Testimonials

View after abortion counseling testimonials to learn how the Stacy Zallie Foundation has helped hundreds of people who have been affected by abortion find care and post abortion counseling. Contact us to submit your own testimonial.

First, I must say that I am very saddened by your loss of a loved daughter. I have 4 daughters and 3 sons, and love them all beyond words. It is refreshing to find a non-judgmental, fair, unbiased resource. I have always tried to tell my patients that the decision regarding an unplanned pregnancy is an unfair one. They have to choose between 2 outcomes, but don’t WANT either one. However, the best we can do IS the best we can do. No one can do better than their best. I explain carefully that saddness is normal, expected, even necessary, but that GUILT is not allowable. You can not feel guilty for doing what you feel is best for you. If you are going to feel guilty, then take the other path. I am open to your suggestions that may make me more helpful (yet unbiased) to my patients.

Your foundation is filling the enormous void that currently exists in the counseling/ psychological field post procedure. Thank you.

I noticed your billboard on Frankford Ave and it lead me to this site. It has had a great impact on me. First, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy for your loss. I can’t imagine what pain this has caused. When I was a teenager, my girlfriend and I found ourselves in a similar situation. Abortion was never an option. Today, we are still together and our daughter is 17. Maybe none of that has anything to do with your mission, but I’m just trying to convey some related background. My daughter and I talk often about this issue. It just so happens that when I noticed your billboard, her friend was confronted with an unplanned pregnancy. Her mother insisted that she have an abortion. She confided in my daughter that those weren’t her wishes. My daughter found all of this very unsettling. To make a long story short, We viewed your site together one evening. What I was trying to instill in my daughter was that no matter what happens, whatever decision is made, all that matters is that the girl has our support without judgment. Your site was instrumental in opening my daughter’s eyes to the overall impact such an experience can have on a person. Thank You.

I sat down to read the newspaper on this bright and sunny Sunday morning and discovered the story of Stacy. I am a 43 year old mother of 3 teenagers and I tote around my own history of abortion. When I was 16, I became pregnant and on Valentines Day, my parents (who were kept in the dark until that day) took me to an abortion clinic. They were on a mission to “get it over with.” I never recieved the emotional support that I should have been entitled to. I felt like a non-human. It de-personalized me. With no guidance, I became a poor decision maker, reckless and depressed. Many years later, I discovered therapy and it placed my life on a healthier course. It took almost 20 years to rediscover and heal myself. As a mother of 2 daughters and a son, I work diligently to offer them the support they need to develop into healthy individuals. What I find sad is that we are a wealthy country, but poor in the support department. These girls need to be embraced with understanding. I am pro-life because I believe in life. I am not pro-abortion. I believe in choice. I am a full time Graduate student and active supporter of environmental issues. I will always make time to help a cause that needs nurturing. let me know if I can help!

I wish to thank you for this needed service. Your daughter will not be forgotten and others like my daughter will be helped. She is sixteen and had and terminated a pregnancy just four short weeks ago. She is very sad and her therapist just recommended she participate in a group for grief counseling. Thanks for all you have done to help young women deal with their loss.

Your website is so amazing. It is nothing like I have ever seen and am so glad I came across it. (I saw your billboard on 95 today) I suffered with the emotional pain of abortion for 20 years. Depression, suicidal thoughts… I was able to resolve my issues, finally, through therapy but wish there had been the love and care you offer through this site back then. I am so sorry for the pain of your loss. It is a wonderful thing you have created out of a tragic event. For all the girls/women this comforts, thank you.

I appreciate your site and the work you are doing. Having counseled women who have had abortions, I know much help is needed in this area. Keep up the good work.

Guys go through this too. After all it was a potential life. It took about 10 years and the ‘grace’ of a good reconciliation in a Catholic confessional for me to let go of it.

I think what you have done in response to your daughter’s life is remarkable. I, for one, only wish I had such a support system over 28 years ago. Thank you for your dedication and thank you for reaching out to all the men and women who you will help today.

I’d never heard of your organization until I saw your billboard on I-95. I went online to find out more about your organization, and I find your website easy to navigate and very informative. I am deeply impressed with the unbiased, unconditional support you provide to women in this situation. I applaud you for the work you are doing. I am happy that your organization exists. I’m a physician and have often seen depression and other psychiatric problems in women who have aborted. It is truly amazing that our society won’t even let us talk with women about this possible consequence of an abortion. Having been terminated from a large medical school on the West Coast only because I refused to do abortions, I can tell you that those of us who attempt to counsel put our livelihoods in jeopardy, be we pharmacists, nurses or other health personnel. This forced wall of silence is a part of the reason young women don’t get a full picture of the risks and benefits of abortion before the procedure is done. (Most health care professionals counsel in a very non-threatening way,conscious of the fact that while a young woman must have all the facts, she should not be made to feel worse than she already does when confronted with such stress.) Best of luck in helping restore hope to women who still hurt so much.

Where do I begin. I have had 2 abortions. My second one landed me in a mental institution where I cut my wrist and tried to kill myself. Man I have been through hell people judging you just makes it worse and worse. People and their opinions just make me more suicidal. I still feel like hurting myself everyday because of these abortions. I can’t believe your daughter felt the same way as I did. I thought I was crazy to feel suicidal everyday because of this. But its killing me I feel like I have lost a child. And what people don’t understand is women feel so empty hopeless judged for doing this. We need someone to talk to without being judged as if anyone is GOD. I really need help im at the end of my ropes. All I could think about is hurting myself every time I think about my baby. I can still see and remember the pictures of my unborn baby. Will this guilt ever go away. Tears comes out my eyes about your daughter, because I was almost there and am struggling day by day. When I had my second abortion I was 3 months, rite after I did it that’s when I became suicidal. Its just too much and that’s what people don’t understand. Some days it just gets overwhelming. Why do I deserve to live when I can’t even allow my child to live?

What a terrific idea!!!!!! As a registered nurse and a mother, I just wanted to say thank you. How wonderful for women to be able to find help WITHOUT fear and judgment. Please keep up the great work!

I am a post abortion woman who suffered in silence for 36 years. Bless you for what you are doing in your daughter’s name. You are bringing great honor to her life and her death.

I have reviewed your web page. I am so sad about Stacy. She was so young and beautiful. I had an abortion when I was 15 in 1982. I fought with depression, alone, for 12 years. I was going to take my life in 1994, but when I started asking God questions about my past and pain, he healed me. I understand that she couldn’t talk to her family about the abortion, because until we have dealt with all the pain and forgiven ourselves, we cannot even pronounce the word abortion. I talk about my experience whenever I get the chance, hoping to reach other young women experiencing the same pain or who are thinking about abortion. Even though I am healed, I live with the abortion every day of my life. I can never forget my baby whose life I took. May the Lord bless you for reaching out to save other women suffering in silence when your own pain must be so great.

I had an abortion a little over a year ago. I was going to have twins, I already have 2 kids, I was 22 at the time I had it done. To this day I’m telling myself it was the best choice at the time, I can have another baby someday, just try to forget about it. I never thought the loss would hurt so bad. I think about my twins ever day, I can not get past it. The pain is just too much. I try to forget about, and try to get over it but I don’t now how. HOW can I get past this?

I just want to say that what you are doing is truly admirable. I was in that position myself at one time, and growing up Roman Catholic, it was very emotionally overwhelming to me. Your heart and your head are not thinking in unison and you feel like you are literally being torn in half. I don’t think any woman makes that decision frivelously. Pro -lifers seem to like to call it the easy way out, when I can say with conviction that it is absolutely not… Its such a ‘dirty little secret” so you don’t talk about it because you worry about what people will think of you… and so you keep it inside and it eats away at your soul until you can find resolution somehow…and sometimes it never comes… From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank you from myself and any other girl in the world who has walked the same path alone. Keep up the good work.
If I can ever do anything to help you in some capacity, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

The moment I saw the article in today’s Inquirer about your foundation I knew I had to contact you to express my gratitude and support for what you are doing. As a pscyhotherapist, I have worked with a number of women, and some men, around the grief surrounding an abortion. Sometimes the abortion took place years or even decades before our work together. It has long been a belief of mine that there is a tragedy there, in the middle of all of the political outcry, in overlooking the real needs of the people who go through this difficult experience.

Congratulations on starting this support program. I have dealt with this pain for 17 years – without ever telling my family. (I have told my husband, who is a wonderful support to me.) It is a constant weight on my shoulders that has gotten better with time, but never goes away. I can understand what Stacy must have felt – I was in a severe depression the year following – failed out of pharmacy school, was drinking alcohol almost daily, and making very bad decisions in every area of my life (and I considered suicide as well). Thank God, He pulled me up and out of it. Reading your daughter’s story makes me cry because it still hits so close to home. I am sorry for your pain. I am sure you are helping someone else’s daughter through your organization.

I think what you are offering is wonderful. I went down the same path as your daughter when I was 19. With the help of a older friend who recognized my depression, she insisted that I take a class on Death and Dying with her to deal with my grief. It was in my research paper ‘Grief after an Abortion’ that I realized I was not alone in my feelings and that I had a right to grieve the loss of my baby. I hope this website helps others looking for a way to express themselves in their hour of darkness.

My local newspaper emailed me a copy of your article about Stacy. I too am post abortive and have two suicide attempts in my past. In 1983 I aborted my oldest child and understand the pain. Because I am located in Texas and your article has reached me all the way down here, I would like to suggest that you contact and add Ramah International to your Faith Based Counseling section. I am, by the way, a Pastor’s wife who is reaching out to the hurting with my story so that more women like me, and your daughter, can know that there is hope and healing after the loss of their child. Thank you for considering my suggestion.

I just wanted to say thank you, to the father of this website. I saw the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday…and I was in the hospital for drinking too much, attempting suicide, from my abortion 2 weeks ago. Out of all times, to come across the paper..that time was meant for me. At the end of the article, the father states, he could not save his own, but wish to save someone else’s daughter. You saved mine…and I thank you. I am so sorry for your loss.