In 2009, Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins’ life changed with a single phone call.  

As SFLA features ALMOST ABORTED stories, Kristan Hawkins shares her story of multiple adverse diagnoses of her children and how it spurs her on for her family and the pro-life movement. ALMOST ABORTED’s six-figure national messaging campaign, Kristan is among many telling her story, including Faith, Rebecca, Josiah, Angela, Lily, Hope, Mia, Micaella, Tina, Karen, Rose, and Melissa.  

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On St. Patrick’s Day 2009, Kristan received a call that turned her and her family’s lives upside down. Their newborn son, Gunner, had tested positive for cystic fibrosis. Testing of children like Gunner and now her only daughter, Gracie, who has cystic fibrosis in the womb, results in a nearly 90% abortion rate. If Kristan was an abortion-vulnerable parent, two of her four kids could’ve been a statistic due to their genetic condition.  

HEAR KRISTAN’S STORY 

“I constantly hear in abortion debates how abortion must be legal even in later-stage pregnancies to avoid children like them from being born,” Kristan told SFLA. “I was fortunate to have an army of support behind me – my husband, my family, and my friends.” 

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However, Kristan knows that many women are pressured into abortion when they receive a cystic fibrosis diagnosis, often feeling helpless, confused, and like abortion is the “best” option.  

“Every day, we face the prejudice of those who look at others and believe they shouldn’t be alive – that it would be easier to get rid of those who might suffer rather than address the suffering,” said Kristan. “That it was selfish to allow two children with a life-long, life-shortening, expensive disease to be born and ‘waste’ medical resources that could have been directed to others.” 

Though the abortion-minded media, doctors, peers, and even family allow fear to end the lives of preborn children, Kristan didn’t share that fear. She wants other women to feel empowered to choose life with boldness and courage, even in a challenging diagnosis.  

To hear more stories of those walking among us who were Almost Aborted, visit Almost Aborted | Pressured but not Persuaded. 

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