As the abortion debate rages, Karen Ellison and her organization Deeper Still are working to change the way our culture thinks about life.

“I think part of this whole abortion debate has tried to frame it around our identity. Like if I have to have children, then somehow I am being enslaved in some way,” she said in a recent interview with The Pure Flix Podcast. “Children have become the bad guy in this. And somehow it takes away from my womanhood or it takes away from my identity.”

Ellison continued, “But we’ve taken it to such an extreme degree that it has pitted women against their children and fathers against their children. We’ve become so idolatrous.”

Listen to Ellison, author of the book Healing The Hurt That Won’t Heal: Freedom for Abortion-Wounded and Help For The Church They Fear,” share her story and her quest to help save lives:

She highlighted the recent Golden Globe Awards where actress Michelle Williams used her acceptance speech as an opportunity to shout her pro-abortion beliefs.

Williams’ speech was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation — a true sign of the times, said Ellison.

“The louder we shout to try to justify our abortion, the more you drown out the real cry of your heart,” she said. “You want your heart to go numb, you don’t want to feel the guilt, you don’t want to feel the shame, you don’t want to acknowledge the consequences. … You want to have music so loud that you drown out the nightmares that you’re having.”

And Ellison knows from personal experience. When she was 22 years old, she had an abortion.

At the time, she said, there was no national conversation on abortion. So, despite her Christian faith and Christian upbringing, she found external forces like shame and fear pressuring her to go through with the procedure.

Her experience led her on a path of discovery and she dedicated her life to sharing what true freedom is through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that only God can bring.

The kingdom of the world does not acknowledge or repent of sin, Ellison points out. “The Kingdom of God, however — it’s a different kingdom. In that Kingdom, we are to bring the hidden things into the light. We’re not to keep them in darkness,” she said. “Our approach to that is, first of all, you come with an open heart. You repent for your sin. You acknowledge what your sin is. And we shed innocent blood. We took the lives of our children. We bring that into the light as a confession. We humbly bring that before the Lord. And then God, in His gracious wonderfulness — He’s so willing to take what used to be our arrogant, in-your-face attitude. And He will forgive us.”

Ellison’s work with Deeper Still aims to help mothers and fathers of aborted children heal. She said that she sees men and women from their 20s to their 70s come in when they are ready to face the truth of their decisions. And she said it is only then, when they want to be honest, that they can truly heal.

“We’ve seen 1,000 women that have come out of extreme bondage and found freedom and found their voice,” she said.

Ellison’s goal is not only to reach the parents of 61 million aborted children so they can experience healing and forgiveness, but to also help the church learn how to deal with the abortion-wounded. She addresses that in her book Healing The Hurt That Won’t Heal: Freedom for Abortion-Wounded and Help For The Church They Fear.

“You may be shamed, you may be condemned. But we have to get to the point where we don’t care and we want to live in the light, we want to live in freedom. The church needs to create a culture of light and life and healing,” she said. “We want to help empower the church and give pastors a voice and a way to talk about this.”

 

Billy Hallowell has worked as a journalist and commentator for more than a decade. He is the director of communications and content for PureFlix.com, the former senior editor at Faithwire.com and the former faith and culture editor at TheBlaze.

This article was originally published on Pure Flix Insider. Visit Pure Flix for access to thousands of faith and family-friendly movies and TV shows. You can get a free trial here.