TESTIMONY 2

Testimony of a feminist mother

Dear Erin,

my name is Karen Johns.  I recently received a forward of your e-mail from a friend and I feel compelled to write to you in sincere compassion.  Please allow me to tell you about myself . . . I was born in Washington state and raised in Alaska. I am a thirty-six year old graduate student here in Regina working on my MA degree.  I am also a recording artist from Nashville, Tennessee where I recorded three albums for an independent label and soundtrack (Miramax Films).

            By the time I was eighteen, I was a state champion actress, performing in professional theatre.  I was also a successful University student having several scholarships to my credit while attending a US campus on the west coast and later, a European campus on an exchange program.  By the time I was twenty-two I was an American pageant queen, and, yes, I was also a postmodern feminist (I still am, but in the Way of Truth).  I came from a very respected and reputable family and I was engaged to be married to a young man I met at University . . . basically, I had all the world ahead of me.

            To make a very long story short, I became pregnant and I chose to have an abortion. One would think it would end there, but it didn't.  You see, I suffered for years from that single decision until I could no longer live in denial.  Many feminists do not  realize that early feminists, like Susan B. Anthony, ardently opposed abortion as just another form of exploitation, "I deplore the horrible crime of child murder, " she wrote, "but, oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her".  It would be easy and justifiable for me to blame my former fiance, but I too was a consenting adult and I was the one who made the "final choice", a choice of brutality and abuse beyond measure for any living creature, human or animal.  If I could go back and change that "choice" I made for my first child, I would go back in an instant and give that little one the life he had every right to live- I would go back in a heart beat to save his life and mine!

            Thirteen years later, I now wear my repentance like armour and I have vowed to carry my testimony like a banner for all the world to hear and see if God so chooses, because I am not the only woman who has suffered post abortion trauma for making the "choice"- there are thousands of us. If I can help to spare one woman and child the agony, its well worth it. It is in this Truth that I am finally at peace and I wish you peace, Erin, and I give you prayer.

Karen Johns (Pro-life advocate, professional recording artist, business woman, grad student and most importantly: mother and wife).