I am a young man who got his girlfriend pregnant, and the two of us decided not to have the baby. She took some pills to abort it. Now we feel condemned, and I don’t have any desire to keep on living. I feel that my life has fallen apart. I don’t have any strength to go on because of what we did.
My question is, will I someday be forgiven by God for what I did, or will I be condemned to hell for the rest of my life? What must I do now?
Dear Friend,
There are many people who would tell you that the child you aborted was just a blob of tissue, and not really a human being. They would also say that there are no emotional consequences for those who choose abortion as the solution to their “problem” pregnancy. But your experience is proof that those people are wrong. You are suffering a great deal because deep in your heart you know that you destroyed your own child. The emotional repercussions of abortion are real, and yet they are kept quiet by those who have a political agenda. Every day thousands of couples believe the lies they have been told, and later find out the ugly truth as you have.
But what you want to know now is if there is any kind of relief for your agony and if you will have to pay eternal consequences for your decision. We have good news and bad news for you.
The bad news is that you will always mourn for your unborn child. There will always be an ache, an emptiness that would have only been filled by that child. But this ache can be compared to the pain and loss you would feel if your infant child died from a disease or from a birth defect. It will always be with you, but the pain can be less sharp as the years go by.
How, then, can you be relieved of the immense guilt that you feel? Although your sin seems very great to you now, the truth is that every sin is an offense against God because it separates us from Him. He is Holy and cannot have a relationship with those who have any kind of sin in their lives. All sin must be paid for before we can experience the presence of God, both here on earth and in heaven for eternity. So how can you pay for your sin? No amount of good works or penance is enough. But the good news is that Jesus Christ took your place! He died for your sin so that you could be relieved not only of the eternal consequences, but also of the guilt you now feel.
What you must do is ask the Heavenly Father to forgive you in His Son Jesus’ Name, so that Jesus can come into your heart and be your Lord and Savior. When you have done this, you will feel an intense relief! Yes, you will be forgiven, but even better than that, you will have begun the most important relationship of your life.
Ask Him today!
Linda and Charles