The Revolving Door: How One Healed Woman Changes Culture

What if abortion healing isn’t simply about responding to something that has already happened?

What if it is part of how we change what happens next?

I remember the day I slid off my desk chair onto my knees.

I had been gathering and reading the testimonies of women who had found healing through Surrendering the Secret. There were so many of them. So many stories with the same threads woven throughout — He drew near. He was gentle. He offered grace. He gave gifts none of us felt we deserved.

I had my own healing testimony. But in that moment, it was as though Jesus had turned me around to face a multitude of women as far as my eyes could see. And I was completely undone by the love He had for them.

These women. The ones with abortion in their past. Women just like me.

That moment changed how I understand this work.

One Body. Many Parts.

For years, the pro-life movement has rightly focused on preventing abortion — advocating for life, supporting women and families, serving outside abortion facilities, working in pregnancy resource centers, educating communities, and praying for an end to abortion.

All of that matters.

But there is another part of this work that can sometimes be overlooked: walking beside the woman who had an abortion years ago and is still carrying the pain, shame, grief, or regret.

That work matters too.

The apostle Paul gives us a picture of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12 — many parts, each with a different function, all necessary to the health of the body. The pro-life movement is no different. Not everyone is called to do the same thing, and every part is needed.

At Surrendering the Secret, our part is this: helping wounded women find healing, so they can become voices for life.

The Ripple Effect of Healing

When a woman finds a safe place to surrender her secret — to encounter the truth of God’s Word, receive His forgiveness, and experience healing — something begins to change.

Her story changes. Her identity changes. Her understanding of God changes.

And often, her willingness to speak changes.

A woman who once hid her abortion may eventually become willing to tell her story. That testimony may help another woman recognize the reality of abortion. It may encourage someone who is considering abortion to choose life. It may lead her to serve in a pregnancy resource center, facilitate a healing group, mentor another woman, or simply become a safe and compassionate presence in her own church and community.

Healing creates ripples.

Working Upstream

There’s an idea I recently came across, in a speech by David Bereit, founder of 40 Days for Life that’s worth sitting with: lasting cultural change requires more than winning arguments or changing laws. We have to change the assumptions underneath those arguments — the beliefs, values, and ideas that people eventually stop questioning and simply accept as normal.

Bereit calls that upstream work.

And that’s exactly where abortion healing has a unique role to play.

When a woman comes through Surrendering the Secret, we’re not simply helping her recover from an abortion. We’re changing what she believes. We’re changing what she’ll teach her children. We’re changing how she’ll talk about abortion with her friends, disciple younger women, and respond if her daughter or granddaughter faces an unexpected pregnancy.

We’re changing how her church understands grace.

Those changes don’t stay contained within an STS group. They move outward.

One healed woman can influence a family.
A family can influence a church.
A church can influence a community.
A testimony can reach someone who is still wrestling with an abortion decision.

That’s culture changing — one heart at a time.

The Revolving Door

I’ve always pictured Surrendering the Secret as a revolving door.

The wounded and shame-filled cautiously step in. They find community. They encounter truth. They experience forgiveness and freedom. They begin to see themselves differently.

And eventually, they find the confidence to step back out into the world — but not the way they came in.

They leave with a story. They leave with compassion. They leave with a deeper understanding of grace and the ability to recognize pain in someone else.

And sometimes, they become the person who walks alongside the next woman coming through the door.

So the door keeps turning. And the cycle continues.

This is how healing multiplies. This is how culture begins to change.

What Part Will You Play?

We need every part of this movement.

We need those serving women in crisis. Those supporting families. Those praying. Those advocating.

And we need those willing to enter the quiet places of abortion’s aftermath and say to a wounded woman: There is hope. There is forgiveness. There is healing.

This is the work of Surrendering the Secret — not simply looking back at what has been lost, but believing God can redeem those stories and use them to bring hope, truth, compassion, and life to others.

Whatever your part in this work, there is a place for you.

If you feel called to lead — to walk beside wounded women, strengthen your ministry, and reach more women with the hope of healing — the STS Master Class was designed for you. It’s one way to step into this work with training, community, and support behind you.

Because culture doesn’t change all at once.
It changes one heart. One story. One relationship. One generation at a time.

Come join us in the work.