HOLTS SUMMIT – Sharonda Donner never thought much about the harmful effects of abortion until it touched her own family.
A few years ago, Donner learned that one of her family members, after having some abortions, suffered emotionally and even became suicidal.
“We need to pray to end abortion,” Donner, now a member at Cedar Grove Baptist Church, Holts Summit, told her mother after learning about how this family member was suffering. “It is really destroying families—not only the baby itself, but the woman.”
In fact, according to a 2013 National Right to Life report, women who get an abortion face greater risks of suffering physically, emotionally and psychologically. According to the report, studies have shown a 30 percent increased risk of breast cancer among women who have abortions, as well as an 81 percent increased risk of mental health problems. Moreover, after having an abortion, women have an increased risk of future miscarriages or infertility, the report says.
Because of the harm that abortion brings both to the unborn and to women, Donner entered the race to end abortion. In fact, as an avid runner, she joined Life Runners, a pro-life group dedicated to praying, witnessing and raising money for health centers and other pro-life organizations.
Earlier this year, Donner—along with her husband and four children—represented Cedar Grove Baptist, Holts Summit, in a 5k Walk/Run in Jefferson City that benefitted the local pregnancy health center. Some other members from Cedar Grove Baptist also walked or ran at the event, and the church was among the top givers to the health center.
According to Donner, helping to fund these health centers is invaluable.
“It is a free, welcoming place where women and girls go,” she said. “And they not only give them free diapers and wipes and all their baby clothes, but also they teach them life skills. To me, that is the key. They have Bible studies for them. They have counseling for them. And it is free. Everything is free.”
“They say it is an alternative to Planned Parenthood, but it is way more than that,” she said, adding that pregnancy health centers “offer 100 percent” more than Planned Parenthood does—that is, 100 percent more, minus the abortions.
Donner is also a volunteer with the pro-life organization, 40 Days for Life. She and her 14-year-old son, Terrence, often drive to Columbia, where they pray and hand out information to women outside the local Planned Parenthood clinic.
“People call it ‘protests,’” Donner said. “We don’t protest. We pray.
“It is healing for me,” she added, “because I think that if someone was on the sidewalk for my (family member) when she went to Planned Parenthood—if someone had been there for her—then she probably wouldn’t have had her abortion.
“And that is why we’re there. We’re there to help that next young girl choose life for her child, so that she won’t have to go through what my (family member) is going through.”