I've heard pro-lifers yell at abortion clinic workers that they should 'Repent!' Repent of what? They don't see what they are doing as something that needs to be repented of. Why? Because they are blinded. Do you think yelling at them will remove that blindness? Not likely.
The Israelites frequently forsook God, and he as frequently forsook them. But when they repented and returned to him, he remembered his covenant and delivered them from their distresses.
I did have some secret abortions myself, which I repented from when I was born again in 1983. I drank the abortion Kool-Aid temporarily because I thought it was the answer.
Every child is innocent because it has not been tempted, but only when we have been tempted and have remained pure, or when we have fallen, repented and reformed, are we virtuous.
I repented at 28 and turned to Jesus.
I believed God had wired me as a writer for a purpose, and I was squandering that purpose. I finally repented of doing things my way and told God that, in the future, I would only write books that glorified Him. That meant I had to buy back some of my contracts.
