Did you hear? Pro-Lifers harass post-abortive women! You know all those retreats and Bible studies and support groups and one-on-one counseling opportunities that the Pro-Life community offers for free to women who report that they are suffering mentally and emotionally after their abortion? All harassment, according to The Daily Beast.
In spite of a growing body of evidence– perhaps the most strongly-considered of which should be the anecdotal, testimonial evidence from actual post-abortive women which the anti-Life movement chooses to sweep under the rug—the article insists that the number of women who suffer irreparable damage from abortion is miniscule. The article states:
Although some studies do indicate that “some women” can experience grief, depression, and anxiety after an abortion, the Task Force further clarified that “reports of associations between abortion history and mental health problems” can be “misleading” if they do not take into account “other risk factors” like poverty, violence, and drug or alcohol use.
This is simply not true. Downplaying the magnitude of grief experienced by post-abortive mothers is bad enough, but the author adds insult to injury by then insisting that these women should not seek help from Pro-Life organizations (oh man, is this yet another diatribe about the evils of pregnancy resource centers? yawn), but instead should seek help from only abortion-sympathetic organizations.
And then things get even worse: instead of interacting with those poo-pooed Pro-Lifers, the author suggests that women should seek solace from Planned Parenthood – the very abortion business that likely rendered them emotionally broken in the first place: “For one,” she says, “Planned Parenthood offers emotional support to women post-abortion. In a statement to The Daily Beast, Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president of external medical affairs, said Planned Parenthood recognizes that ‘women can experience a range of emotions after an abortion,’ including ‘anger or sadness,’ although ‘most women feel relief.’”
This is like telling someone who developed lung cancer and emphysema from excessive smoking to seek treatment and emotional support from a tobacco company. Only in the world of the abortion agenda would sending a woman to an abortion business be touted as a logical solution to post-abortion stress.
But sending women to an abortion business for help is not even the most glaring problem with the article. Directing women away from the individuals who are more likely than anyone else to promote authentic psychological healing is a gargantuan blow to the women who need help. PRCs and other Pro-Life post-abortion organizations provide women with one crucial element that the agenda-ridden abortion lobby will never give them: affirmation, affirmation that what they did was wrong, and that’s why they cannot move beyond the choice without facing the realities associated with their abortion.
A Pro-Life organization will affirm to her: Yes, your pain and your animosity stem from your decision to play a role in the death of your child. This acknowledgement, as we know from countless testimonies expressing gratitude for this confirmation, is healing to women—many of whom report having felt crazy for experiencing the after-effects of abortion precisely because the abortion industry told them they would not. Pro-Lifers will then affirm that her life still has meaning, that reconciliation and healing are possible, and that her future is full of hope.
If the abortion lobby actually cared about women, they would sacrifice lip service to their abortion agenda for the sake of the wellbeing of post-abortive mothers. Unfortunately, though, their denial of post-abortion stress and their derision of Pro-Life resources are two more indications that women’s health is not the primary concern of the abortion industry.