One Woman Faced with the Realities of Abortion

In 1987, 21-year-old Diane Stordock agreed to get an abortion after the father of the child, who was her boyfriend and later husband, said, “I can’t stand the thought of that parasite in your body.”

            After nearly 30 years, Stordock uses her story as a testimony to tell other women about God’s grace and mercy in her life and encourage them to seek His forgiveness regardless of how big they believe their sins are.

            According to cdc.gov, there were approximately 1,353,671 abortions in 1987.  However, in the most recent CDC report from 2013, that number has dropped to 664,435 abortions.  

            This data shows that although the abortion rate has dropped about 49 percent in the 26 years between Stordock’s abortion and the most recent data, there is still a large number of women who have this procedure done each year.

            According to the National Abortion Federation, the most frequent emotional reaction after having an abortion is relief, but this was not the case for Stordock.

Following her abortion, Stordock struggled with drugs, alcohol, and domestic abuse from her husband.  She said, “I didn’t recover so much as I tried to cover up and deny the emotional pain with alcohol and self-fed lies, such as it wasn’t right or wrong, just the best decision at the time.”

However, it was not just Stordock who had a hard time recovering from the abortion.  She said that on January 3, 2017, she had a phone conversation with the father of the child who she had been divorced from since the age of 24.

It was during this conversation that he told her how haunted he had been for convincing her to get the abortion in the first place.

“He didn’t remember saying what he said about it being a parasite, and through his tears, 29 years later, apologized and asked for my forgiveness.  I assured him that I’d given that years ago, for my own sake though, not his, and that it wasn’t my forgiveness he needed.  God, but for God it was possible to do that, and that is the only credit I can give for complete recovery.”

Stordock said that after two unsuccessful marriages and finding out that she was infertile around the age of 30, she was a broken woman.  At the age of 34 Stordock began dating the man who is now her husband, Steve Stordock, and it was around this time that she had an ectopic pregnancy.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, and ectopic pregnancy take place when a fertilized egg doesn’t make it inside the uterus and attaches itself elsewhere.  Because the embryo cannot grow properly unless it is in the uterus, these pregnancies often have to be terminated.

Stordock said, “Finally, after all that time of not being able to get pregnant, I finally did, but if I didn’t have what is technically considered an abortion, I would die.”

She decided to go through with the medical abortion, and after one more ectopic pregnancy, Stordock never got pregnant again.  In 2005, she was forced to get a hysterectomy due to other medical issues.

Abortion remains a controversial topic with people both for it, against it, and occasionally in a grey area in between both stances.  Some believe that it should only be used in life-threatening instances or when the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest.  Others say it is a woman’s choice to do as she will with her own body regardless of how the fetus was conceived.

According to 19-year-old Tabytha Beu, women should have the right to choose an abortion if she sees fit to do so.

Beu said, “My personal view on abortion is that every woman has the right to her own body without government interference because there are certain aspects of being a citizen that should not involve the government, like a person’s right to privacy and personal affairs.”

However, 20-year-old Morghan Davidson has a very different stance on the topic.  She said, “I think abortion is wrong and shouldn’t be allowed because once a baby is enough of a baby to be detected by a pregnancy test, it is a life, and life should not be taken away.”

19-year-old Lindsey Applegate agreed with Davidson’s opinion on abortion.  Applegate said, “I personally believe that abortion is wrong, that the fetus is a life, and that aborting the fetus is killing the child.”

When she was in high school, Applegate was in small group at New River Church led by Stordock.  It was here that Applegate heard Stordock’s story, and she said it swayed her opinions on abortion.

“Mrs. Diane had a big impact on my opinion of abortion,” said Applegate.  “Had I not known her and heard her talk about her abortion, I would probably be prochoice.”

Anita Erwin, a 42-year-old mother of one of Stordock’s former students, says she approves of the topic of abortion being discussed with young girls in a church setting.  “In a church it is fine to talk about abortion because it’s about your personal beliefs.”

These differing views on the morality of abortion often lead to the debate on if it should be legal or not in the United States.

Although Stordock encourages women to find alternatives to abortion, she does not think it should be made illegal. 

She said, “No, I do not think that abortions should be made illegal.  Doing so will not solve anything.  I would like to see all states restrict abortions after 18-20 weeks, which I consider more than enough time for a woman to make that particular choice.  What I would truly love, and what I pray for, would be that women, and men, would make better choices before they find themselves contemplating abortion. ”

Applegate said that the way to encourage men and women to make better choices is to educate them more fully on sex before they begin intercourse. 

“I am against abortion because I believe the solution lies not in killing the fetus, but preventing it from being created,” said Applegate.  “Educating the public on safe sex and actually having a sex ed class that isn’t abstinence-based will teach people how to safely and properly have sex and use contraceptive measures correctly and confidently.”

By providing these classes early on, Applegate said she believes the number of unwanted pregnancies would drastically decrease.

Stordock began sharing her story with women to demonstrate God’s mercy and grace in 2012, and she continues to do so today in Wisconsin where she and her husband of seventeen years currently live.

“The actions I take today to raise awareness on abortion is to be open, and to share my story whenever I’m given the opportunity,” said Stordock.  “My prayer is that my testimony will help women who may have had an abortion, or anyone who has made bad decisions, poor choices, or committed sins, know that there is forgiveness, and that the grace of God does not enumerate our sins.  We are, after all, not the sum of our sins.”