Monday I began a short series focusing on post-abortive women. Having counseled biblically for nearly two decades I have unknowingly ministered to many, many women who have this buried hurt in their past according to the statistics. Because of a surge in the number of women seeking help we as the Church are going to need to know how to minister to these devastated women.
I recently took a course on post-abortive counseling which revealed some things I had never thought of. This series came out of those studies. If you are post-abortive, please don't suffer in silence, there is help and hope. Reach out and you will find it in Christ.
Aborting a child and brings physical,
mental, emotional and spiritual consequences for everyone who was involved in
the abortion decision and the act. It is tragic that the before an abortion
women are not told the truth about the feelings and emotions they will have for
the rest of their lives after making this choice.
It is unconscionable that abortion
lobbyists deny the reality of post-abortion syndrome for the sake of protecting
their pro-death position. It is clear they must maintain a
position of dishonesty to keep their death march on the roll. I
suppose some women with little foresight would still choose abortion even with
full knowledge of the ramifications on their emotional and mental health, but I believe the majority would not
make the decision to abort if they only had full understanding of what awaited
them from the moment their child’s life is snuffed out.
The physical consequences both short and
long-term are sobering and make the assertion of the pro-abortion movement that
pregnancy is more dangerous than abortion simply laughable. Abortion is not a “safe” physical choice for a
woman. According to the August 2000 Archives of General
Psychology 255,000 women annually reported physical complications from abortion.
That is nearly 20%!
The documented physical complications for the woman
directly related to the abortion procedure include cervical laceration; uterine
damage including perforation of the uterus and uterine rupture. Other complications include hemorrhaging that may
require a transfusion, endotoxic shock, incomplete abortion, unplanned
surgical intervention, cardiac arrest, and death. Because there are greater regulations on
veterinarian clinics than on abortion clinics, post-abortion infections caused
by dirty conditions and unsterile equipment are a real possibility. We have all heard or read the horror stories about Kermitt Gosnell and about that similar abortuary in Texas.
Long-term physical complications include a higher
risk of infertility, tubal pregnancy, and an increased chance of miscarriage. The post-abortive woman also may have premature
deliveries and low-birth weight babies.
The connection between breast cancer and abortion is
emerging; however, no widely accepted studies confirm the link. Studies supporting breast cancer as a possible
long-term complication from abortion are concealed by media that is
overwhelmingly pro-abortion.
Since the mid-1980’s there has been a greater than 40% increase in breast cancer. This is significant because it includes the first group of women who beginning in 1973 had access to legal abortions.The
New England Journal of Medicine (NEJoM) cites a risk of breast cancer as a complication of
abortion. They provide statistics that
show that 27 out of 34 studies show a 50% increased link between breast cancer
and abortion. If the
connection between abortion and breast cancer in studies like these were
subject to full disclosure, I believe it would drive the number of abortions
performed down dramatically.
The incidence of breast cancer in post-abortive
women is 50% higher than among other women of the same age group. Since legalization of abortion, the rate of breast cancer
diagnosis by age 85 has risen to 1 in 9 women.
Independent study revealed the same statistics
published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) in
June of 1989 but were quickly squelched. The data accumulated in numerous
studies showed a 95% link between surgical abortion and the development of
breast cancer. Do you think it is coincidence that statistics say 1
in 6 women will get breast cancer in their lifetime when 4 in 10 have had
abortions by age 45?
The rise in infertility among women of childbearing
age was also of notable interest to me. Statistically, many of those women also
have abortions in their past.
No, abortion is not a safe physical choice for women regardless of the chants of those who support it. The physical cost and complication is not the worst of it for the post-abortive woman however. As we continue through the next couple of posts in the series you will see there is a much greater and more private horror with which the post-abortive woman must live. Come back Friday.