Her mother's past abortions led to her own pro-life mission

Chynna Cochran's early life was marked by instability and trauma — which may be the reason why she has such a heart to support women in crisis.

Cochran is an artist who fashions jewelry and funnels some of the proceeds from sales to help fund pregnancy resource centers. 

An unstable childhood

“My mother got pregnant in high school and dropped out of school to marry, but her husband was physically abusive, so she left him for a couple of months to live with a friend," Cochran told Live Action News. "She started dating a man and got pregnant with me but didn’t know at the time who had fathered her child.”

When her mother returned to her husband and told him she was pregnant, the abuse escalated.

Already raising two sons amid a violent home environment, Cochran’s mother felt she wasn't fit to mother another child. She considered placing her baby with an adoptive family.

“My grandmother pleaded with my mother to keep her baby and offered to raise her child,” Cochran said. “My mother ended up falling in love with me when she saw me on the ultrasound.”

Yet, when Cochran was born, her mother left her with her other grandmother and didn’t return until a year later. 

Cochran noted, “When she did come back, she ended up in a home for abused women and children. I was two years old at the time.”

When Cochran was four years old, her mother remarried to a successful man who provided all the comforts of an affluent life.

“He’s the only man I called father,” Cochran said. "He took fatherhood seriously. But my mother ended up leaving him when I was 12. She had always struggled with consistent parenting and suffered with guilt and shame from two abortions as well as not knowing definitively who my father was.”

Because her stepdad traveled extensively, she had to relocate with her mother. She visited with him regularly until he passed away.

Eyes open to abortion's impact

When she was 19 years old, Cochran enrolled in a Christian college.

“The experience there gave me the confidence I needed,” Cochran said. “My unstable background left me with little self-esteem.”

Cochran said, “Given my personal experiences, reading Scripture during my freshman year and learning about my mother’s abortions when I was eight years old, gave me the passion to stand against abortion. I saw how greatly my mother suffered mentally.”

While she had a friend active in the pro-life movement, she didn’t feel compelled to be involved herself.

“I didn’t realize women were actually having abortions,” Cochran said. “Just three years ago, I started seeing Live Action posts and learning how prevalent abortion was. I was also influenced by listening to Allie Beth Stuckey. It was then that I started speaking out to family and friends.”

Giving back

She started noticing businesses that were donating funds to pregnancy resource centers — businesses like Seven Weeks Coffee, EveryLife, and We Heart Nutrition. 

Cochran said, “It was an opportunity to give back. My husband and I talked about formulating a business plan that involved creating jewelry to reflect Scripture. We started testing out some jewelry pieces.”

She went to the Share the Arrows event hosted by Allie Beth Stuckey in October 2024 where conservative, Christian women meet to grow and encourage each other in their faith.

“The three pro-life companies were present,” Cochran said. “I was so inspired by their business models that it was placed on my heart to also support pregnancy resource centers.”

She further honed her business plan and in late November 2024, launched her jewelry line, using Instagram to get the word out. 

Cochran said, “I originally decided to call my jewelry line, ‘GiveBYG’ but didn’t think it was feminine enough so I thought of ‘Natan’ which, in Hebrew means to give and to receive.”

All her jewelry items, found on the Natan website, have Biblical names and verses attached to them – prompting the wearer to think about Scripture with a beautiful reminder.

“We donate 20% of our profits to pregnancy resource centers and have given $22,809 in the first year after we launched,” Cochran said. “We have also donated 100 Bibles to a center in need so everyone who comes into the center has an opportunity to know the Gospel.”

Continuing the journey

Cochran explains that though her business is still in its early phases of development, she envisions establishing a program that would span three to six months, specifically designed to support women in crisis who are currently unemployed.

Through this initiative, these women would have the opportunity to craft jewelry pieces, providing them with a source of financial assistance and self-confidence as they work toward stability and self-sufficiency.

“My mother’s story is the inspiration behind this vision,” Cochran said. “I have been praying about this journey as it unfolds.”