Category: Women’s Stories of Abortion Counseling

Betsy, who became pregnant in college, wrote:

“I went to the Women’s Center at the college where I took a pregnancy test. Even then it seemed so unreal. I was in complete shock when I received the results: positive.

I remember sitting in the small, stuffy third-floor office and numbly trying to listen as a volunteer counselor explained my options. In great detail, she outlined the procedure for ending the pregnancy – the nearest clinic, the cost, how to get an appointment, how much time it would take (about a half-day), and what would be involved in the procedure (she never called it an abortion, but a procedure).

Or, she said, I could have the baby. Period. No recommendations for agencies that might help with that decision or where I might go for further counseling if I decided to keep the baby. I would definitely be on my own if that was the course that I wanted to follow.”

She had an abortion and later regretted it deeply.

Yvonne Florczak–Seeman A Time to Speak: A Healing Journal for Post-Abortive Women (Clarendon Hills, Illinois: Love from above, Inc., 2015) 46

A post-abortive woman named Susan Justice wrote:

“In 1980, just seven years after Roe V. Wade became the law of the land, I became one of abortion’s statistics. I was a vulnerable 18-year-old college freshman when I found myself faced with an unplanned pregnancy. After my high school sweetheart and I found ourselves in crisis, we visited a Women’s Center just blocks from our college campus. It was there the deception began. “It is just a glob of pregnancy tissue… it will be a short outpatient procedure and you can be sent on your way… problem solved.”

My “problem” was NOT solved. Instead, figuratively speaking, the abortion ushered me down a staircase, finding myself spiraling into deep depression. The abortion became my prison cell of post-abortion grief, substance abuse, shame, and heartbreak. Abortion did not solve my “problem”… but only served to magnify it.

At the abortion clinic (a.k.a. campus “women’s center”) I was not empowered as a woman but diminished. I was told, “It will be easier for you to get an abortion and get on with your life.”

Tragically, no one at that women’s center told me the truth of the development of my baby, my option for adoption, or the devastating fallout from post-abortion grief and regret….

The abortion tore through my life like a hurricane, leaving destruction in its wake. The post-abortion fallout with my boyfriend left only devastation. Our previous deeply nurturing relationship shattered into a mass of scattered, broken, irreparable pieces.

I changed from a young woman entering nursing school, hard-working, eager to help people, having dated the same high school sweetheart for two years, sharing our dream of marriage after college… to a broken, promiscuous, alcohol indulging, partying girl, looking for any way to numb the emotional pain from the gnawing reality of the loss of my child and what I had done.”

Susan Justice “Abortion did not solve my ‘problem.’ It sent me into a deep depression” Live Action News March 22, 2021

A woman named Nadine said:

“I was so naïve. I had no idea what an abortion actually was. They made it all sounds so safe, so easy, so simple. They promised an abortion would take care of my problem and I’d be back to my old self and I could continue with whatever I wanted in my life. The counselor even said, “If you were my daughter, I’d tell you the same thing. It’s the right thing to do.”

Everyone assured me not to worry, that there was nothing to be afraid of. The counseling I received was like, yes, you can do this; yes, it’s safe; and don’t worry, you won’t have any problems.

I have been emotionally tortured by this experience for the past 24 years. It’s made my life a pit of depression and anxiety.”

Teresa Burke, David C Reardon Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2002) 37

One post-abortive woman tells her story:

‘Hi, my name is Renae and I had an abortion when I was 14. I was barely an adult and just didn’t comprehend what was happening. I was pushed (by my mother) into making an uninformed decision out of convenience rather than given counselling and support to wrap my head around the situation I was facing. I now find this lack of care and information very disturbing.

I had no knowledge of what to expect or what would happen at the clinic – I was shuffled in without as much as a word. Someone asked me to confirm my name and that was it.

I was given an inadequate amount of drugs by the anesthetist. I woke up in the middle of the surgery and heard a doctor saying ‘There it is – got it!’ I was absolutely traumatized and distraught as I left the clinic that fateful day….

As a result of this experience I have endured depression, drug addiction and a ‘ruined life’. It’s ironic to think that my mum told me I would ruin my life if I had the baby, but no one ever stopped to think that maybe not having the baby and having an abortion instead would do the exact same thing.”

“Women’s Stories” Abortion Rethink

Visited October 3, 2018