Thirty years ago Vicki Thorn couldn’t have foreseen that she would be at the center of a movement involving millions of women and men in need of hope and healing.

All she knew was that people were suffering after abortion and she wanted to do something to help.

It’s a dramatic story of listening to the pain of a friend who shared with her the hurt she experienced as a teen who had been sexually victimized by a family member, and the forced abortion that followed. It was too late to think about the moral dilemma of whether or not it would be best to abort the child of a very young teen. But her friend’s pain and grief echoed down through the years and deeply impressed itself on Vicki’s heart.

As it turned out, the abuse was ongoing and there was a forced release for adoption too. But, as her friend said, “The adoption I can live with. The abortion forever broke my heart.”

From that caring friendship, Vicki has been motivated to create a safe place within the church for women and men to seek healing through the Project Rachel outreach. She has become an expert on not just the spiritual and emotional impact of abortion, but also the physiological aftermath as well. You may be surprised by her findings about microchimerism, the physical bond between mother and child which remains even after abortion. You likely have not heard before about her findings on how hormonal birth control can wreck female desire. But above all, it is definitely impressive how many caring insights she shared straight from the heart.

Highlight – The physical bond between mother and child

The physical bond between mother & child

From Vicki’s bio:

Vicki Thorn is the foundress of Project Rachel and the executive director of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1990, the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing, Inc. networks researchers and psychotherapeutic professionals working in the field within the U.S. and abroad, consults on the formation of post-abortion support services within secular and religious settings including Project Rachel, provides training for care providers, maintains a national “800” referral line for those seeking assistance in reconciling an abortion experience, publishes the International Post-Abortion Support Services Directory, produces and vends audio, video, and printed materials, maintains an annotated book list, tracks support group models, and sponsors the Healing Vision conference at Marquette University, the only international conference on abortion’s aftermath and its resolution.