A self-described daddy’s girl, Serena Dye wasn’t allowed to have boyfriends when she was 15 and still in high school.
When she missed her period and tried to hide her pregnancy from her parents, her best friend’s mom let it slip, and her father flew into an uncontrollable rage.
Now 38 and a mother of five, Dye is the regional executive director of a pro-life pregnancy center in Illinois, where she grew up. She believes that had the abortionist she was taken to as a scared teen brought her parents back to see the ultrasound, and the truth that was growing inside her, they wouldn’t carry such awful remorse today.
Their being of Indian descent had something to do with her dad’s reaction, Dye believes. She described a “very scary conversation” after her parents learned the news.
“He started yelling and telling me, ‘You’re going to have an abortion right away,’” she told The Epoch Times. “At first, my mom was resistant to that and she told me that she would help me and that that wouldn’t happen. But my dad continued with his outrageous behavior, just very angry, for a week of nonstop yelling.”
She recalled her dad telling her mom he would divorce her if Dye didn’t go through with the abortion.
“He was our main source of income. We lived in a very nice lifestyle,” Dye said. “And so my mom, after a week of this pressure, came to me and begged me to have the abortion.”
Dye said she tried to remain strong in resisting them until he eventually threatened to get a gun and end his own life.
“I felt very numb because of all the abuse coming toward me and all the pressure,” she said. “I gave in and decided to go through with the abortion. I didn’t even feel like myself anymore. I just felt no emotion at all.”
Looking back, she sees the cultural roots being a factor in this; you could be killed in certain villages if something like that were to happen, she said.
“We went to the Planned Parenthood of Iowa City and when I walked into the waiting area it was very dark, very dingy, very not clean,” she said. “There were several women in the waiting room and I just remember looking around and seeing all of them. And they were all having their heads down and I just began to cry.”
She cried so hard that her mom asked to have her taken back into the room ahead of her turn. When the nurse spoke to her, Dye admitted she didn’t want to go through with it. The nurse then said they couldn’t move forward unless she was consenting, so the family was sent away.
Dye’s dad hollered at her the whole car ride home, she said. That was followed by another week of him “yelling and screaming,” before she gave in a second time.
This time, the abortionist, at a different clinic, had her sign the papers first, as Dye’s parents informed them what happened the time before. She described the procedure:
After the abortion, Dye and her dad’s relationship got back on track, though he would later express regret for what he had done, as did her mom. Dye’s forgiving them would come with time, after she found her faith. Forgiving herself would take a far more painful process. When a member of her church decided to write a book of abortion experience accounts, they contacted Dye and managed to draw out some of her undealt-with raw injuries.
“I would end up on the floor in the fetal position and in so much pain, emotional pain, as I relived those moments and talked about these things,” Dye said. “But talking about them was the best thing that I ever did because it put everything in the light that was hiding deep down inside my heart.”
Thus, her healing began.
A lot of prayer followed, she said. The only reason she can talk about her story now is that she had her post-abortive healing, and was “set free by Jesus.” At the age of 21, she accepted her Lord and Savior.
Now married 16 years, Dye has five kids—her oldest is 20, and her youngest is 11. She devotes her time to revealing the truth to expectant women and parents at her pregnancy center, where she shows them ultrasound scans and helps them weigh the options and choose life.
“If the abortion clinic would have taken us all back for counseling before we went forward with the abortion, and if my parents were also called back into that ultrasound room and were able to see the truth of what was growing inside of me—if they were able to see the heartbeat and the little legs and the little limbs—they may have changed their mind,” she said. “We need to present families with the whole truth about these situations.”
Looking back at her abortion, Dye wishes her parents had had the mindset that the baby growing inside her had a right to life, too. Had they considered her child their grandchild, there wouldn’t have been any dilemma.
“The choice would have been clear and easy that, ‘Oh, we need to support Serena,’” she said, “and let her have this baby because this is a child, this is a human, and this is our grandchild.”
She said, “Abortion did not help me. It hurts me and it hurt my future. It stole parts of my life that I can never get back and it took a life away from our family that we won’t know, until we go to Heaven someday.”
