More often than not, the media disregard or ignore the voices of abortion survivors. But one survivor’s story is going viral nonetheless – by capturing the hearts and minds of millions of Americans on social media.
On Valentine’s Day, the nonprofit Special Books by Special Kids (SBSK) published a ten-minute video interview with an abortion survivor that has since attracted millions of views on Facebook and YouTube. The short film centered on Carrie Fisher, a middle-aged woman who survived a failed abortion attempt and “has lived the entirety of her life with multiple disabilities.”
SBSK, a self-described multimedia movement, was founded 2016 to serve as an organization that “seeks to normalize the diversity of the human condition under the pillars of honesty, respect, mindfulness, positivity and collaboration.”
Their video did just that.
Carrie’s mother, who appeared in the video alongside her daughter, revealed she went through with an abortion only to discover a month later that she was still pregnant. Today, she couldn’t be more thankful for her daughter. But the abortion attempt came at a cost – it left Carrie suffering from facial paralysis, speaking and sight issues, and asymmetrical legs.
Instead of complaining, Carrie stressed that she didn’t want her mother to feel any guilt.
“I wouldn’t want guilt on anyone,” Carrie began. “I’ve accepted the things she did and she accepts the things I do, and we just love each other.”
Her forgiveness was “amazing,” the mother said of Carrie, who she calls her “best friend.”
But Carrie’s life hasn’t always been easy or straightforward. Because of her disabilities, Carrie admitted, “I like to warn people before they meet me” because she doesn’t want to “scare people.”
“I like to say, ‘Please don’t look, don’t judge me. Don’t look at this,’” she said, gesturing at her face. Instead, she asks people to “look at my heart” and “look at me as a person.”
As a child, she continued, “it was rough” while “being looked at different,” especially because her “sisters and brother were normal.” She admitted she even “hated” and “despised” herself because “I didn’t like who I was or what I looked like” – an “ugly creature.”
“I just wanted to hide,” she said. “I was scared even of my own self.”
Even so, she was like any other human being on the inside. Her mother said Carrie “so desired to be loved and to love someone.” She pointed to a note she found that Carrie wrote while growing up “about will I ever be loved, and will I ever find love.”
“Oh boy,” her mom said, “it broke my heart.”
But Carrie did find love. In 2011, she met Richard on Facebook even though she “wasn’t expecting to meet anybody” and had already “totally given up on dating, much less marriage.”
She remembered being “amazed” by Richard, who also appeared in the SBSK video.
“I was like, ‘Do you even know what I look like? Huh? What are you doing?” Carrie said, and questioned whether he really liked her or just felt sorry for her.
But she soon discovered he “sincerely had interest.” Today, showing off her wedding ring, she said people call her husband “crazy” and tell her that “If he could marry you, he must be as ugly as you.”
She doesn’t let them get to her.
“I think everybody is worthy of love. There’s no particular person that, ‘No you can’t have love because you’re this way.’ We’re all worthy of love. We all wanna be loved. And we all wanna know that we are loved,” she urged.
She ended with a special message to others also struggling: “Don’t let what people think take away or steal your purpose, but hold on. Believe. Have confidence in who you are. Hold on. Don’t give up. You have a sense of purpose and you are worthy of love.”
Carrie isn’t alone. Many other abortion survivors exist, from Gianna Jessen to Melissa Ohden, who openly share their stories. Many in the media tend to overlook them in today’s politically charged environment.
But, this time, that hasn’t stopped Carrie’s story – and message of love – from reaching millions of Americans.
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