Category: Women and Abortion Regret

From one woman who had an abortion:

“I still defend the right to choice. But I also expect, or want, people who have abortions to get counseling. Because, I think it is very traumatic.”

Cara J. Marianna Abortion: A Collective Story (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002) 64

One woman who had an abortion developed a strange obsession with the doctor who performed it. Even though she was not his patient and had never seen him before, she began to take him lunch and buy him gifts.  Her actions seem driven by guilt.

“I transferred my medical records to the doctor who had done the abortion, sent him a huge waiting room plant, a tree, and began to bring him bag lunches and sit with him to eat. At the time I remember thinking I was ‘returning to the scene of the crime,’ though I am not sure whose crime it was; now I think I was reassuring myself that this person accepted me despite what I had made him an accomplice to.”

Helen Susan Edelman, “Safe to Talk: Abortion Narratives as a Rite of Return,” Journal of American Culture 19, no. 4 (1996)

A textbook meant to train abortion providers says:

“Some [women] will feel numb afterwards and only begin to question their decision or feel unhappy when they reach a significant milestone, e.g. anniversary of the abortion, or the due date had the pregnancy continued.

….

Some women recognize the need for postabortion counseling prior to the abortion. Others may feel that they do not deserve any support, as they have been responsible for “taking” a life and may not return for postabortion follow-up of any sort.”

Sam Rowlands editor Abortion Care Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 49

Helen Susan Edelman supports legalized abortion. But she interviewed postabortion women for an article, and writes:

“Symbolically, silence reflects the sexual shame, stripped-down powerlessness, and vulnerability many women feel during abortion.”

Helen Susan Edelman, “Safe to Talk: Abortion Narratives as a Rite of Return,” Journal of American Culture 19, no. 4 (1996)

Cynthia Collins, who had her first abortion as a 19-year-old and then took a “downward spiral”:

“We were sold a bill of goods that abortion is a good thing, and when we find out that it’s not, we’re told to be quiet. [A]s those voices are heard, then we’re going to see the true picture.”

“Women cite experience to support abortion ban” The Washington Times – Tuesday, April 18, 2006

An writer who interviewed various postabortion women said:

“Almost always, women who experience abortion choose secrecy expressed as silence, choose not to speak about it except with a small, select group of intimate family members or friends. Many never tell even the father of the aborted fetus. In addition to the stress of deciding whether to have an abortion, their angst is compounded by emotional isolation and the burden of secrecy which contributes to alienation.”

Helen Susan Edelman, “Safe to Talk: Abortion Narratives as a Rite of Return,” Journal of American Culture 19, no. 4 (1996)

Georgette Forney describes how she began talking to women who were suffering due to their abortions after she spoke out about her own abortion:

“After my daughter learned of my abortion, I started sharing my story publicly—and took the job as Executive Director of NOEL (now Anglicans for Life), a life-affirming ministry in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Early in my tenure, I was asked to do peer-to-peer on-line counseling with women who had had abortions. I began getting emails from women and girls who had had abortions – some that day, some 10 years prior. Each email expressed pain and regret. Over the course of three years, I received over a thousand emails. I’ll never forget the first email I received from a girl who was 16. She had had the abortion on Saturday and Sunday night she emailed saying, “I can’t go to school tomorrow and pretend everything is fine, I feel like dying.” Others wrote things like: “I just saw a diaper commercial and I can’t stop crying.” I got emails from women worldwide who shared their abortion pain and how their lives were a mess. They wanted help; they wanted to know they weren’t the only ones hurting. They always expressed relief to know help was available and they weren’t alone in their pain.”

She describes the reaction of a pro-abortion professor soon after the co-founded Silent No More:

“In 2002, when we started the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, a pro-abortion professor from a California college wrote an article about the campaign. She cited research that disproves any claim that women suffer emotionally after abortion and suggested that: “Ms. Forney was probably unstable before her abortion.” As I read the article—I was amazed that this professor would write such a thing—she didn’t even know me. But it was my daughter’s response that put the issue back into perspective for me. She said, “Mom, while they are talking about research that says women aren’t hurting, you’re working seven days a week helping the women they say don’t exist.”

The Reality of Abortion: Reflections on my Journey here. Visited 9/10/2017