Melissa Ohden & Claire Culwell

Melissa is the survivor of a failed saline infusion abortion in 1977. Despite the initial concerns regarding Melissa’s future after surviving the attempt to end her life at approximately seven months gestation, she has not only survived but thrived. With a Master’s Degree in Social Work, she has worked in the fields of substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence and sexual assault counseling, and child welfare. Melissa was formerly a College Outreach Speaker with Feminists for Life and is the former Patron of Real Choices Australia. She has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and the Australian Parliament. Melissa is on the Board of Directors for the Vitae Foundation, a national organization which uses media to advance a culture of life. In 2012, Melissa founded The Abortion Survivors Network (ASN). ASN seeks to educate the public about failed abortions and survivors while providing emotional, mental and spiritual support to abortion survivors. Since ASN’s inception, Melissa has been in contact with over 210 survivors. She is the author of You Carried Me, A Daughter\'s Memoir, which was released in January of 2017. After years of searching for her biological family and offering them forgiveness for the decision that was made to end her life, Melissa’s story, and her life, is so much more than one of survival. When Claire met her biological mother in March of 2009, she was told her life was a miracle. Claire\'s biological mom became pregnant at the age of 13. Her biological grandmother took her birth mother to an abortion clinic where she had a D and E procedure performed on her. Weeks later she realized she was still pregnant. After consulting with the abortionist who performed the first abortion, she was informed she had been pregnant with twins... only one of the twins had been aborted, the second baby had been undetected. Referred to an out-of-state late-term abortion clinic to do a second abortion, Claire\'s birthmother was told abortion would not be an option. Claire was born at 30 weeks gestation, weighing 3 lbs. 2 oz. She was adopted shortly after birth by an amazing family, whom she dearly loves.