In Grade 11, Nancy Hadden was a straight-A student successfully balancing schoolwork with volunteer hours and part-time jobs. But she also had a secret.
In a desperation to be noticed and loved, she said she made some poor choices and found herself pregnant and deeply afraid.
“I felt a real desperation. I just wanted things to go back the way they were,” Hadden told a virtual 40 Days for Life rally.
“I thought: how am I going to go to college if I have a baby?”
A friend introduced her to a girl from school who had an abortion one year prior, and in that conversation Hadden decided to make the same choice. The procedure left her emotionally and physically scarred – leading to preterm birth and miscarriage in future pregnancies – and she spent nearly 20 years working hard trying to keep it all a secret.
Her husband and her priest recognized something was wrong and urged her to seek healing. She was introduced to Rachel’s Vineyard, a retreat ministry for families affected by abortion.
“It was so life-changing and freeing,” she said. “I stopped looking to punish myself … and I was left with a deep sense of peace.”
Hadden shared her story speaking to nearly 190 participants in a virtual rally March 15 marking the half-way point of 40 Days for Life. The annual campaign encourages people to spend 40 consecutive days in prayer for an end to abortion. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, they have held most events online this year.
Now, Hadden believes the best thing anyone can do for people who have been affected by abortion or are considering it is to offer tangible supports, such as groceries and travel to appointments, and to pray.
“Please, keep praying for healing,” she said. “Please pray for the healing of the mothers and fathers, because they need it.”
Other special guests during the virtual rally included Mary Wagner, who has tried to question the legal recognition of the unborn in the Supreme Court of Canada. The nation’s top court dismissed her leave to appeal in February.
“It struck me profoundly,” said Wagner, who has entered abortion clinics trying to encourage women not to end their pregnancies and spent a cumulative total of six years in prison for doing so.
While she was prepared for rejection from the Supreme Court, she was surprised to learn her appeal could be rejected anonymously and without any reason provided.
“That their hearts could be so closed that they would be unwilling to just revisit, even look at (the case), that for me was a very dark moment because they are the highest authorities in this temporal realm in our country, and they have great, great responsibility.”
Wagner said it’s “absolutely true” that pro-lifers have not “joined together enough in fervent prayer” for abortion to cease as a legal action in this country.
“I think that as time has gone on, there has been an acquiescence to the status quo. We don’t wake up in the morning horrified that one baby is going to be killed with the help of so many people, let alone 100,000 every year. We’ve become numb to that reality,” she said.
Guest speaker Faytene Grasseschi, host of Faytene TV, agreed that pro-lifers need to pray more in order to make a difference.
“I long for a day when abortion is not only illegal, but also unthinkable,” she said, “when women won’t want to choose abortion because they have so much support and strength around them.”
She encouraged members to sign up for Life Room, a virtual “prayer room” where people sign up to pray for an end to abortion with the aim of doing so 24/7. Currently it is booked up 97 hours per week.
“Prayer can reach where arms and legs can’t,” she said.
Other guests included pro-life chaplain Father Larry Lynn, 40 Days for Life organizer Heather Thompson, and pastor Father Mark McGuckin of St. Joseph’s Parish in Port Moody. They shared resources, including where to find crisis pregnancy centres and how to support women in difficult situations.
The mid-way rally, an event aimed at encouraging participants to keep on going until the end of the campaign, also included some time of prayer and virtual Eucharistic adoration.
The campaign wraps up March 28 with a closing prayer event online.
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