The Atonement Child

infobox Book |
name = The Atonement Child
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Recent edition cover
author = Francine Rivers
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Christian novel
publisher = Tyndale House Publishers
release_date = 14 September 1997
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 375 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0842300414 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Atonement Child" is a 1997 novel by the American author Francine Rivers. It deals with the themes of unwanted pregnancy and abortion.

Plot introduction

In one terrifying moment, Dynah Carey's perfect life is shattered by rape and her future irrevocably altered by an unwanted pregnancy. Her doting family is torn apart on the topic of abortion. Her seemingly rock-solid faith is pushed to the limits as she faces the most momentous choice of her life--to embrace or to end the untimely life within her.Dynah is a young Christian college girl at a Bible College when rape shatters her life, and then the resulting pregnancy may shatter her faith. As her pro-life boyfriend suddenly finds abortion acceptable, and her pro life school informs her that she will be expelled unless her pregnancy disappears, she is forced to wonder about her own former pro life views. At home she finds her family torn apart as her mother admits to an abortion before she had Dynah, that made her incapable of having children for several years, and her grandmother admits to an abortion that was forced on her for "health reasons". Dynah is eventually driven to isolate herself so that she can make the decision on her own. As her mother's "Atonement Child", Diana must come to the decision on whether or not to have her own "Atonement Child".