By Maria V. Gallagher, Legislative Director

In her memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, actress Busy Philipps reveals that she had an abortion when she was a teenager.

At the time of what would have been her baby’s due date, she went on a tour of Europe. She speaks of her feelings following the abortion:

“I still cried regularly in bed at night, sure not only that I had murdered a baby but that I was also going to hell. How would God ever forgive me? How would my own father? How would I?”

Whenever Busy visited a cathedral during her trip to Europe, she would “light a candle and pray for forgiveness. Pray for my baby. Pray that God would allow me to have beautiful children in the future.”

At the Vatican, she found herself looking into the eyes of Pope John Paul II. He “then took my cheeks in his hands and said something softly in Italian, I guess? A prayer for me.” She remembers that his eyes were soft, and “that he really had love for me.”

The exchange occurred on her due date.

Women who have had abortions need healing and hope. When they cry out to heaven, we must be ready to respond to their tears with compassion.

Sadly, from the rest of the book, it appears that she believes in keeping abortion legal. I pray that one day she will recognize that the state should protect women and children from going through what she and her baby underwent. Meanwhile, let us as pro-lifers always approach women who have had abortions with the tenderness of Pope John Paul II.