A true witness for life

Amada Rosa Pérez made her living as a successful model and actress in Colombia, best known for her role in the telenovela La Costeña y El Cachaco as Sofia. However, her life wasn’t all glitz and glamour; she spoke about having an abortion and the immense pain it caused her, as well as how she learned to heal and help spare other women from experiencing that pain as well. Pérez has been speaking out in protest of Colombia’s decision to legalize abortion. She said “I had an abortion out of fear, because I was pressured by my partner and I believed in what they told me, that the most important thing was my dreams and my professional success.” The experience left her traumatized. “I had suicidal thoughts,” she said. “I believed that I wasn’t worthy to go on living because I had killed my child, and I suffered from a fixation on memories related to the abortion. Perhaps one of the most common consequences is the loss of tenderness; our woman’s heart becomes harder.” Eventually, Pérez gave herself to God, and allowed herself to heal from the pain. But she wants to save other women from experiencing what she went through, especially after the pro-life country’s shocking decision to make abortion legal. She said further “We’re living in a culture of death that wants to take away the value of motherhood and is damaging the minds and hearts of girls and women who think that if they end the life of their children they will be free. On the contrary, that makes them slaves! Behind abortion is a big business run by men who make women believe that they’re fighting for their rights, when what they’re doing is harming their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health,” she explained. Today, she hopes women will give themselves to God as she did, and that her voice will make a difference. “I’m simply a grain of sand,” she said. “God allowed me to be a public figure to give his messages. I only ask Him to never let go of me and to be able to do His will.”