Melissa Ohden grew up like any other child in her neighborhood, happy and healthy. She had a lot of friends and enjoyed school. It wasn't until she was 14 that she was told the truth about your birth story.

Ohden explains that the feelings of anger and loneliness overwhelmed her when she found out that her birth mother didn't actually want her. It wasn't just that she didn't want her, but that her mom had tried to kill her.

Her birth mother was a 19-year-old college student when she got pregnant. She was eight months along when her mother forced her to get an abortion.

The abortion option they choose was to have a saline solution injected into the womb that was supposed to kill the baby, and then they would induce labor and deliver the baby stillborn.

Unbeknownst to the mother, Ohden was actually born alive. Not even the doctors noticed she was alive when they put her in medical waste. Thankfully a nurse heard her little cries and carried baby Ohden into the NICU.

Ohden was adopted and raised like any other child. She did not have any learning or physical disabilities like doctors thought she would.

Through time and learning of her birth mother's experience, Ohden has come to forgive her birth mother for trying to abort her. Ohden shares her story because she wants to give a name, a face and a voice to the abortion crisis.

The mother-child bond

The process of pregnancy bonds mothers to their baby. The sacrifice each mother makes of her body for the child creates an unbreakable bond between mother and child. She feels only love for her child.

No one would exist without a mom. We often take for granted the work and the pain each mother goes through for their child. But a mother will never forget the pain and changes she has gone through for her child.

Education and love will change many of these sad situations instead of hate, anger and shaming

Through the love of support of her adopted parents, Ohden is now an activist to teach women that there is always a better option for a mother and child than abortion. Ohden encourages women everywhere to become educated on birthing options and the realities of abortion.

Ohden wants people to get away from statistics and instead think about the people like her that just need the opportunity to live.