Her Twin Was Aborted. She Survived.

She traveled to Oklahoma with a simple gift and a handwritten card: “Thank you for choosing life for me.” What Claire Colwell heard back from her birth mother, Tanya, turned that reunion into a revelation and rewrote everything Claire thought she knew about her own beginning. Claire is an adopted woman who later learns she survived a late-term abortion attempt, and that she was a twin whose sibling did not survive.

Claire also explains how she went from an introvert who barely knew what Planned Parenthood was to a national pro-life speaker, and what happens when abortion survivors tell their stories in public spaces, state hearings, and hostile crowds .Along the way, we talk about forgiveness, survivor’s guilt, and why post-abortion healing often starts when the silence finally breaks.
 
 If you’re searching for a powerful abortion survivor story, insight into adoption reunion dynamics, or practical next steps for supporting women through pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, and church-based help, this conversation offers both honesty and direction.
 
 Subscribe for more Straight Talk on Life Issues, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find these stories. What’s one moment from Claire’s journey you can’t stop thinking about?

Transcript

Why Me Not My Twin

Claire Culwell 0:03

I've always wondered, you know, why me and not my twin? But at the end of the day, I believe 100% that my twin, he or she protected my life, and God protected my life. I don't think I would be here if I wasn't a twin because a dismemberment abortion, it is very, very hard to make a mistake. It is absolutely miraculous. And so I don't believe that God made a mistake. I think that he gave me an opportunity. When you hear my story, you're literally looking at the aborted baby because you're looking at my twin. And so every day I think about my twin.

Victor Nieves 0:56

Where there are abortions, however, there are also abortion survivors. Abortion threatens not only the unborn, but it also inflicts a lifelong impact on those who survive it.

Welcome And Claire’s Story Begins

Victor Nieves 1:07

Welcome to Straight Talk on Life Issues. I'm Victor Nievis, president of Life Issues Institute. Today we're speaking with Claire Colwell. She has an incredible abortion survival story. She's an international pro-life speaker and the author of Survivor, an abortion survivor's surprising story of choosing forgiveness and finding redemption. Well, Claire, thank you so much for joining us today.

Claire Culwell 1:28

Thank you so much for having me.

Victor Nieves 1:41

As we jump into this conversation, you know, I it's one of them that I just I think not enough people are talking about. You and your experience and your testimony, your story, but I don't want to share that for you. The best person to do that would be you. If you don't mind, just share your story with us real quick.

Claire Culwell 1:56

Yeah, thank you. So I grew up as an adopted child,

Adoption Roots And Reunion Plans

Claire Culwell 2:00

had a wonderful upbringing, wonderful life. I don't remember finding out I was adopted. It was just something my sister and I both adopted. Both of us just knew. And so adoption was something that was very positively spoken about in our home. And so we knew we had birth mothers. We knew that they could possibly become a part of our story one day, meeting them. And my sister actually met her birth mother first. And that was like the first time I was about 20. And that was the first time I had really like thought much about my own birth mother, aside from her just giving us our family and our life. I was able to see my sister with her birth mother and see how much they looked alike and acted alike and really understand like she gave me my sister. And so after meeting her birth mother, I went home and had a conversation with my family about meeting my birth mother. And we all agreed that we would love the opportunity. And so we set a meeting up and it was wonderful. We got to see each other, got to see how much we looked alike and acted alike, and all the things that my sister kind of experienced with her birth mother, I experienced with mine, and it was great. But I didn't get like a one-on-one moment with her. And so I knew that I wanted to be intentional with meeting her and actually thanking her for giving me my life and my family. I knew that she was very young when she had me. I knew that it was a sacrifice, and I knew that she deserved to hear like thank you so much. And so I actually set a second meeting up, and this time it would just be one-on-one with her family. And this is the meeting that changed my life forever. I actually flew to Oklahoma where she lived, and I brought a ring and a necklace with my birthstone on it and a card that just said, thank you for choosing life for me.

Gratitude Gift Turns Into Disclosure

Claire Culwell 3:42

And I wanted that to just open up this conversation of my gratitude towards her. And so I did. I brought that with me. And that first day I got there, we had this great first day. In the evening, she was putting my then four-year-old little birth sister to bed. She came back in the living room. She sat down in her lazy boy chair in the living room. And I was like, this is it. This is our moment. And so I got the gift out. I gave it to her. I watched as she cried really happy tears as she opened the ring and the necklace. And then she read the words that I wrote in the card. Thank you for choosing life for me. Everything in the room changed. I mean, I was met with the most painful tears I have ever seen in my life. I couldn't understand what was happening. I thought this was going to be our happy moment. And yet she was just looking me in the eyes with the most painful look and saying, I'm so sorry. I didn't choose life for you. Your life is a miracle. And I am just questioning, like, what does this even mean? And she said, Claire, there's something I need to

Two Abortion Attempts And Survival

Claire Culwell 4:40

tell you about when I was pregnant with you at 13 years old. And with tears in her eyes, we walked into this other room. We sat on this bed and she began to describe what it was like to be pregnant with me at 13 years old. She said that her parents were actually divorced. She lived with her mother, and her mother told her when she found out that she was pregnant, when she finally was brave enough to tell her mother that she was pregnant. Her mother said that abortion was the best option for her. And so she took her to an abortion clinic. And my birth mother actually had a late-term DE, which is a dismemberment abortion. Late term. And she said it was painful. She said that she was alone in the room. She said that the doctors never spoke to her. They never asked her what her choice would be. They didn't tell her anything like you're strong and capable of motherhood. She said she remembered the noises and the sounds, and I mean, just wept as she described what she experienced in the room that day as a 13-year-old little girl inside of an abortion clinic room. And she said that after that appointment, she went home. She was supposed to go home like nothing ever happened. She uh went back to school. She was in the eighth grade. And she went back for a few weeks, but things just didn't seem right. And so she actually asked her mother, she said, Mom, I think I'm still pregnant. Can you take me back to the doctor? And so her mom took her back to the doctor. And that was when she found out that she had actually been pregnant with twins and that the abortion that successfully aborted my twin had accidentally missed my body during the dismemberment abortion. Her mother said, Well, what are you gonna do about it? My daughter's still 13. She still needs an abortion. We need a second late-term abortion. Well, in Oklahoma, at this point, it was an even later-term abortion. So they couldn't do that legally, but they could in Kansas. And so my birth mother was actually driven to Kansas to another abortion clinic to have a second abortion. And she was there, she remembers the drive with her little brother to Kansas. They ate donuts on the way there like nothing was happening. Walked into this abortion clinic room again in Kansas. And the doctors that examined her said, I'm so sorry, we can't actually do this abortion, not because it's too late here, but because it's too dangerous for you. Because my birth mother had been leaking amniotic fluid because they had broken the sack that I was in during the abortion that successfully aborted my twin. And so, to risk of sepsis, risk of infection, they just refused to do it. And so that was a second miracle that I made it out of a second abortion clinic. And so my birth mother was driven back to Oklahoma. She was dropped off by her mother at an adoption agency and she lived there for a few weeks until I was born at 30 weeks. I was born with a dislocated hip. I had club feet, complications that my birth mother were told were due to her abortion and the dry birth. We also know that those are common complications with twins. And so it's possible that my story either involves that these things were caused by the abortion as she was told, or that it's even more miraculous that the abortion instruments actually never touched my body. Either way, I was sitting face to face with my birth mother, finding out not just that I was an abortion survivor, that I was a twinless twin in the name of choice, but that my life was a miracle. And it is the single most life-altering moment of my life.

Victor Nieves 8:00

Claire,

Forgiveness And Meeting Extended Family

Victor Nieves 8:01

I you have truly one of the most unique and miraculous stories that I think I've ever heard in my entire life. Clearly, God's hand was all over protecting you. There's so much to unpack here. I mean, I can't imagine the emotion that your mother must have been going through, especially given the fact that you you came to her and you said, Thank you for choosing life. I mean, she was 13, you said, right?

Claire Culwell 8:23

She was.

Victor Nieves 8:23

At 13 years old, it's not like she was really even given much of a chance. She was a child. And you mention again how the individuals doing the abortion, they didn't care what she wanted. They they weren't interested in what your mother, you know, wanted. And so so that's just compounding the trauma that had to have, oh my goodness, imposed on her. So what's that moment like going forward, right? You tell your mother, thank you for having me. And she tells you this amazing story, this incredible, miraculous story of how you lived through something that you were never supposed to live through. Where do you go with your mom from there?

Claire Culwell 8:56

So I don't even know I that I could comprehend like what this meant for me in that moment. Her tears and her pain spoke louder than anything in the room that day. And it was so easy to just empathize with her and care about her and forgive her. Forgiveness had been modeled to me in my home growing up. I grew up in a Christian home, but my parents very tangibly modeled forgiveness for us. And so I knew the the correct response was to forgive her because she kept apologizing and asking for my forgiveness. Not that I thought she needed it, but just, you know, yes, absolutely. I empathize with you. I care about you. I forgive you. But also the next day I met her mother and I met the rest of the family and all these people that actually didn't know I existed for 21 years until she met me. And so up until that point, up until we met, it was just her and her mother that knew about me. And so I went to meet her kids and her extended family and her mother. And I can't say that that meeting with her mother wasn't awkward, but I knew that I could walk into it with a posture of also forgiving somebody that I think truly believed she was doing what was best for her daughter, even though it caused turmoil and brokenness for both of us. And so I was able to forgive. And then I went home into my well-meaning Christian home that celebrated adoption. Adoption was our normal, as I

From Silence To Speaking Publicly

Claire Culwell 10:20

shared earlier, but never I don't recall a time in my life where abortion was spoken about. Maybe it was, but I just don't recall that. And so abortion was not our normal. It was not something that we were just having conversations with that we knew anybody who had been impacted by it necessarily. And so I went home and started telling my story to people, what I had experienced, and nobody could understand. I mean, how could they? At that time, I only knew of two abortion survivors that existed and were actually speaking about out about their story. Now there are about a dozen of us maybe that are actively speaking out about our story. But at that time, there were two. And I know that because we Googled it. Like we were like, has this happened to anybody else? I mean, basically, it's like a resounding no. Like there's two other people. And so nobody could relate. Nobody could really, they could empathize with me, they could care, but nobody could really relate. Well, a couple months before I met my birth mother, I'd actually stopped at a Planned Parenthood in Bryan College Station, which is the Planned Parenthood that Abby Johnson ran and ran for eight years. And after seeing an ultrasound guided abortion, left her job, said, I can't do be a part of this anymore, and has now actively spoke out about her experience and what she participated in in the abortion industry. And so a couple of months before I met my birth mother, I stopped at that Planned Parenthood because I saw these people outside praying and I didn't know what Planned Parenthood was. I didn't know that they were our nation's largest abortion provider. I just thought, what in the world are these people doing? You know, every day on my way to school or work, I would pass them. And so they told me what they were there for. They told me that they were there to walk alongside women like my birth mother. They told me that they were there to tell her that she's strong and capable of motherhood, to pray with her, to point her in the directions of places like pregnancy centers and adoption agencies and churches and people that want to just be in her corner and rally around her. And I thought, that's incredible, but God made me an introvert and I will never do something like that. So this is two months before I met my birth mother. Now I go back into my well-meaning Christian community, nobody gets it. And for whatever reason, I just think maybe I should go back to those people on the sidewalk. Maybe they'll get it. And so I did. I went back to them and they cried with me and they empathized with me and they encouraged me and they actually introduced me to Abby. She had left her job just like 10 or 12 days before that. So here I am with the most unlikely of friend, a former abortion clinic director. And I I had just found out that I survived my birth mother's abortion. But pretty miraculous that I got to be in this room with these people who were standing in the gap for women like my birth mother and then helping me, the aborted baby, process what I had experienced. And so they said, Claire, would you share your story? I mean, we just know what this could do for people because looking at you, and people can see the aborted baby. They can humanize the aborted baby through the abortion survivor. Would you share it? And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no for a little while. And then I did, I finally did one time and I watched as the light bulbs went off in these kids' heads as I shared it. It was a small youth group. And I said, okay, God, you know, if you ask me, I will share it. And so I've actually been sharing my story since seven months after I met my birth mother. And I have been healing and walking through my experience of meeting my birth mother publicly on stages across the country. But I believe that it is worth it for such a time as this.

Victor Nieves 13:56

Well, the work you're doing is just absolutely amazing. I'm curious for

Tanya’s Permission And Shared Healing

Victor Nieves 14:00

your birth mother, the work that you do, has this been helpful for her to see you out there and saving lives and getting your story out in a way that is no doubt. I mean, I don't I don't think anybody can hear your story and wonder if you're having an impact in the world, you know, as you go around and you share this. Has it been helpful for her?

Claire Culwell 14:15

Thank you so much for asking about that and for caring for her. So my birth mother's name is Tanya. I always say birth mother, but her name is Tanya. And, you know, I think it has. I actually asked her permission before I ever shared it publicly. I would not have shared our story if that had not been okay for her. I deeply respect, you know, what she has been through. It is not just my story, it is hers. And so I'll never forget when I called her and said, hey, I have an opportunity to share our story. Would you be okay with that? And I thought, you know, her response was going to be like, let me pray about that, let me think about that, or absolutely no, this is the most painful thing I've ever been through. It was my deepest, darkest secret for 21 years. Absolutely not. I mean, that would have been my response, right? If somebody asked me to share my deepest, darkest, most painful secret. But she immediately said yes. She immediately said, if it can save one life, if it can save one little girl like me, woman, family from what we've experienced because of abortion, then yes. And so the first few years were pretty rocky, you know, as you can imagine, I was now a reminder of her deepest, darkest pain. I mean, we had to figure out a relationship. We had to work at it because it was awkward. It was painful. But I think as she was willing to finally, and it took a couple of years to actually hear how I spoke about our story. I want people, their biggest takeaway to be that I forgive her, that I love her, that there is grace in this story. I am not pointing fingers, you know, I am just saying what we have experienced. And I hope that anybody that's experienced abortion, even in different ways than we have, that they always know that there is forgiveness around the corner, that there is healing available to them. I think as she heard how I spoke about our story, it it helped. And now she has actually spoken out about her side of our story. And she has shared um two or three times. And I think that that has been incredibly healing for her because people are are just responding and lives are being saved, like you said, because of her willingness to share what she experienced in an abortion clinic room and how her baby survived.

Pushback And Public Testimony Moments

Victor Nieves 16:33

Claire, I'm curious as you go and you speak, what has been the response from the abortion industry? Because we know that they can't have you. They can't have you sharing your story. You are like the kryptonite in many ways to the abortion industry. Have they pushed back on you? Has there been heat that's, you know, whether it's on social media? And if so, how have you dealt with that?

Claire Culwell 16:52

You know, you're right. They do not want to touch abortion survivors, they do not want to acknowledge abortion survivors. Abortion survivors dismantle their narrative. Abortion survivors expose the humanity of the unborn child, which is what they are trying not to do. And so I would say the majority has been no. I have actually gone to even to testify at the state level and in multiple states. And I can tell you that people that support the abortion industry, state representatives that support the abortion industry, they don't even show up to the hearings because they cannot face an abortion survivor. They don't want to hear it. And so if they heard it, it might change their mind. I do believe that. And so the majority has been that they just can't even hear it. But I have abortion supporters that come to my events and they scream and they make no sense and it is very hateful. But at the end of the day, I also know that people that respond like that, I do believe that it's coming from a place of pain and hurt and regret. And so I hope that as I share my story, that it does touch them. I have been in a couple situations in Times Square in New York City. I was a part of an event there, focus on the family event. And then also in London, their March for Life, where we just had these angry, very loud, screaming, hateful things. But as they heard the testimony of an abortion survivor, they were quieter and quieter and quieter and quieter until they just listened and walked away. And so I do believe, even though the majority of the response is that they they don't want to hear it, that if they would take a second and just let us humanize the unborn baby for them, that it would be life-changing and life-saving.

Twin Loss And Survivor’s Guilt

Victor Nieves 18:41

Claire, one of the pieces of your story that's so unique is the fact that you were a twin. And one of the pieces that we haven't really unpacked here today is that side of things. Was there any survivor's guilt when you found that out that you had survived when your sibling had not?

Claire Culwell 18:57

Yeah, definitely. I've always wondered, even though I trust in God's plan and I know that he wrote my story perfectly. I've always wondered, you know, why, why me and not my twin? But at the end of the day, I believe 100% that my twin, he or she protected my life and that God protected my life. I don't think I would be here if I wasn't a twin because a dismemberment abortion, it is very, very hard to make a mistake because they are literally dismembering a baby and pulling out the pieces and counting them. So they did account for a whole baby. It is absolutely miraculous. And so I don't believe that God made a mistake. I think that he gave me an opportunity. But yes, I do wonder every day I look in the mirror and I see my twin. And so every day I look in the mirror, I see the aborted baby. When you hear my story, you're literally looking at the aborted baby because you're looking at my twin. And so every day I think about my twin. And I'm just grateful for the opportunity. I know that I, as a Christian, I believe that I'll meet my twin in heaven one day and my birth mother will too. And that'll be so incredibly wonderful. One of the most eye-opening moments for me was asking my parents, like, hey, you know, I know you adopted me, but if my twin had survived, would you have adopted us both? And they were like, Yeah, like absolutely. If we had adopted you both, and my dad, you know, he got two girls. He really wanted a son. We live in Texas. He loves to hunt, he loves to fish. He would have loved to have a son. They took the first two babies that were available to them and they were us girls. And he took us fishing, he took us hunting. But, you know, we weren't as fun as a boy would have been in those situations. And my dad, you know, just kind of thinking about the situation and the possibility of us being in separate sacks might make sense. You know, who knows? But he said, yeah, maybe I would have got my son. Maybe I would have got my only son. And so I actually, over the years, you know, something that a lot of women who go through post-abortive healing retreats, they name their baby that they aborted, and that really helps them. And so for me, I named my twin what my dad would have named, his only son. And it's the same name my dad has Warren Colwell, but junior is what his son would have been named. And actually donated one of the casts that's on my feet to the Creation Museum. And so if you ever go there, you can see that cast and you can see these little shoes where I named my twin in honor of my dad. And, you know, my twin is the reason I do what I do.

How Listeners Can Take Action

Victor Nieves 21:28

Claire, what's your call to action? For those who are listening and they're inspired by your story, they want to get involved, maybe they're not sure where to start. What would you have them do?

Claire Culwell 21:36

Yeah, you know, I can say this is coming from a person that came from a family that never spoke the word abortion, that sat on the sidelines for 21 years and didn't do anything until I knew that I had experienced abortion. And I would just encourage everybody to know that if God can use somebody like me with just a willingness to speak up and do something and not just sit still, uh, that he can use every single one of us. I would encourage you first to educate yourself. There are so many opportunities where you can like this, listen to this Life Institute podcast, educate yourself on what abortion is and what it does, and people that are being affected by it, people like me who are willing to speak out about what we have experienced. And then take that education and get involved somewhere, whether it's a pregnancy center, whether it's an adoption agency, whether it's a students for life group, whether it's starting something at your church where you collect baby items and to have them available to welcome single pregnant moms into your church, pray about it. There is something that every single one of us can do, and nothing is more important than the other. It's just all part of the piece of the puzzle of creating a culture that values life and values women like my birth mother.

Victor Nieves 22:51

Amen.

Final Reflections And Share Resources

Victor Nieves 22:52

Claire, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for sharing your story.

Claire Culwell 22:55

Thank you for having me.

Victor Nieves 23:07

Well, we've had the chance here on the show to speak with several people who have survived abortion attempts. I think it's safe to say Claire has one of the most unique and impactful stories that I have personally ever heard. It's worth mentioning as we talk about, you know, her story and we think about the implications of it, that in a way, every single one of us survived what could have been an abortion. We were also an unborn baby in the womb. Somebody could have taken our lives. There's an infamous quote by uh President Ronald Reagan. He said, Everybody who is for abortion managed to survive. They were never aborted in the womb. Understanding that Claire, for example, is the exact same human being today, that she was the day that she was fertilized. It personalizes it. It shows the humanity of the unborn baby in the womb. I encourage you to share this program with your friends, your family members, your church community. Visit our website, lifeissues.org, where you can find more information, more resources, so that together we can continue to create a culture of life. And be sure to tune in next week for another straight talk on life issues.