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**Woman who had five abortions says Project Rachel saved her
**By Amy Guckeen
Catholic News Service
MILWAUKEE (CNS) – When she was 20, at a time when most young people are on the cusp of life, Yvonne Florczak-Seeman wanted nothing more than to end her life.
That was until she found out about Project Rachel, founded in Milwaukee in 1984 by Vicki Thorn to offer post-abortion reconciliation and healing.
Florczak-Seeman was in her second trimester of pregnancy and had decided to have an abortion; it would be her fifth abortion since her 16th birthday.
“To me they were just fetuses,” she said. “I was in total denial. … I knew the routine, (I) lined up on a bench with another 20 women, and waited for my number to be called.”
But having an abortion in her second trimester was more difficult, the vacuum louder and larger to accommodate the more complicated procedure.
“The pain was unbelievable,” she told the Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. “This time I knew something wasn’t right. I left the clinic and swore I had survived the inconceivable. I swore I’d never go to another clinic.”
Three days later, she said, she started hemorrhaging, had to be admitted to the emergency room and was told she needed a surgical procedure. “The abortion had not removed the entire baby,” she said. “It was the first time, that procedure, that they said the fetus was a baby.”
Florczak-Seeman said her fifth abortion, when it was finally acknowledged she was carrying a baby, began for her “a lifetime of unanswered questions as far as choice was concerned.”
She added, “Choice was exposed for what it is, giving the woman the right to end the life of her child. Having ended five lives, I concluded that I didn’t deserve my own.”
But Florczak-Seeman discovered Project Rachel and forgiveness. She had tried other forms of therapy, but nothing seemed to free her until she came to the program.
“Project Rachel relies on the forgiveness from up above,” said Florczak-Seeman, who is now married and the mother of two young sons and a daughter.
When Thorn decided to start her post-abortion ministry, there were not many experts on what women suffered following an abortion.
Thorn, a member of St. Catherine Parish in Milwaukee, originally saw Project Rachel only as an archdiocesan project. But it has branched out into more than 160 dioceses across the United States and several countries.
**Woman who had five abortions says Project Rachel saved her
**By Amy Guckeen
Catholic News Service
MILWAUKEE (CNS) – When she was 20, at a time when most young people are on the cusp of life, Yvonne Florczak-Seeman wanted nothing more than to end her life.
That was until she found out about Project Rachel, founded in Milwaukee in 1984 by Vicki Thorn to offer post-abortion reconciliation and healing.
Florczak-Seeman was in her second trimester of pregnancy and had decided to have an abortion; it would be her fifth abortion since her 16th birthday.
“To me they were just fetuses,” she said. “I was in total denial. … I knew the routine, (I) lined up on a bench with another 20 women, and waited for my number to be called.”
But having an abortion in her second trimester was more difficult, the vacuum louder and larger to accommodate the more complicated procedure.
“The pain was unbelievable,” she told the Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. “This time I knew something wasn’t right. I left the clinic and swore I had survived the inconceivable. I swore I’d never go to another clinic.”
Three days later, she said, she started hemorrhaging, had to be admitted to the emergency room and was told she needed a surgical procedure. “The abortion had not removed the entire baby,” she said. “It was the first time, that procedure, that they said the fetus was a baby.”
Florczak-Seeman said her fifth abortion, when it was finally acknowledged she was carrying a baby, began for her “a lifetime of unanswered questions as far as choice was concerned.”
She added, “Choice was exposed for what it is, giving the woman the right to end the life of her child. Having ended five lives, I concluded that I didn’t deserve my own.”
But Florczak-Seeman discovered Project Rachel and forgiveness. She had tried other forms of therapy, but nothing seemed to free her until she came to the program.
“Project Rachel relies on the forgiveness from up above,” said Florczak-Seeman, who is now married and the mother of two young sons and a daughter.
When Thorn decided to start her post-abortion ministry, there were not many experts on what women suffered following an abortion.
Thorn, a member of St. Catherine Parish in Milwaukee, originally saw Project Rachel only as an archdiocesan project. But it has branched out into more than 160 dioceses across the United States and several countries.