Mission
The Stacy Zallie Foundation’s mission is to facilitate the well-being and happiness of women who have undergone an abortion.
The Stacy Zallie Foundation is dedicated to our daughter, Stacy Zallie. At age 20 our beautiful daughter, was the victim of a coerced abortion which violated her personal, moral, and spiritual beliefs.
Stacy was extremely close to her mother and shared with her every aspect of her life as she grew up, from childhood, through adolescence, to young adulthood. We now understand that Stacy was getting pressure to terminate her pregnancy. She felt she could not share this with her mother because there is no way her mother would ever sanction her aborting her child. Also, her mother knew what the prospect of motherhood meant to Stacy. So, therefore, she made the most difficult decision of her young life without the people who truly loved and cared for her.
She underwent her abortion in July of 2001 and asked to see a psychiatrist in late September, obviously knowing she was not doing well emotionally. Shortly after seeing the psychiatrist on a Saturday afternoon she came downstairs from her bedroom and told her mother that she had ingested too many pills. When her mother told me I had immediately called the psychiatrist who then informed me that this was not the first time that she had made suicidal gestures, not attempts, as she had also made some scratches on her wrist. But he assured me that she was not in danger and that she was in good care with him. I now know the suicidal gestures were a cry for help. She didn’t want to take her own life, but she desperately needed help. He instructed me to go to an emergency room where she stayed for four hours. He had every right to put her in the hospital, to consult the family, and perhaps we could have talked her into committing herself to a professional mental health facility where they do nothing but get to the root cause of what is causing the major depression. I later found out only through a court proceeding that she had been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder First Occurrence. Instead of bringing the parents in to discuss her situation and the gravity of it, which is what a psychiatrist can do if someone is in danger of hurting themselves or someone else, in those two occurrences not only do they have the right to breach confidence they have an obligation to do it. So having been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder First Occurrence, which leads to the death of 15% of people diagnosed with it, she was treated like she had a mild case of the blues.
The only reason I talk publicly about her situation is to save another young person from going through the grief, remorse, and depression that Stacy went through, which ultimately led to us losing her. I think people on all sides of this issue can agree that terminating a pregnancy is a difficult decision, and with difficult decisions come repercussions, especially a decision of this magnitude. Perhaps some feel relief while others feel a great sense of remorse and regret that can lead to depression, especially if they are coerced. It would be my wish to have psychiatric screening available at every abortion clinic and mandatory post abortive screening to help anyone who might find themselves in the position our daughter Stacy was in. And I feel I would be remiss in not mentioning the Doctor who he himself performed the abortion on Stacy is none other than Stephen Chase Brigham. To learn more about Brigham just google his name, a real champion of women’s rights!
We are convinced that if Stacy had been better informed about what she might expect following the abortion (physically and/or emotionally) and if she had been able to share her grief in a safe, supportive environment, she would be with us today. In her memory, The Stacy Zallie Foundation and Post-Abortion Comfort Portal provides help after an abortion, including information and resources to anyone grieving or in pain as the result of abortion.
George and Linda Zallie
Founders & Parents