I was cast in a Broadway show when I was 21 and on my way to becoming a successful actor and performer. My girlfriend at the time was using an IUD but it failed and she became pregnant. We thought abortion was the answer, and I believed I was being responsible by helping to pay for it. While I read magazines in the waiting room, she had a procedure that sent her back to me a changed person. She tumbled deeper and deeper into depression and I dove hard into my career. Ultimately, the relationship ended. 

I fathered a second child with another woman. Another abortion followed.

What I didn’t understand then was that, at the moment of conception, I was not a "potential father.” I truly was a father. I should have protected my children but I was at the top of my career and was selfishly pursuing my addiction to attention. In the aftermath of that abortion, I developed bulimia and shrunk to 115 pounds. My voice was hoarse and the doctor instructed me not to talk for three weeks. But I was in the US National tour of "Cats". I kept singing and I injured my voice permanently. I was 24 years old, and my singing career was over. 

I sacrificed my children on the altar of my ambition and lost everything in the process. Addictions came into my life as I tried to run from the pain. My misery drove me to my knees and I gave my life to Jesus, eventually becoming Catholic in 1995. 

My abortion recovery began when I was able to take responsibility for the gravity of what I had done. I received counseling, went on many retreats, including a Rachael’s Vineyard weekend. I found much healing in the sacrament of confession, and by sharing my testimony. 

After 25 years of celibacy, I married a wonderful woman named Kirsten in 2011. She had a dream that her life would be a "life song." In 2016, in Czestochowa, Poland, Kirsten had a profound experience with Mother Mary. Within a month, she was pregnant - at 48 years old, with no medical intervention. But Kirsten had breast cancer at the same time. She had the cancer removed under local anesthesia and she refused chemotherapy to protect our baby. Kirsten beat the cancer and our daughter was born healthy. Her name is Adessa and she is here with us today. 

Kirsten was healthy for several years and was running 5 kilometers regularly. Unfortunately, she developed ALS, a terminal neurological disease, and after 4 years of difficult decline, she died last December. Her interment is next week, May 13. 

She was a powerful witness for the sanctity of her baby in her womb and against euthanasia at the end of her life. Our daughter, Adessa, is a perfect example of a mother's protection from conception and I am Silent No More so I can tell their story.