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SALT LAKE CITY — Bryonna Jones was advised by a lot of people to get an abortion after she found out early last year that she was pregnant.
The only other option people gave her was to put her child up for adoption.
"The joy of my announcement dissipated quickly," she said Saturday. "I felt stupid for wanting to have my baby."
Jones has cerebral palsy, asthma and other compromising health conditions, struggles financially, and wasn't even aware that she could bear children, yet she knew she felt happy about the prospect.
In front of a crowd of hundreds of Utahns, Jones stood from her wheelchair on Saturday and tore up a list of abortion clinic addresses given to her by a doctor at the beginning of her pregnancy and then asked to hold her newborn baby boy, Michael. After which, she wept. Happy tears.
Her actions were part of a March 4 Life event held in Salt Lake City, in which hundreds of Utahns marched from Washington Square, downtown, to the state Capitol to remember the nearly 59 million unborn babies in America since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1973. It was a the first time Pro-Life Utah has organized a local event to run in conjunction with a much bigger national march earlier this week that coincided with the anniversary of the court's decision.
"You can talk to a woman who had an abortion 30 years after the fact and she will still cry about it," said Deanna Holland, Pro-Life Utah vice president. "Abortion is not just an easy fix. It can sometimes lead to lifelong problems."
Pro-Life Utah, she said, was founded 18 months ago to provide resources and support to women facing potentially life-changing decisions pertaining to any pregnancy. Jones, 27, was one of the first women to contact them for help.
"Each child lost to abortion, each mother struggling with post-abortion trauma is one too many," Holland said. She also said meeting and working with Jones "has changed my life."
There are two licensed abortion clinics Utah, both in Salt Lake County, where an average of 3,200 of the procedures occur each year.
Holland said the most common reason women give for their choice is either they don't have the money they need to raise a child, or they feel it will interrupt their life plan in some way.
"We want to take those away and support these women," she said. "If a woman feels embraced by her community, that can make a difference."
Utah attorney Damian Kidd is the result of an unplanned teen pregnancy. His mom was 15 when he was born and lacked the support she needed to carry on, but through what he said was an act of "courage, sacrifice and love," Kidd was adopted by a family in Idaho and given amazing opportunities in life.
He is now an advocate for families and speaks out against abortion, hoping to help change the current law.
"I am forever thankful to my birth mother who gave me life," Kidd said.
Utah lawmakers are facing a bill, still in draft form, in this year's session that aims to ban abortions past 20 weeks of gestation. It is follow-up legislation to a 2016 Utah law that mandates anesthesia be given to women during an abortion with babies any older because research has shown that beyond that age, a fetus is able to feel pain.
That bill was the first of its kind in the nation to be passed.
Another bill, HB141, requires doctors to tell pregnant women who begin a prescription drug abortion regimen that their decision can be reversed even after one of the pills has been taken.
Pro-Life Utah, however, intends to fight a bill (HB215) seeking to change the content of sex education that is delivered in Utah schools.
"Of course we want kids to know how to protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs, but this bill has a hidden agenda," said Pro-Life president Mary Taylor. "This is where abortion starts. We wouldn't even be talking about abortion if proper morals are being taught."
