Giving birth opened Danielle's eyes to the truth about her past abortion

As a lonely, 19-year-old community college student, Danielle Pursche became enmeshed in an established group of friends where a young man gave her the attention she craved — and she soon became unexpectedly pregnant.

“I conceived the first time I engaged in sex with my new boyfriend,” Pursche said. “Afterward, I felt convicted and knew what I had done was wrong. I ended the relationship and started dating someone much older.”

When she learned she was pregnant by her first boyfriend, she immediately decided to have an abortion.

A Rocky Foundation

Pursche told Live Action News, “My life had been built on a rocky foundation, growing up I didn’t feel cherished and I was engaging in some reckless behavior in my teenage years including abusing drugs and alcohol which caused my father to disown me when I was 17.”

Misdiagnosed as having bipolar disorder — she later learned she was autistic — Pursche was put on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication, which she believes numbed her emotions. At home, she had no faith-based foundation and had struggled to establish close relationships with her workaholic mother and a quiet, reserved father.

When she found out she was pregnant, she was "afraid to let my parents down." Pursche said, “I didn’t think it through. But I had just started to piece together the broken relationship with my dad."

When Pursche told her mother of her plans to have an abortion, her mother just asked her if she was certain she was making the right decision. “She knew when the appointment was and didn’t try to talk me out of it,” Pursche said. “My [new] boyfriend took me to my appointment.”

Something Horrible

Ironically, the Planned Parenthood facility was located across the street from a Montessori school where Pursche could hear children playing outside.

She was led to an exam room. A nurse performed an ultrasound, but at first, she couldn’t find the baby. Pursche kept her eyes averted from the screen. She was given medication to calm her before the surgery but despite this, she found herself crying out in pain during the abortion.

“Tears were rolling down my face and I felt paralyzed, chained to the table," Pursche said. "I felt spiritually sick to my core. I knew that nothing would ever be the same, that something horrible just happened.”

Her life unraveled after the abortion. Pursche left school that semester, stayed with her older boyfriend, briefly became engaged, then ended that relationship. Subsequent romances were also short lived.

Recognizing the Abomination of Abortion

“I had always believed in God, but didn’t have a relationship with him,” Pursche said. “When I met my future husband, I saw that he kept a Bible on his nightstand though he, too, was having some struggles in his walk with the Lord.”

It wasn’t long after meeting her husband-to-be that she met a missionary who was rooming with him in an old mansion. Still living in shame from her abortion, Pursche needed spiritual intervention.

Pursche said, “From my boyfriend’s housemate, this missionary, I started to understand what it meant to have an authentic relationship with God.”

She eventually married. When she became pregnant by her husband, Pursche keenly felt the pain of choosing to abort her first child. 

“When I gave birth, it became clear to me the miracle of life,” Pursche said. “A baby’s life was so precious that I could see now what an abomination abortion was. How, I wondered, could anyone put their stamp of approval on taking an innocent life?”

The Road to Healing

Pursche got baptized in 2019. She soon started to listen to Charlie Kirk's podcast. One day, he hosted Allie Beth Stuckey, and Pursche was intrigued by her and started listening to her podcasts as well. 

“It was at this point that I didn’t believe total healing from abortion was possible,” Pursche said. 

Then one day, Stuckey hosted on her podcast Victoria Robinson, founder of ReAssemble Retreat, an abortion trauma recovery weekend retreat. Robinson was discussing healing from abortion and using one’s story for good.

“I was attracted to Victoria’s boldness and started following her on social media," Pursche said. "I learned about her four-day post-abortion healing retreats but really didn’t think I needed healing.” Then Robinson reached out to her and invited her to a retreat.

“I was continuing to have ongoing struggles,” Pursche said. “The heavy burden I had been carrying was impacting my ability to be a good wife and mother to my three young children. So, I finally relented and decided to attend a retreat in November, which was 10 months away.”

Arriving at the retreat, Pursche felt the house full of spirit, energizing her. As she delved into the post abortive curriculum, the “Forgiven and Set Free” Bible study written by Linda Cochrane, she didn’t realize how broken she was. It was if everything she experienced over the three days felt divinely appointed.

“While at the retreat, I was amazed at the splendor of the Christian Church,” Pursche said. “Victoria had a remote prayer team that prayed for us. These people really care about ending abortion and helping women in crisis. What a beautiful testament to God’s church.”

Pursche said, “God gave me what I need to heal. For the first time, I felt free, as if I was no longer carrying that heavy burden.”

When she arrived home, she noticed that her son had put the first leaf on their Thanksgiving Tree which declared, “God heals.”

Over the last three months, Pursche has given her testimony to encourage other women in their healing journeys and created a YouTube video that was shared on her church’s podcast.

“My life had been such a mess, but God brought me through it,” Pursche said. “I’m helping other women to know there’s redemption and forgiveness, even for those suffering the aftermath of abortion.”