Category: Women’s Health

Postabortion woman: I could feel them scraping

A woman talks about how painful her abortion was:

“It hurts so much. It was incredible… They should have told me how much it was going to hurt. What hurt the most was that I could feel when they were scraping around inside. I’ve talked to a lot of girls who said the same thing happened to them when they were really far along.”

Lynda Bird Francke The Ambivalence of Abortion (New York: Random House, 1978) Quoted in Susan Neiburg Terkel Abortion: Facing the Issues (New York: Franklin Watts, 1988)

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Pro-Life speaker comments on “aggressive” post-abortion women

A woman who speaks publicly about abortion’s painful aftereffects on women wrote:

“I learned to take the aggression of the pro-choice women until their pain comes through. During the talks I gave, it was the women who did the screaming who contacted me later, very quietly.”

Melanie Symonds, Phyllis Bowman And Still They Weep: Personal Stories of Abortion (The SPUC Educational Research Trust, 1996) 9

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Former Planned Parenthood worker: Planned Parenthood only offered “limited’ care

Former Planned Parenthood worker Ramona Trevino says:

“As for healthcare, the services offered at Planned Parenthood are limited at best. It is not the same as visiting a gynecologist’s office. If women have any serious gynecological concerns, there isn’t much help available. If a woman is pregnant and doesn’t want an abortion, Planned Parenthood can’t help. If women have suspected fibroids, ovarian cysts, or PCOS, for example, there’s no help available.

There were countless times in which our advanced practice nurse suspected these types of gynecological problems but was unable to diagnose anything because our center was a non-abortion facility, so we had no ultrasound machine available. Those are only available at for women who are having abortions at abortion centers.”

Ramona Trevino “I worked at Planned Parenthood, and Planned Parenthood isn’t about health care” Live Action News September 28, 2017

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Abortionist on women’s reactions after abortion

Julius Fogel, abortionist and psychiatrist:

“There is no question about the emotional grief and mourning following an abortion… Many come in [to the office, even years later] – some are just mute, some hostile. Some burst into crying… There is no question in my mind we are disturbing a life process.”
Interview with Coleman McCarthy “Does Abortion Harden Maternal Instinct?” National Catholic Reporter, February 24th, 1989, 20
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Counselors say women regret abortions many years later

Counselors Dennis and Matthew Linn, SJ and Sheila Fabricant M. Div write:

“Our experience in our healing prayer confirms that women who choose to abort a child grieve for their babies. We have often prayed with women who, many years after an abortion, still struggle with unresolved grief.”

Dennis and Matthew Linn, SJ and Sheila Fabricant, M. Div. “Healing Relationships with Miscarried, Aborted, and Stillborn Babies” Journal of Christian Healing (vol. 7, no. 2) 35

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Abortionist describes pain of her own abortion

A woman who flies from clinic to clinic doing abortions told a reporter about the pain her own abortion caused her. Abortionist “Clara” had an abortion when she was younger, and does abortions. now. “Clara” recalls:

“I felt fine when I walked in the room, laid down, and then all of a sudden I had pain that I didn’t know was possible. Labor pain starts slowly and goes on and on and on. This is much shorter. You feel absolutely fine, and then you suddenly feel attacked by this person between your legs.”

Now she is the attacker.

Sharyn Jackson “Undercover” The Santa Fe Reporter October 5, 2011

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Pain from abortion was like a knife stabbing

A woman named Maria wrote about what she felt during her abortion:

“I began crying in pain, and as I lifted the sheets there was blood everywhere. The pain was unbearable, it was like a knife kept stabbing me in the stomach over and over again… The nurse gave me an injection for the pain, but it didn’t help. About 15 minutes later she gave me another shot; it still didn’t help. After the third shot she was so worried because I was still in pain that she called the head doctor who operated on me to take a look at me. When the doctor took the folder from the end of my bed and looked through the pieces of paper, he was shocked. He called the nurse over and asked if it was the correct amount of painkiller shots she’d given me. Because I was still crying and holding my stomach and pain, the doctor had no choice but to inject me again…”

 Melinda Tankard Reist Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief after Abortion (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2007) 37 – 38

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British Victims of Abortion inundated with letters from postabortion women

Pro-life activists Melanie Symonds and Phyllis Bowman from British Victims of Abortions (BVA),  write:

“The plan has always been ultimately to provide a national telephone helpline along with one-to-one counseling with group backup. Another area which opened up was the opportunity to participate in media chat shows and contribute to magazine articles. Each time we had any coverage and described abortion damage, we were inundated with either telephone calls or letters requesting more information and help. This again reinforced our belief in the extent of damage women were suffering…

If the condition is not understood or even acknowledged, how on earth can the problem be addressed and women helped to come to terms with their loss and pain?”

Melanie Symonds, Phyllis Bowman And Still They Weep: Personal Stories of Abortion (The SPUC Educational Research Trust, 1996) xvi

if women weren’t sometimes traumatized by their abortions, there would be no need for groups like this.

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Survey: most post-abortion women wouldn’t want to abort again

The post-abortion organization, Open Arms, has been gathering information from abortive women since 1986. These items from their ongoing survey reflect data released in the spring of 1997:

Reason for Abortion

Social: 82%

Economic: 9%

Health: 5%

Life: 1%

Rape: 1%

Incest: 0.5%

Would you have liked pro-life information then?

Yes: 57%

No: 23%

Not sure: 9%

Did the relationship with the father of the baby end soon after the abortion?

Yes: 55%

No: 43%

Would you have this abortion again?

Yes: 15%

No: 74%

Not sure: 4%

From Frederica Mathewes-Green Real Choices: Listening to Women, Looking for Alternatives to Abortion (Felicity Press; 3 edition, April 16, 2013) Kindle version

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Counselor comments on “spiritual agony” of abortion

Theresa Burke, who has worked with hundreds of postabortion women:

“The psychological and spiritual agony of abortion is silenced by society, ignored by the media, rebuffed by mental health professionals, and scorned by the women’s movement. Postabortion trauma is a serious and devastating illness which has no celebrity spokeswoman, no made–for– television movie, and no platform for the talk show confessional.”

“Abortion and Depression Part One” Interview with Theresa Burke of Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries, A Zensit Daily Dispatch, March 4, 2006

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