Former youth pastor regrets double lifestyle that resulted in four abortions

In high school, Mark Bradley Morrow was an “All American Good Guy” who never consumed alcohol or took drugs. As an athlete, his days outside the classroom were spent playing varsity tennis and golf. 

Morrow told Live Action News, “I was the class clown, just a happy-go-lucky guy who went to church but never really had a deep relationship with Christ.  It wasn’t until a year after high school that I accepted Jesus as my Savior at 19. Just 10 weeks later, my dad passed away.” 

Sadly, Morrow veered off course, indulging in a duplicitous lifestyle that led to four abortions in less than 24 months.

After his mother remarried, Morrow went through a six-month period of being “homeless and aimless.” He found his calling as a youth pastor, preaching the importance of abstinence and purity. Yet Morrow wasn’t the person he pretended to be. He and his girlfriend were engaging in premarital relations which would take him down a dark path.

“The first sexual relationship I ever had with a woman I loved, and it resulted in an unplanned pregnancy,” Morrow said. “Neither of us knew want to do. We didn’t really want to have an abortion, but the humiliation and judgment would be unbearable if we didn’t. To alleviate my responsibility, I told my girlfriend it was her body, her choice.”

At Planned Parenthood, Morrow wrestled with his inner voice telling him to get up and leave. Yet he didn’t. Morrow said, “When you play with fire, you’re going to get burned. We both did what we didn’t want to do. Our relationship didn’t survive the abortion and we broke up.”

The experience, Morrow points out, “catapulted” him into the “jerk” category but it didn’t stop him from moving on to another relationship, with a college girl several years his junior. Marriage and children weren’t for him, so this new alliance was just a short-term “fling.” Seven months later, he received a call from his former partner informing him she became pregnant from their dalliance – but had taken “care of it.”

“She knew I didn’t want children, so she took it upon herself to schedule the abortion,” Morrow said. “It was a way, I think, to lure me back but the revelation made me sick. I had gotten two girls pregnant, both who had abortions and I needed to get right with God.”

Still serving as a youth pastor, Morrow was encouraged to enroll in seminary to further his religious education – while living a secret life.

“I drove around in a Corvette stingray which I referred to as the ‘chick magnet.’ I was so full of myself at times,” Morrow said. “But pride comes before the fall.”

On New Year’s Eve, Morrow took his date out for a night of celebration. Ironically, it was close to the anniversary of the first abortion. That didn’t stop Morrow from submitting to carnal urges.

“I got a letter in the mail a few months later from this girl informing me I had gotten her pregnant,” Morrow said. “She had an abortion because her Christian university ‘frowns’ upon unplanned pregnancies.”

Morrow sent her a card apologizing for her ordeal and included a four hundred dollar check to cover the expenses of the abortion along with a stuffed teddy bear to assuage his guilt.

Morrow said, “I was living a fraudulent lifestyle, chastising myself for all my indiscretions but had no ability to stop. I was creating my own nightmare.” Still, the behavior continued.

What could have been a sweet reunion for Morrow and his first love when he invited her to celebrate his grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary instead resulted in a fourth abortion. This time, however, the couple had used ‘protection.’ It failed.  

“When she called me to tell me she was pregnant, I was stunned,” Morrow said. “I thought I was being careful. We discussed some options and appeared to be on the same page but later, she informed me she terminated the pregnancy. She knew I didn’t want children. Again, it seemed to be about what I wanted.”

A spiritual epiphany results in a transformation

While Morrow was horrified, he was also a bit relieved. Years later, as he was studying for his master’s degree, he met his future wife who was divorced with a young child. It was during this time that he realized he could no longer ignore his past sins and re-dedicated his life to Christ with renewed commitment. 

Morrow said, “I told my girlfriend I could no longer be intimate with her until we were married. She agreed to marry me, but I made it clear I didn’t want children, so I got a vasectomy. It was akin to closing the barn door after the horses ran out.”

After parenting his stepson and discovering how fulfilling fatherhood was, he decided to reverse the vasectomy and start a family with his new wife. Shortly afterward, while hosting his radio show, Morrow was ecstatic to learn on-air that his wife was pregnant.

“It was such a joyful time. But then, my wife miscarried,” Morrow said. “I felt it was punishment from God for all I had done. Satan was taunting me with the four abortions, a vasectomy and now a miscarriage. My world was starting to unravel. It was a painful, bitter time.”

The greatest pretender comes clean about the devastation of abortion

Morrow recognized he had harbored the secret of the abortions for 18 years, never telling his wife. But once he confessed, he felt unburdened, as if Satan no longer wielded power over him.

While the disclosure did taint the marriage, the couple became parents to a son and daughter, and over time, slowly put the shattered pieces of their marriage back together.

“I learned what a blessing it was to be a dad,” Morrow said. “My greatest achievement is raising my children to be loving, productive human beings.”

In 2019, Morrow wrote his book, “The Greatest Pretender” to share the truth about the devastating consequences of abortion on both men and women. Though he maintains a private counseling practice, he travels around the country whenever possible, to speak at pregnancy support center banquets. 

“I pray my message resonates with both men and women. There’s nothing life-affirming or freeing about abortion,” Morrow said. “That’s why I urge those who are post-abortive, to tell someone, whether it’s a trusted friend or a pastor. Get that monkey off your back so you can start the healing process.”

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