberment abortion that day.
00:12:42.460And she said she was surrounded by a doctor and some nurses and her mother who never even spoke to her, never acknowledged her, never asked her what her choice would have been.
00:12:55.780All they told her was that her life would go back to normal, that everything would be fine.
00:13:02.820She said the procedure was incredibly painful.
00:13:09.080She actually still to this day can remember the smell, the instruments that were used, the sounds that were in that room.
00:13:17.440There's so many things about that day and the coming days that can take her back to being that 13-year-old scared and unsupported little girl.
00:13:30.820And she said after she went home, she tried to go back to normal.
00:13:50.380The weeks went on, and her belly was still growing.
00:13:54.460She realized something was leaking out of her.
00:13:58.040She didn't know what that meant, of course, being a 13-year-old girl who would.
00:14:03.960And so she finally went to her mother when she got the courage to go back to her mother.
00:14:09.660And her mother took her back to the abortion clinic, and they told her that she had actually been pregnant with twins and that one baby had successfully been aborted, but that I had survived my birth mother's abortion.
00:14:22.960And they said, what would you like to do to her mother?
00:14:27.560And once again, she's sitting in a room where decisions are being made on her behalf.
00:16:37.980And at the request of my birth mother, Tanya's mother, she ended up placing me for adoption there through the adoption agency.
00:16:50.160And I was born, as you can imagine, very prematurely.
00:16:54.860I was 10 weeks premature because my birth mother was leaking amniotic fluid and because she then had a dry birth.
00:17:03.800And so I weighed three pounds, two ounces.
00:17:07.220I had a dislocated hip and I had club feet and a lot of complications that the doctors had to correct for me.
00:17:15.640I actually stayed in the hospital for two months and then went home with my parents to Texas and went through multiple body casts
00:17:24.780and visited the Children's Crippled Hospital for numerous years as the doctors corrected these things.
00:17:33.020And so my birth mother was told that because she was leaking amniotic fluid, because they ripped the sack that I was in during the abortion,
00:17:44.120that aborted my twin, because she had this dry birth, that that is what caused these physical complications that I had then,
00:17:54.740I have a lot of chronic pain and different things that I can't do as a normal person would be able to do.
00:18:03.060Although, you know, overall, I'm very blessed.
00:18:06.420I'm very fortunate that I can function pretty normally.
00:18:10.880But doctors, you know, recently, over the past couple of years, as they've reviewed my medical records,
00:18:19.520they think that there's a possibility that these are because I was a twin,
00:18:26.780because oftentimes twins who are cramped in their mother's uterus, they're sharing that same space.
00:18:34.620And so they can develop dislocated hips and club feet.
00:18:40.540So, you know, if that's the case, the miraculous thing either way is that the abortion instruments that tore my twin's body apart limb by limb never touched my body.
00:18:50.940And so that's pretty, pretty incredible as I've realized what I went through in the womb as my twin's body was taken apart, crushed, and pulled out of my birth mother's uterus.
00:19:07.780When people, you know, hear your story, what's the most common response that you get for someone who's never even considered, you know, the idea that abortions might not be successful?
00:19:50.900I mean, that actually happened to you?
00:19:53.360I mean, those were all of my reactions.
00:19:55.520And that's, that's the reaction that I have, um, so often from other people because abortion survivors are not being talked about.
00:20:05.160Abortion is, is often such a hush-hush topic other than in, in political settings.
00:20:12.400We don't oftentimes sit around the table and talk about the reality of abortion in our homes, with our children, in our communities, in our churches, in the places where real-life conversations are happening.
00:20:25.740So often we're not talking about abortion, um, we're certainly not talking about how babies can survive abortions, how abortion procedures, just like any other medical procedure, things can go wrong.
00:20:42.080Um, and abortion is not always safe, and I'm living proof of that.
00:20:48.700And so I think that's the, the first response that I get.
00:20:53.080Um, the second response that I so often get is that, wow, your, your survival, your existence, your, your very humanity sitting before me.
00:21:05.300It really makes this issue real for me now.
00:21:08.640Like, it's hard when, when you haven't been affected by abortion, like, like me for so long.
00:21:14.280For 21 years, I never talked about this in, in my home, in my, um, circle.
00:21:20.380I, I hadn't been affected by it that I knew.
00:21:22.900And so, um, I, I really just didn't, didn't think about it.
00:21:27.480But when you look at an abortion survivor, um, you see the humanity of that unborn baby.
00:21:34.900And so people will say, Claire, the fact that you were a twin, um, that really makes it real to me.
00:21:42.500Because I realize when I'm looking at your face, I'm looking at your twin.
00:22:11.880I realized that there are two people to care about, three, a family even to care about in an unplanned pregnancy situation.
00:22:20.480And it's not just as simple as women need abortion.
00:22:25.560Put us as the audience in, in the shoes of your, your birth mother for a minute.
00:22:30.120You know, what, I mean, just the idea of being a 13 year old girl and feeling totally powerless in that, in that situation when she finds out that she is pregnant.
00:22:43.460Can you kind of put audiences there and, and kind of walk them through what your birth mother was going through?
00:22:50.700My birth mother had a divorce parents and she lived with her mother, um, who, who wasn't very loving towards her.
00:22:59.420And, um, my birth mother went to her mother and said, I'm, I'm pregnant at 13 years old.
00:23:07.280And her mother said, well, um, nobody's going to know you're going to take this to your grave.
00:23:15.340I'm about, I'm going to drive you to an abortion clinic and you're going to have this abortion.
00:23:19.700And we'll go home and pretend like it never happened and we'll never speak of this again.
00:23:26.000And so my birth mother, that's what, what she did.
00:23:29.420She had a DNA dismemberment abortion in an abortion clinic where no one spoke to her.
00:23:35.560No one asked her what her choice would have been.
00:23:37.900No one asked her what they could do to support her, um, in her choice, in even the possibility of being a mother through parenting or placing her child for adoption.
00:23:51.620No one asked her what, what her choice would have been.
00:23:55.000And, you know, so, so often pro-choice advocates, I mean, even in their name, you know, even in the way they talk about abortion as, you know, a woman's right to control her own body.
00:24:05.480And it's a woman's choice, you know, so much of an emphasis is put on the woman's kind of bodily autonomy in her decision.
00:24:17.580I don't even know that, um, there was, there was an argument for or against, um, anything.
00:24:27.380I think her mother knew that she was 13 years old and that she thought she wasn't ready or wasn't capable of, of caring for a child.
00:24:36.980Her mother certainly didn't want anything to do with, um, a baby, uh, being a grandmother.
00:24:43.820And so her mother made this choice for her.
00:24:47.640Um, but that certainly is an argument I hear a lot.
00:24:51.820Um, people often say to me, well, Claire, don't you, don't you think women should, should have the right to choose what they do with their own body?
00:25:01.300And, and I always say, yeah, absolutely I do.
00:25:04.600But the problem here is that I wasn't my birth mother's body.
00:25:09.460There was a separate human being inside of my birth mother's body and that was me.
00:25:17.960They should have the right to do what they want with their body, but not when it's at the expense or the death of a child like me, like my twin.
00:25:28.480And to, to take that argument even a step further, uh, many women like your mom don't actually feel like they have a choice in the issue and they feel forced into having abortions.
00:25:41.720Women do feel, um, forced into having abortions every single day.
00:25:47.020Um, women feel desperate enough to have abortions every single day.
00:25:51.580In fact, that's what's driving women into abortion facilities today.
00:25:56.820It's, it's not often a medical reason or, um, these exceptions that we hear about and empathize with.
00:26:06.180Um, it's, it's, it's a desperation that women feel because they're, they're being forced, they're being coerced, they're being lied to, um, or they don't know that they have support and people that will walk alongside them.
00:26:22.680And they don't know that there are organizations readily available to, um, walk alongside them through their pregnancy and help them financially with material assistance, with emotional assistance, and be that community to them that they're looking for, that they need in their moment of, of crisis as they experience a unwanted or unplanned pregnancy.
00:26:47.160I would say that my birth mother is exactly like women that walk through the doors of abortion clinics today, especially if they're 13, 14 years old and they're going in with their parents.
00:27:00.260I mean, think back to when, when, if I think back to when I was 13 or 14 years old, who did I trust?
00:27:26.600And so I think that my birth mother does represent the, the teenager that's walking into an abortion clinic today.
00:27:33.780But I would go further than that and say that she represents the, the desperate woman in her twenties or thirties or forties who feels unprepared, who feels hopeless, who feels like they don't know where else to turn, where else to go.
00:27:50.040They don't know the resources and support that is available to them.
00:27:54.400Um, those are the reasons that women are going into abortion clinics, um, the lack of support.
00:28:00.880I I've noticed that, you know, people of, um, of faith, people of conscience, people, uh, just like the average human being that care about women and children and families.
00:28:15.680So often we tend to remain apathetic, we remain silent, we remain in our comfort zone.
00:28:22.660We don't like to talk about controversial or political issues, which unfortunately this issue has, has become.
00:28:29.900And so, so often we're not talking to the people in our communities and our families and saying, you know, I hope that, that this doesn't happen to you.
00:28:40.580I hope that you don't have an unplanned pregnancy, but if you do, you can come to me.
00:29:05.680And so I think that, that my birth mother and, and probably her, her mother even who, who took her into this abortion clinic and made that choice on her behalf, um, ran to an abortion clinic out of desperation because she didn't know where to turn.
00:29:24.680Because nobody in her community was talking about these things.
00:29:35.320There was no path forward other than just covering it up and pretending like it never happened.
00:29:42.860We've got a lot more with Claire coming up.
00:29:47.500First, though, text pro-life to 47581.
00:29:50.940Because as the country grapples with the aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade, the pro-life movement has come under fire from far-left pro-abortion extremists.
00:30:01.280Not only have leftists firebombed and vandalized pro-life clinics in multiple states, but online pro-life groups have experienced mass censorship by Google, Facebook, TikTok, you name it.
00:30:13.700That's why Live Action has been working tirelessly to find ways to spread the truth about abortion and share resources with those who need it most without relying on biased big tech.
00:30:24.560If you want to join Live Action's Fight for Life, text pro-life to 47581 and opt in to receive updates from Live Action about their ongoing work to end abortion.
00:30:35.540Texting pro-life to 47581 means you won't be at the mercy of the big tech censors in the ongoing fight for life.
00:30:51.540So, many women rush to abortion because they just don't know that there are support and resources in communities that are wanting to help them.
00:31:02.720But is that true? Are there no resources or are they just not aware of them?
00:31:09.140Most women, I mean, even like me, when I learned that I had survived my birth mother's abortion, have no idea that there are resources, there are organizations, there are people just like you and I who are ready to walk alongside women and men and families and their children
00:31:29.860As they navigate an unplanned or difficult or any pregnancy situation, I actually serve on the board of my local pregnancy resource center and that was something that was new to me when I learned that I had been affected by abortion.
00:31:47.160So, I started learning about all of these incredible organizations and resources that are available and one of them was a pregnancy resource center.
00:31:57.480And pregnancy resource centers, there are so many in every single state, most cities across the country have some type of pregnancy resource center within maybe 50 or 100 miles of that city.
00:32:17.180And so, they offer free ultrasounds, free pregnancy testing, material assistance like free baby wipes and diapers and clothing and maternity clothes for the mom, even financial assistance.
00:32:32.940Some offer STD testing, even more medical services.
00:32:42.000There are people that want to help women like my birth mother.
00:32:45.160And my birth mother actually told me just a couple years back that if there had been a place that she could go to that she knew about, that her family knew about, that had told her that they would help her.
00:33:03.880They would help her with all of the things that they thought they couldn't afford with having a baby at such a young age that she wouldn't have felt like she needed to have an abortion.
00:33:14.560And then when that didn't work, give me away.
00:33:20.840And so, the resources that are available are absolutely incredible.
00:33:25.460And that's why there are people that pray outside of abortion facilities today so that they can direct women in the direction of the resources and the support that is available to them.
00:33:37.900Because so often, women that are walking through the doors of an abortion clinic, they're looking for a sign, and they're looking for a place like a pregnancy resource center.
00:33:48.480So, for a viewer who's pro-life and knows that there shouldn't be an alternative to protecting life, what would you say to those people watching this film in terms of how do they help make an impact on saving life?
00:34:10.540I think we've spent far too long staying comfortable, staying silent, staying in our zone or our gifting, our unique set of things that we're good at, that we're comfortable with.
00:34:31.540And I think that we're living in a time where it's life or death for someone like me, for someone like my twin.
00:34:38.780And it's similar to that for someone like my birth mother who's lived with the agony and the pain and the regret that she's experienced because of the two abortion attempts that she had on my life and the lack of support.
00:34:56.240And so, I think that we're living in a time where we have to decide that we're going to be people of integrity, we're going to be people who speak truth, who no longer sit on the sidelines, who get out of our comfort zone for things that matter, and who decide that we're going to stand for life.
00:35:14.480But not only stand for life, we're going to do something about it.
00:35:18.200And every single one of us can do something about it.
00:35:21.760If you're a prayerful person, you can pray about this every single day.
00:35:27.680You can volunteer with your Pregnancy Resource Center.
00:35:31.700You can get involved in pro-life ministries and organizations and activism.
00:35:50.880We have to decide that we're going to do something.
00:35:53.840Because if we don't, we will continue to see a culture and a world that values death instead of life.
00:36:07.520What would you say to the pro-choice person who ā and I think maybe you addressed two different people.
00:36:15.400First, the pro-choice person who says, oh, well, I'm a feminist and I support, you know, women's rights and I support women's access to health care.
00:36:26.760And, you know, I would never tell a woman what to do with her body.
00:36:30.320I think I would just ask a pro-choice feminist who cares about women's rights, what were mine.
00:36:42.240You know, as a woman, as an unborn woman in the womb who's had no rights, had nobody speaking on my behalf, could have very well been dismembered in the name of women's rights, in the name of choice.
00:37:01.520Because I think that in order to empower women, in order to uplift women, as we both want to do, that it's not telling women that she's not strong enough to be a mother, that she's not capable of being a mother.
00:37:20.940It's actually telling a woman that she can, she is strong enough, she is worthy, she is worthy of walking alongside of, and that she is capable of being a mother.
00:37:35.980And what would you say to that woman who has recently found out that she's pregnant and is scared and is being told by her boyfriend or her husband, oh, this isn't a good time.
00:37:53.800Or is being told by her parents, you know, this is a shame on our family.
00:37:57.120We can't talk about this or is, you know, alone and doesn't have anyone speaking into her life, but is scared of, about whether or not she can do it.
00:38:10.240You know, what, what do you say to women who are struggling with those pressures?
00:38:13.880If you're pregnant today, I would just say that you should know that you're, you're capable of, of being a mother, you are worthy of walking alongside of, that, you know, as an abortion survivor, as an adoptee, as a mother even, that I'm so grateful for my life and for the woman who gave me my life.
00:38:41.940And, um, you get to do that for your child too.
00:38:47.180And I know that it might feel scary right now and, um, maybe you don't know where to turn or what to do, but there are people like me who, who want to walk alongside you and that will do that for you.
00:39:01.600And so I would encourage you to, um, reach out to your local pregnancy resource center or to call love line.
00:39:11.080Um, because there is somebody that is, is ready to talk with you and walk alongside you because you can, uh, do this and you are strong and capable.
00:39:20.180Beautiful. You know, so the pro-choice movement right now is, is making a lot of noise about how there's no validation to the claim that women experience regret after having abortions.
00:39:33.540And I think, was it, uh, the, the Guttmacher Institute who said, oh, well, 90% of women, you know, don't have any regret or, you know, whatever, whatever the statistic is right now.
00:39:43.380You know, and there are a lot of statistics, a lot of claims that women aren't emotionally impacted by abortion.
00:39:50.120Um, was that true for your birth mother?
00:39:52.260My birth mother has deep pain and regret from her abortion experience.
00:39:58.760In fact, I, I hear from women all across the country and across the world.
00:40:04.160Um, I, I share my story about 30 to 40 times a year in front of 500 to a thousand people.
00:40:10.120And every single time a woman came, comes up to me and says, Claire, you're the first person I'm telling this to, but I had an abortion 10 or 15 or 20 or 25 years ago.
00:40:22.800And it has been the deepest pain and regret of my life.
00:40:28.160When I met my birth mother, she told me that, uh, she did exactly what her mother asked her to do, which was take this to your grave.
00:40:42.180And she did for 21 years until she met me.
00:40:45.640And she felt like she just needed to get this weight off her shoulders.
00:40:49.440She needed to tell me the truth about who I was, about what she had done.
00:40:54.860Um, she said that this was her deepest, darkest, most painful secret.
00:40:59.740And that's what I hear across the country from women, just like my birth mother, who are, are deeply pained and scarred from their past abortion experience and don't know that there, um, that there is, is hope after abortion, that there are resources for them, people that even want to walk alongside them through navigating what their abortion experience did to them.
00:41:26.060What kind of damage does it do to a woman to be told constantly by the pro-choice movement?
00:41:48.920I mean, I remember, you know, I haven't had an abortion.
00:41:51.480I know that that's been hard for my birth mother to hear.
00:41:57.500Um, but I know for me, if you remember when Newark lit up the Empire State Building, uh, Pink celebrating a woman's right to choose, celebrating, um, this, this new law that made abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy.
00:42:13.600Um, abortions could be performed by non-doctors, um, abortions could be performed for any reason, so many different things.
00:42:22.000This, this law was, was pretty extreme.
00:42:24.820And I remember sitting there as, as they were celebrating, they were celebrating their right to abortion, um, for any reason, at any stage, any type of procedure, including the, the procedure that dismembered my twin.
00:42:39.940Um, I remember sitting there and thinking, um, what, what, what about me?
00:42:56.040I mean, is anyone listening as they, they shout from the rooftops and, and celebrate their right to choose abortion when they're really choosing to end the life of someone like me?
00:43:09.360And I feel like that's gotta be how women feel.
00:43:14.500I, I know I hear from, from women across the country.
00:43:17.740I've heard from my own birth mother that when, when abortion is being celebrated, we feel ignored and dismissed.
00:43:29.600And like, we're, we're, we're the garbage, um, under their feet because nobody even acknowledges what abortion actually does to a child like me and to a woman like my birth mother.
00:43:46.460And, you know, this, this will seem like an obvious question, but are you glad that you got a chance at life?
00:43:52.960I'm so glad that I got a chance at life because I got a chance at life.
00:43:58.840I've, I've had the, um, privilege of being a daughter to, uh, my parents who, um, who raised us in an incredible way.
00:44:11.260Um, I had an incredible childhood growing up.
00:44:15.700My sister and I, we were just like any other, uh, siblings.
00:44:20.200We, we played, we fought, we, um, we played orphanage.
00:44:24.700That's pretty funny being adopted children.
00:44:27.680We, um, that's how positive adoption was in our home.
00:44:31.240But, um, our life was, was incredible and I, I grew up, I met my birth mother, um, and then I met my husband.
00:44:41.020I was navigating, uh, what it meant to be an abortion survivor, what it meant to live in a world that didn't want me to exist, that didn't want my, my humanity to be exposed, that, um, said things like,
00:44:56.080I wish your body was thrown in the dumpster with all the other baby body parts, um, and, and I had a, a hard time at first, um, I actually met my husband and before we got married, I, I became pregnant.
00:45:14.860And so here I was sharing my story across the country and I was the woman having the unplanned pregnancy.
00:45:23.300Um, and I, I, I had a little bit of a panic with that.
00:45:28.540I, I felt like I had let a lot of people down.
00:45:32.280I felt like, I felt like I had let a lot of people down.
00:45:36.100I felt like I was raised better than that.
00:45:38.860I knew better than that, um, that this wasn't how my story was supposed to go.
00:45:46.400Um, but I had what my birth mother didn't have.
00:45:50.980Even though my, my life was spinning out of control, I, I was living in this world that didn't want me to exist.
00:45:56.920I was experiencing this unplanned pregnancy that wasn't part of how I thought my story would go.
00:46:03.360Um, I had, I still had what my birth mother didn't have.
00:46:08.080And that was the support of my husband who, uh, the father of my child is now my husband.
00:46:13.580Um, my parents and my friends, the, the biggest voices in, in my head and my heart at the time of my unplanned pregnancy.
00:46:24.560And so, um, I, I married my, my daughter's dad.
00:46:29.340He had three children of his own who I've been the, I've had the privilege of being mom to.
00:46:36.220We've raised our four children in Austin and, um, I've been able to share my, my story across the country in support of, uh, organizations that are making a difference, organizations that are welcoming women like my birth mother, Tanya, through their doors.
00:46:52.880And, um, it's been an incredible journey.
00:46:58.120And I'd like to pinpoint a couple of things in, in that story you just shared, you know, a lot of pro-choice advocates say, oh, well, if you don't abort all these unwanted pregnancies, all these unwanted children, they'll just flood the foster care system or orphanages.
00:47:16.460Can you maybe address some of those arguments, uh, just with, you know, your, your own life story?
00:47:22.720I don't think that death is the answer to, to poverty or to any, any argument we can make about how, how hard or difficult or unfortunate the life of a child may be.
00:47:38.360Um, I mean, gosh, what kind of, what kind of place have we gotten to where we, we think that death is a better alternative than actually making a difference?
00:47:50.640It's being people that can, can adopt and foster and walk alongside people who are and give to ministries that are making a difference in these children's lives.
00:48:00.680That argument could, could go for me as well.
00:48:04.020You know, what about the disabled child?
00:48:06.200Wouldn't their life be so incredibly hard?
00:48:10.340Well, I, I can tell you that I was born with, um, with dislocated hip and clubbed feet.
00:48:16.740I had body casts until I was two years old.
00:48:19.660I wasn't nurtured as a very young infant in the hospital, um, because I hadn't gone home to my parents.
00:48:26.300I wasn't able to be nurtured in a quote unquote normal way because I had all these casts on my body.
00:48:33.500I have, um, visited the children's crippled hospital all my life.
00:48:37.720My feet are still a little bit turned.
00:48:41.260I'm still, um, what people who argue for abortion for babies who are disabled.
00:48:47.880I, I am what they're talking about to a certain degree and I am thankful for my life.
00:48:55.460Regardless of disability, regardless of hardship, I would rather live than die.
00:49:02.400I would rather live than be dismembered in my birth mother's womb.
00:49:07.380And so who are we to say that, uh, that a child who might have difficulty, I mean, we all have difficulty.
00:49:16.640Who are we to say that their life doesn't have meaning, that their life doesn't have value, that we should throw them in the dumpster with the rest of the baby parts.
00:50:17.280I was grappling with the, the truth that I was an abortion survivor and, and then grappling with the truth that I, society didn't, didn't want me to even be a part of it, didn't want to acknowledge me, my name, my experience, my pain.
00:50:33.620And, and, and so I had somebody say that to me.
00:50:37.960And since that day, I've, I've learned not to read many comments, not to listen to the noise, um, and just, just faithfully tell my story because my birth, someone like my birth mother deserves to be fought for.
00:50:56.700Someone like my twin deserves to be fought for a lot of times when I speak, especially if it's not a, um, private event, I have people come in and protest my existence by holding up signs that say things similar to that.
00:51:13.660And that's the reality of, um, that's the reality of, of the pro-choice movement in our country that, um, they will acknowledge certain experiences, but if your experience exposes the narrative, that's a lie, that women need abortion, that women have the right to choose, that the unborn baby is not a human being, um, then they disregard you and they dismiss you.
00:51:40.560Can you basically tell the audience some of the things that pro-choice advocates or people in the pro-choice movement have written to you or yelled at you or held signs up saying about you?
00:52:05.060Um, things like your, you, you made that up.
00:52:09.200There's, there's, there's no such thing as an abortion survivor.
00:52:12.620Um, and I, I hear all of these things.
00:52:15.540I, I, um, I have to process all of these things that I'm living in a world that, that would rather dismiss, disregard, and be hateful towards me than acknowledge my story, my existence, and my humanity.
00:52:31.400Because in order to acknowledge my existence, my story, and my humanity, they would have to come to grips with the truth about the unborn baby, about what abortion is and what it does.
00:52:45.540And so it's easier for them to shout from the rooftops and be hateful and angry and mean instead of say, you know what, this, this person has a real experience.
00:52:56.380She survived an abortion and her humanity is sitting before me, pointing me in the direction that there's life in the womb and that it is worthy of being protected.
00:53:08.600Right. So, you know, the pro-choice movement paints itself all the time as, you know, the friends of, the friends of women.
00:53:17.740The pro-choice movement is not a friend of women.
00:53:21.160Um, they're not a, a friend to a woman like my birth mother who is desperately looking for someone to walk alongside her for answers, for support.
00:53:31.480Um, they, they sold her an abortion and they left her, left her hanging.
00:53:38.880They sent her home and, and, and they didn't help her navigate her pain in the years that would follow.
00:53:45.520So the abortion industry, uh, the pro-choice movement is, is not a friend to a woman who's experienced an abortion and certainly not a friend to a woman who survived an abortion like me.
00:53:59.380And, you know, what would you say, you know, intellectually honest people on both sides of, you know, the debate, whether they're pro-choice or pro-life, are there any common things that people can agree on?
00:54:09.900You know, you know, oftentimes, you know, it's said that, you know, the best way to convince someone who doesn't agree with you is find the common ground and go from there.
00:54:18.120Is there a common ground that can be agreed on?
00:54:20.880I don't see much common ground between, uh, the pro-life side and the pro-choice side.
00:54:27.320I would say that our similar or the same talking point that we use is that we both care about women.
00:54:34.300Um, and, and, and I think that is, is true to, to a certain degree at, we, um, on the pro-life side, we care about women, but we also care about the unborn child.
00:54:45.940So often the, the pro-choice movement paints us, um, as only caring about the child.
00:54:53.440But you just heard my, my birth mother's story and I, and, and all of my other friends that I know, the people that are leading the pro-life movement, um, we would all say that not only do we care about, about the child, about the child like me, that's fighting for its life.
00:55:13.800Um, that, um, that, that deserves to be born, to have a birthday, but just as much we care about the woman like my birth mother, because we don't want a woman to experience the pain and the agony that abortion has caused so many like my birth mother, Tanya.
00:55:33.720Um, and, and, and the pro-choice movement has used that same argument.
00:55:40.060We care about women so much that we care about her body and her right to choose.
00:55:46.060Um, and I think that so many people that are working in the abortion industry right now have bought into a lie, um, that they're doing something that is good for women, believing that they care about women enough to fight for her in that way.
00:56:03.720Um, but really what they're doing is causing a lifetime of, of pain and regret.
00:56:10.700And so I think that we both care about women, um, but we need to, to change that narrative of how do we care for women?
00:56:21.480We care for women by walking alongside them and saying, you're strong enough, you're capable, you're worthy, you can be a mother.
00:56:31.040There's so many resources available to women who do, um, carry their pregnancy to term, who do decide to parent.
00:56:40.660Um, I hear so often how a woman graduated from college and, um, it was her child who motivated her, her unplanned pregnancy child who motivated her to, um, be better and to do better and to advance her career.
00:56:58.920And the abortion industry to me is, is, is feeding our culture, um, our, our media, even these lies that are being fed to all of us and to our children.
00:57:12.140And we're so vulnerable, we're so uneducated and so unaware of what is out there and what the truth is that we buy into that lie.
00:57:21.060And so as a, as a, as a culture, um, even as individual people, it is our responsibility to expose those lies.
00:57:31.500I can do that through my humanity, through my existence as an abortion survivor.
00:57:36.700And, um, you can do that through using your voice, through educating yourself and, um, through sharing the truth about what abortion is, what it does,
00:57:47.800and being that safe place for the people in your community, in your life, who experience unplanned pregnancies.
00:58:00.700The abortion industry uses women for their own profit.
00:58:05.120Claire's mother was coerced, pressured, deceived by her mother and by doctors.