Melissa Manion has spoken of her deep “regret and remorse” after aborting her baby that the father wanted to keep: “Abortion hurt you too… I stole life from our child and fatherhood from you.”
“To the Father of the child I aborted”, Manion begins. “It has taken me over 3 years to write this letter…
“How does one apologize for robbing someone of their child? You wanted her. We wanted her. In the name of ‘choice’ I stole her away from you without a single care for your loss. The reality is, I didn’t get pregnant on my own. You were as much her father as I, her mother.”
Despite the “crippling pain” of writing the open letter, Manion says it’s important to “own” her choice and “shed light on the layers of pain and destruction abortion causes” – to men as well as women.
One of her aims, Manion writes, is “to help elevate the silent cries of men who were given no choice”.
Addressing the father, she continues: “I know society hasn’t provided much space for your kind of grief and loss. That’s wrong… I remember the look of sheer terror on your face as my choice was proclaimed…. I shattered your heart.”
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “The devastating effects that abortion has on fathers often go unreported by a media indifferent to the plight of men. But Melissa’s brave and frank letter helps change the narrative, recognising that (good) men also suffer because of abortion.
“While abortion punishes good men who want to raise their children, abortion rewards bad men who, having already taken advantage of women for their own pleasure, selfishly pressure them into abortions.
“But there is absolutely no reason why good men shouldn’t have a voice and stand up to protect their children, and women, which is what fatherhood is about – if only society would allow men to be fathers, for the sake of everyone involved.”
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“All I’m asking is that you respect my son’s life”