Updated at 4:45 p.m.: Revised to include an additional comment from Ryan.

AUSTIN — Lisa Luby Ryan, a conservative Dallas Republican running for the Texas Legislature, wants people to know the truth.

She opposes abortion, and she said she’ll always vote for life.

But from the time Ryan was a teenager through her 30s, she had three abortions. She’s not hiding them, though, and says they're part of her redemption story.

“I have a story, and I’m not proud of it, but it’s part of who I am,” said Ryan, 57.

Ryan, a businesswoman, wife and mother of two adult sons, is running against Democrat John Turner in House District 114, which encompasses North Dallas, Preston Hollow and Lake Highlands.

About nine years ago, she started touring the country and attending Christian conferences to talk about how faith turned around her life.

In on-camera interviews posted on websites including Christian Broadcast Network and IAmSecond.com, Ryan reveals that her father raped her for the first time when she was 6 years old and continued to rape her until she was 16.

I Am Second is a Christian ad campaign that tells the stories of people who say they transformed after they started "putting God first and living second." Ryan's interview on the site has been viewed more than 141,000 times in nine years.

“At the age of 6, when your father, the man you adore and you worship and you want to be noticed by, when he violates you like that, it distorts everything,” Ryan said in a video. “And yet as I got older, that’s how I knew to show a guy that you loved him was through a sexual relationship.”

Ryan said she never reported her father, so he never faced charges. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, she said that three years ago, she reached out to him to offer forgiveness and the two have reconciled. Ryan declined to provide the names of her parents or their contact information.

Her senior year of high school, Ryan said, she got pregnant for the first time. She said her mother packed her and her boyfriend into a car and took her to get an abortion.

Afterward, Ryan said, they went to have lunch and never discussed the matter again.

“It’s one thing to have guilt and shame about what others have done to you,” she said in the video. “It’s another to have guilt and shame about the choices you’ve made in life.”

In her early 20s, Ryan got married and had two sons, Kyle and Casey. She was married to her first husband for about eight years until she left him for another man. That’s when she had her second abortion.

“After I left the boys and their father for the other man, I got pregnant, and I couldn’t have that child because of all of the guilt and shame I already carried,” Ryan said in the video.

Eventually, she met Jay Ryan, her husband of 24 years. She secretly had her third abortion while they were dating.

Ryan first confessed she had the abortions during Christian counseling sessions with a church confidant, which later gave her the courage to tell Jay.

“I had shared my secrets and everything I had with Jay,” she said. “There were no more lies, no more secrets. There was a new relationship.”

They married two and a half years later, she said.

Ryan said she shares her story because she wants to inspire hope about forgiveness and redemption.

"It made me who I am today, and I like who I am today," she told The News. "I'm a survivor and not a victim."

Finding her faith changed her view about abortion, Ryan said.

“I know the other side of it now, I know who creates life. I didn’t when I chose to have my abortion,” she said. “I talk to young girls all the time about the side the world doesn’t tell you. It’s not a good side. And there’s a lot of guilt and shame.”

Starting her political career

When Ryan decided to run for office, she suspected opponents might try to use her story against her. So she frequently tells voters and donors to Google her and watch her videos.

But Ryan bristles when asked how her history has influenced her political positions. She’d prefer to keep religion separate from her political campaign and said she’s mostly uninterested in talking about social issues.

Ryan said that, if elected, she won’t be the one “beating the drum” on abortion issues in the state Capitol.

“If and when it comes down to the floor, I will always vote for life,” she said. “But is that my agenda? No. I’m going down as a fiscal conservative.”

Anti-abortion groups like Texas Right to Life acknowledge Ryan’s history and tout her as “ardently pro-life.”

“Her convictions are not mere theory or slogans she spouts on the campaign trail,” the Texas Right to Life PAC wrote in an endorsement. “Voters in North Dallas can be confident that her Pro-Life stance will remain steadfast because her beliefs are woven into her own personal journey.”

Turner, her opponent, said he believes that in the “early stages of pregnancy,” a woman has the right to choose whether to have an abortion. He said he would vote against any bill that would further curtail a woman’s access to abortion.

He has the backing of the Texas Freedom Network, a liberal advocacy organization.

“He understands that all women should be able to make their own reproductive health care decisions, including whether to have an abortion, in a safe and supportive environment, without shame or stigma,” said Kathy Miller, network president.

#MeToo movement

Despite being a victim of sexual assault, Ryan said that she doesn’t relate to the women coming forward as part of the #MeToo movement and that it played no part in her decision to run for office.

Like many Americans, she said she intently watched the U.S. Senate hearing in which Christine Blasey Ford accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when they were in high school.

Ryan said she was skeptical of Ford because she used notes to retell her story to senators.

"A rape and sexual assault survivor, you do not forget who, what, where, when, how, smells, color of eyes," she said. "You don't need notes. You recall."

She said she supported Kavanaugh's confirmation and believes Ford was using her story for political gain.

That's what separates Ryan from women who have come forward to take down their abusers, she said.

"I don't want the fame bad enough. I don't want a title bad enough. I'm not willing to go down that line," she said. "My story is about God's mercy, grace, redemption and forgiveness. If more women could forgive, it would set them free."