Category: Women’s Health

A pro-choice author (who herself had an abortion) interviewed post-abortion women for a book she wrote.  She says:

Hormones cannot explain how, long after the procedure, feelings about one’s abortion can reappear with the slightest stimulation. Many women are distressed to find themselves bursting into tears when some event reminds them of their abortions. One twenty-three-year-old, who had an abortion 2 years ago, describes how disconcerting it can be for strong feelings to crash in at inopportune times. She says, “For 5 months, seeing women with babies really upset me. Sometimes I would cry. Crying when you don’t want to and you’re like “Geez, I wish this didn’t happen here.”

Eve Kushner Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women’s Words (Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 1997) 10

“Kris Bercov, a Florida therapist who states that abortions are “sacrifices we make for our own selves,” nevertheless admits that abortion hurts women. In her self–published book “The Good Mother,” she proposes a farewell ceremony for the aborted child that includes coming to grief with the pain caused by the abortion and giving the child a name. Says Bercov, “women are good, we love our children – even sometimes the ones we abort.”

“Prochoicer Admits Abortion Hurts Women” the American Feminist Vol 1 No 1, Summer 1994

A social worker from Portland, Oregon, who works at a counseling and referral center:

“Most women when they have an abortion don’t really know what they are doing – they are either so young, so ignorant, or so frightened… Down the line, 5, 6, or 7 years when they have children, some kind of trauma almost always comes up… And down the line, most women do think of the aborted fetus as a living being, as a baby.”

Maggie Gallagher Enemies of Eros (Chicago, IL: Bonus Books Inc. 1989) in David L Bender and Bruno Leone Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1991) 59