Answer

What If I'm Pregnant and Feel Pressure to Have an Abortion?

You are pregnant, people are pushing, and everything feels like it has to be settled immediately. Read that sentence again and notice the second half. Almost all the pressure on you right now is pressure to decide quickly, and urgency is doing a great deal of the persuading.

You are allowed to not decide today. The voices telling you that you are too young, that school is over, that your parents will never recover, that he is not ready, are describing a future none of them can see. You are carrying a life, God knows this child, and whatever you decide you are deciding about somebody.

Eternal Truths

God knew this child before the pregnancy did. He told Jeremiah that He knew him before he was formed in the belly and had appointed him already (Jeremiah 1:5). Whatever your circumstances, the child you are carrying is known to Him by name.

A child is entitled to be received, and the Church says so about you too. The Family: A Proclamation to the World affirms the sanctity of life and a child’s entitlement to be reared by parents who honour their covenants. Its counsel to everyone around an unanticipated or unwed pregnancy is to strengthen the mother and father by showing them love and support, spiritually, emotionally and financially (Abortion).

Adoption is an act of love rather than a surrender. It is chosen by people who want more for a child than they can currently give, and the Church publishes practical guidance for the families on both sides of it (Adoption). Birth mothers commonly describe it as the hardest and most deliberate thing they have done.

What Can Make This Confusing?

Fear speaks in absolutes. Everything is over. There is no way through. This ends your life. Those are predictions delivered as facts, by a state of mind that is not reliable right now. The isolation is real and it is not an accurate map of who is actually available to you: the parents you dread telling, a bishop, Church resources for expectant parents, agencies that will talk you through options with no obligation.

Questions to Think About

• Who is pushing me to decide fast, and what do they gain from that?
• Which of my fears are facts, and which are forecasts?
• Who is one person who would help me rather than manage me?

What You Can Do

Tell one person this week who will not panic, and ask them to sit with you rather than advise you. Then give yourself a set number of days before any decision, and use them to find out what help actually exists. If you have already had an abortion, none of this is aimed at you; the Atonement covers it completely and a bishop can help you begin. The essay behind this answer goes further.

Jesus Christ is not frightened by your situation, and He can carry you and your child through a future that looks impossible from here.