Valerie Borzy shares her transformative journey from pro-choice to pro-life, marked by personal struggles and spiritual healing.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and I want to share an amazing conversation I had on the “Pro-Life Team Podcast” with Valerie Borzy, a nurse and Director of Patient Resources at a pregnancy center. Valerie’s journey from pro-choice to pro-life began with her own experiences of teen pregnancy, marriage, divorce, and an abortion she deeply regretted. She struggled with depression and sought healing through bodybuilding and wellness, but it wasn’t until she turned back to God that she began her true healing journey. After receiving a sign from God, Valerie joined a pregnancy center, where she underwent a post-abortion healing program. Her story is a testament to the transformative power of faith, forgiveness, and healing.
Hashtags: #ProLifeJourney, #HealingFromAbortion, #FaithAndForgiveness, #PregnancyCenterLeadership, #ChristianTestimony, #OvercomingDepression, #SpiritualWellness, #GodsGuidance, #WomenEmpowerment, #ProLifePodcast
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
So, so Valerie, I’m excited to have you on the pro-life Team Podcast. Would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a group of pricey clinic executive directors and leadership teams?
Valerie Borzy :
Yes thank you, Jacob, for having me on today my name is Valerie Borzee. I’ve been a nurse for about 27 years. I’m currently working as a Director of Patient Resources in a pregnancy center and that’s where my journey has led me to.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome and tell us your story or your journey of getting, you know, going from pro-choice to pro-life or, you know, maybe start at the beginning and tell us about that journey.
Valerie Borzy :
Yeah, so I actually, I grew up in a Christian home, was saved at a very young age, was very supported by a Christian home. And then I found myself at 16, pregnant. And I was at that time in my life, my i did continue that pregnancy. I was married. I had, you know, pretty much my parents supported me through this journey. However, it did lead me into some poor relationships. And I had, you know, a little bit of, I think still that shame and guilt from that pregnancy. But my that marriage ended up in divorce. And through that time of going through that divorce, I end up getting pregnant again and found myself in a situation at that time where I didn’t want to continue that pregnancy and it wasn’t. I feel now that as I have experienced some healing and really under trying to understand that decision making fear, guilt, shame had a very significant impact on how much choice I made. And at the time I knew it was wrong i didn’t want to have an abortion. However, it was suggested to me at the time, I wasn’t married with the with the, with the father, and he suggested to have an abortion and I knew that in that time and in that space of where I was that I didn’t really want to find myself in that position again. So I did go through with an abortion and I pretty much just told myself that it was something that I was just going to take to my grave. I, you know, Denver told anyone, you know, I had a lot of good friendships and things in that time of my life, but I didn’t tell anyone. I did end up marrying the father, the baby and we went on to have another child and together and our marriage, you know, I’m still married to him today so Kat is good he’s you know he’s led me through a lot of pain but also I mean I really didn’t experience my what I considered my healing journey until almost 20 years later. So I had after we got married, I started having a lot of unexplained symptoms of depression but I never really named it depression, but I just really wasn’t myself and I and I just really had a hard time with focusing. But then I committed myself to try and this is one thing that I noticed that I started to do is look for things to, you know, distract me. And health and Wellness had always been something that I enjoyed and so at the time I went on this very what I call extreme health and Wellness journey, I got into bodybuilding and just really had a just really had a fixation on trying to what I thought at the time be something that was going to I think really I don’t know just be that be that something to fill the void that I was filling inside of me. And so as I go through that it very, it very much so became an idol in my life and it nearly did destroy our marriage. I had, you know, times where, you know, through our finances, through just really feeling empty and I could not explain that feeling even after having a job that i I’ve always loved my nursing career, having a job that I loved, almost seeing that come to an end because I just really couldn’t focus anymore i was being not myself. My supervisors were telling me there’s something that you know that I’m just not seeing in you are always have been a very positive person and this is affecting your work you’re not you know and so as I, you know really kind of came to the end of myself it was hard to really acknowledge that I myself had just I couldn’t fill the void. So as I finally just, I guess at that time I was being surrounded by a lot of God, put a lot of mentors in my life, a lot of other mentors. And I started returning back to God. I started just having a relationship where I felt God leading me to. I started in a new church and started really experiencing a change in my spiritual Wellness and well-being and where I turned back to the Lord. And when I did that, I just, you know, started to have that spiritual, you know, healing that it started. But I still hadn’t had any kind of transformation as far as telling anyone about that. And I just continued on, I guess, getting myself in a closer relationship with God. And he continued to put people in my life who helped me on that journey to return back to God. And as I kept doing that, there was a prayer that with a group of women that I had, he had so graciously put in my life that I was praying on my way to work and it. And my prayer was, God, I want to be used to you by you to and heal others and only a way that you can heal because I started feeling in my nursing career that I really wasn’t helping others anymore. So I started working in functional medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and I really enjoyed i mean it’s just a, it’s a wonderful part of medicine where they really, like, try to explore the root cause of problems and I really had thought that was where the guy was leading me, was that I was going to be able to help others heal through this whole journey, ’cause they use mind, body, spirit, you know, really trying as a whole, you know. And I really felt that was where he was calling me to. And then lo and behold, I got COVID and I was home on leave from that at work and I received this thank you letter from our church raises funds for a pregnancy center and we do this baby bottle blessings. And I received a thank you card and I could not stop crying. And I’m like why am I crying i mean, like sobbing, crying not just like, you know, getting a little tearful but like very emotional. And so I hold. I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to look to see if there was a job at this center and I’m like, I really was like questioning him like why? Because through all my years of experiences and nurses and nursing, rather I had not worked in OB wasn’t something that I thought I was qualified for. I’m like why am I why would I want to get a job? I love my job. I love my job right now. But lo and behold, the Lord would not let me stop thinking about this so I looked and sure enough, that was the only position at the at the center was the director of patient resources, resources, which is essentially over the medical department. So I did end up putting in an application i came in for an interview and yes, I took that position based on faith i was like, I don’t know why, but I was really feeling called here. And so yeah, so I did that and when I came here, like during some my orientation, I still hadn’t quite thought of what why is the guy calling me here? But during my orientation, one of the directors handed me a book, ’cause she was explaining to me all the different aspects of their educational services and resources that they have here. And it was a book called I’ll Hold You in Heaven. And I looked down at that book and I started crying and I’m like, that’s why I’m here because I had never experienced healing from my abortion and so that led me on a journey of going through a post abort of healing that our center does called forgiven and set free. And I went through that and as I was here, I really felt as I was not quite healed yet, I was seeing patients and but I was so able to connect to what they were saying to me and I just my heart was breaking for them. And I’m like, this is, This is why I’m here because I pray the prayer. You can only heal them because I found that out myself. I look for other ways to heal in all of my knowledge of being a nurse i tried every everything I could possibly think of, but nothing ever truly took away the hurt and one of the I did actually share. As I started here at the center, i shared my testimony with the women’s group and after I read this article, his name is Jeff Bradford he’s the director of Human Coalition he’s one of the and he talked about this idea of pervasive grief. And as I was reading that article, I so related to it and what that really means is that type of grief just kind of goes into, it oozes into every relationship that you have in your life. And I truly saw that happening in my marriage, in my parenting, in my work. I mean it started to affect every relationship that I had because all of the pain and the hurt that I had in the emotional grief that I had never dealt with. You know, obviously now knowing the different stages of grief and how you know you are to really walk through it i went through some counseling as well. It was just spewing out of every area of my life, you know, with my kids like i would parents from a way that was truly trying to you know just protect them in a way that obviously was just not allowing them to experience life and make choices and things like that i just, you know, with my husband, it was hard to sometimes relate to him. I would feel very angry at some at some point in time and just it would just come out of my mouth and different ways it was not, you know, it’s something that I was proud of, but I couldn’t understand it. But that kind of grief is what happens it just kind of just takes over all the different areas of your life. And so I as I went through healing, I truly understood why I was here. And I have since been here for about 2 and a half years now. And I also am a Revelation Wellness Instructor. And Revelation Wellness is an amazing ministry that uses fitness as a way to spread the gospel. And as I was going through my healing journey, my abortion healing journey, I was also reading a book through the through this revelation one is called The Body Revelation and it’s really a the author, Elisa Keaton talks about how to metabolize your pain. And a lot of us have experienced trauma in our life that we don’t truly deal with. We kind of just try to stuff it down or what, whatever way that you find yourself trying to take care of these different types of traumas. And I was very excited to read about it, ’cause she goes really deep into like our brain and how that we can’t choose to actually do the right things when we’ve experienced trauma because we’re not functioning in our high level of our brain which is our prefrontal cortex medial cortex and how that we continue to do things that we don’t really necessarily want to do. But we’re actually not able to make those choices because a lot of that it on our one of the areas of our brain our amygdala is our very was the fight flight and freeze and it’s overly active it’s hyperactive and so we act react a lot of that emotion in the lower part of our brain is where that function is and so she talks about ways to metabolize us well as I was going through this it was this I guess at the same time I had this amazing I guess freeing time experience with the from that. So basically moving your body during this time we there was a portion of this that you moved your body and the Lord kept really it kind of putting that word in my mind move because the reason why is because I had through this all this experience of grief. I stopped moving my body. I was not taking care of my body. I had started to gain weight i just started to have a lot of things going on with my body aches like back pain. All these different things that I have never experienced before because I had really taken pride out of being able to have a lot of what I consider great health habits. And so when I saw myself doing this, I mean I really did not want to move and as I learned more about that when you do become and at that place of your of trauma there’s a hyper state and then there’s a really low state and so in that low lower part of that trauma where you get overwhelmed, you don’t want to do anything. So he kept telling me I kept hearing this word move and as I started moving my body I had this I looked up the word for moving Hebrew and I love to study Hebrew i’m not really someone to actually I’m not super knowledgeable but I have found it to be very enlightening and very to understand deeper meanings of the scriptures and things so it’s a var is the name is in script in and so as I looked that up just looked up an article I was reading it and the author of this article was talking about the definition of and what it means in Hebrew and it’s to move over to move through and to move out. Ok. Basically those were the understandings from what I can remember of this of this word. And so I kept reading through down through the article and one of the things I struggled with through my healing journey was forgiving myself. I struggled really. I couldn’t i thought I’d forgiven myself I thought and really how to love, allow the Lord’s love to be something that I received. Because through this I said that I love the Lord and I believe that Lord loved me, but I truly wasn’t receiving his love and I really wasn’t able to forgive. So as I was reading through this article it talked about the meaning of the word move. And he described as a wave comes in from an ocean and it as it comes in into the to the shore and it hits a rock that this wave is completely shattered it’s completely gone it’s no longer as if and that he was also referencing Psalms 51 which is a scripture that David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba was very much lamenting and distress over that and it’s it was just in that moment it was like this the Lord just allowed this revelation it was only could have been through the Holy Spirit of seeing myself as that wave and as it being shattered that no that sin was no longer ever going to be known again by the Lord that he forgave me and it wasn’t it was as if it never happened and that just allowed freedom that I’ve never experienced before. And I the most amazing thing is after that my back pain went away. I started not feeling the way I was as far as fatigued like I’ve been telling you, like, so extremely tired that I would come home and just really not want to do anything. And a lot of these physical symptoms just went away, like went away. And that to me was freedom. And I so from that, I really realized that there is so much that we are offered through the. It can only come from God. They can only come from a God i can I, you know, I was going to a chiropractor. I was going and seeking out all the knowledge that I knew as a nurse to try to figure out all of these things that was wrong with me physically. Like, I thought it was my hormones i was going through menopause i’m like, oh, it’s just my hormones it’s just this, it’s just that none of it worked. None of it worked until I had that healing from the Lord and it was like a weight had lifted from me. I just, I can’t even explain. And it allowed me then to also operate in a new freeing way when I was here at the center, because I also was experiencing a lot of taking on their pains. You know, people that I get to consult with here, I was just taking on a lot of that pain and it was really hard for me to let it go. So that is just been an amazing experience. And since that time I’m just, I feel very just in a place where I want to bring health and healing to so many people through my own experience, through what I’ve learned i mean, I have since I’ve been at this center too like I’ve had amazing care Net in Heartbeat International and App Blog and all of these amazing healthcare professionals and organizations who are pro-life I have truly understood like I never ever understood abortion in a way that I have now to look at the history to see understand that where you know it, where did it start? You know what has been happening i’ve never was a even as a healthcare professional I really even hate to admit this like I was a nurse at that time. But I never asked any questions. They never told me like informed consent was out the window. But I as a nurse, I should have known better i should have asked questions. But when you are in that situation, I think one of the biggest things that I learned out of my healing journey was fear was what truly was the fear of man, fear of not being accepted philip, you know, at the time I was, you know, in a relationship that I didn’t want to lose. So everything that I knew, you know, as a Christian, as a healthcare professional, it all went out the window. And so i can see how these women know what the right thing to do is, but they can’t make that choice because I was there. And I feel as if because they have this, you know, first of all, they don’t know all they don’t give them all of the information. They just, you know, a lot of them don’t understand their choices they don’t understand what is going on in their pregnancy and where they’re at in their pregnancy, what is to be, you know, expected during these procedures and things like that and so I’ve learned a lot of information and I think that there’s power and being able to be truthful and share that. And so I’m just, I’m grateful. I’m grateful to be here i’m grateful to for the Lord to use me in a way that only he can use me because he’s healed me of that. And I’m just saying yes to wherever He wants me to go. And I’m praying that I will be able to allow at least to be that person who can speak through the life and to other women so.
Jacob Barr :
Wow thank you so much for sharing your story and just reflecting on it was such good insight and yeah, just wow thank you so much for sharing what was it like to Share your story today like as you’re, you know, here you are, you you’re shared your story, I don’t know how many times but what’s it like to share it today?
Valerie Borzy :
You know, I think it’s still at sometimes could be raw, but I do believe that as the Lord has healed my heart and my and knowing that there is freedom in that it gets easier the more I tell my story. I think it gets to come from a place of there’s something powerful about sharing your story from a place that you’ve been healed versus someone that is not and it’s raw and it’s if you haven’t walked through that journey, it’s difficult you. And so I believe that now it’s just it is it’s always something I think that and also our journey continues, right i think that’s another thing that I’ve learned is that I continue to understand more and more about abortion. The Lord has given me more and more insight as I continue on, you know, with my position and also just being someone who has walked through that, he continues i continue to pray and ask for wisdom and insight on things that I can share. So it’s a it’s a lifelong process, I think, of healing and being able to recognize who our healer is.
Jacob Barr :
So what was the last passage that you read in the Bible or what was the last thing you remember reading?
Valerie Borzy :
The last passage for what do you?
Jacob Barr :
That you that you read or that you heard, like whether it would have been at a previous church service or that you read as part of a Bible study what was the last passage you read?
Valerie Borzy :
Well, Oh my goodness, I have lots of passages but I can tell you one of them, a passage that I put on a vision board that continually I use as kind of like my life verse, is Isaiah 61 One, I really do believe the spirit of the sovereign Lord i mean, that was Jesus’s words as he’s speaking and he’s unrolling the scroll and what was to come. I do believe that as I have experienced this healing that he wants to use my story and my testimony to help set the captives free and to really bind up the broken hearted. I have a real passion and desire for those people that are broken. And so I am just saying yes because that truly and The thing is that I wrote that on a vision board at a youth group we were doing vision boards at a youth group overnight two years before I came here. So as you can see the Lord was already in that he already knew you know I think where my where the he was going to be leading me and I didn’t even really understand that but that verse is just very powerful to me.
Jacob Barr :
Sure, I’m going to go ahead and read that passage. So Isaiah 61 one is the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release the darkness for the prisoners. That really seems to speak into what you’re doing. Fighting against abortion and for freedom from sin and freedom from bondage of shame. So wow, what a powerful passage to ponder upon.
Valerie Borzy :
Yeah, and I think the first, my first time that I shared my testimony, I actually the title of it was gracefully broken to fight and fight stood for, fervently ignite God’s holy transformation, and that’s truly how it has been like. His Grace has allowed me to understand what it means to go through that holy transformation and fight for not only for myself, but for others to continue on this journey.
Jacob Barr :
Wow. So when you’re when you’re working as a nurse, helping women who are considering, well, who are at risk of choosing abortion, you know, where have you seen God’s fingerprints in that work?
Valerie Borzy :
Wow i have. You know it always used to bother me when I first started here when I would meet with someone and they were really there initial thought was to have to was to consider abortion and when they left that they still were considering abortion. However I have seen God’s hands in through the power of we do ultrasounds here and being able to see inside the womb has really been instrumental and some of them changing their mind and ironically womb in Hebrew is the word Rakeem and it means mercy and so understanding how much his mercy and his love and his kindness is in that side that little you know little one growing inside of the womb it’s we call it the window into the womb, right, that ultrasound because it allows them to see that. But I just reflect on that God’s mercy for these women as they are going through all what they’re going through he continues to love them such a way that through this little gift of the of a child allows them to be able to transform their whole life. And I have seen some women who have made the choice to keep their babies. And when they come back here for a second ultrasound or for another visit, their whole demeanor was different. It was like amazing to see. And I mean that person was looked, I mean just to look at them, look at their face, their whole demeanor was different. We’ve had some really great stories and testimonies that I see God’s hand and it’s just beautiful.
Jacob Barr :
Wow. So I got one more question for you before we start to wrap things up. So when you chose abortion many years ago, what was one of the top false beliefs that you heard that was persuading you or was impacting you to make that decision at that time? And how would you speak truth to that false belief today?
Valerie Borzy :
I think the biggest lie that was on during that time was that I could have the abortion and it would be something that I could hide and no one was going to need to know about it and I could just go on with my life. That was the biggest lie because I, at the time, you know, I didn’t want, you know, I was going through a divorce, didn’t want anyone to know and that it might affect things that was happening in the divorce it might affect my, you know, relationship it might, you know, I might lose my relationship with my, with the father if I decided to, you know, not have the abortion. So a lot of it was just fear and not on and another really big, I guess lie that most people believe is that they’re going to be able to have care from when they go like so i don’t remember anyone asking me anything at the at the abortion clinic about what I wanted to do what or give me an informed consent that was the other big thing i don’t ever remember them talking to me about the procedure, what was going to happen. And you know, now that I have learned since I have in this position too, truly what happens during an abortion i have it just grieves me so much. And I think that is the biggest lies that if we could just I can just get rid of this now everything will go back to normal and that’s what I thought I could just get rid of this pregnancy everything was going to go back to normal and nothing would ever nobody would ever know and it would just all be life will return back to normal But as my story shares it doesn’t go back to normal. We Our Bodies does not forget that pregnancy and it will continue to come and just take over your mind at some point in time, your mind, your choices and how you know everything else like I said, that persuasive grief just it just continues in your life. If I think he described it like a windshield that’s cracked, When you look through a cracked windshield, you have a different perspective on and everything that you’re looking at because it’s cracked. And I think that’s the same as with abortion is you. After that, you just don’t have the same perspective out on life.
Jacob Barr :
Wow thank you so much for sharing the yeah sharing your thoughts and wisdom. Would you, would you wrap up our podcast with a prayer, Call it maybe really calling for these false beliefs to be broken and for light to be shy, you know, shown on with the truth, defeating that darkness?
Valerie Borzy :
Yes, Amen. Yes, for sure. Oh, Heavenly Father, I say thank you so much for this time together with Jacob and just being able to use this technology to share my story. And Father I just asked Lord as we come before you before your throne of grace with confidence, knowing Father that you are here and you’re going to answer this prayer. I pray Lord that you would shite shine your light so bright in and through all of those Father that are coming on these podcasts and are breaking the silence father God of their abortion experience. I pray Father God that you would allow truth to be made known to women and that they can see Father the that it is not healthcare it is not good for them to make choices that take life. That even though they may have a choice, that choice doesn’t come with freedom, because as we experience an ongoing lifetime of trying to cover up and try to remove ourselves from that it creates bondage. So I declare and decree Isaiah 61 over every woman that may be listening here, that the Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon us, Lord. And I decree and declare, Lord, that you will set the captives free. You will bind up the broken hearted and allow truth to be made known throughout this nation. And I pray, Father God, that others will rise up in this time for such a time as this, and they will not be silent, that they will continue, Father God, to make their testimony known and break off the lies of the enemy. So Father God that we can all walk out and freedom in Jesus name amen.