President's Message: Compassionately reaching out to women in need

As a nation we have experienced 29 years of legalized abortion, a public policy that affects every corner of our lives, from economic policies to health care decisions to the election of public officials at every level of government. We have witnessed the destruction of well over 40,000,000 unborn babies. We are living with the impact of those deaths upon their mothers, their fathers, their living siblings, and the whole of society.

Often the emphasis in the abortion discussion is upon unborn children who are denied the opportunity to draw that first breath of life outside the supposed safety of the womb. We sometimes overlook how legalized, permissive abortion has touched other lives, especially the lives of the women who have made this legal choice.

I recently received two notes with similar pleas: asking me to comment upon the women who have faced abortion and made a choice that they have lived to regret.

One note said, "Your info reaches women who have had an abortion and they have been through much pain and are now prolife. How about a word of encouragement in your letters for these women? Please!"

Among the most compelling of all spokespersons for our prolife philosophy are the women who have had abortions and now realize that the abortion choice was a fatal mistake. They are the women who testified at state House and Senate hearings on how they were denied accurate information or even lied to when they made their decision to abort their child. They are the women who were so instrumental in securing the votes needed to pass our present Woman's Right to Know law, an abortion informed consent law with a 24-hour waiting period. These are women of courage who speak out against abortion in the hope that other women will not make the same tragic decision.

Another writer asked that we concentrate on "helping women understand that abortions are not pro-women." She went on to say, "I am a therapist and have worked with women suffering from post-abortion trauma. The unborn are not the only victims."

The abortion industry and some in the medical profession work hand in hand to stifle any evidence of post-abortion trauma. They deny that abortion has any detrimental outcome to women. They dismiss as unscientific any study that demonstrates the physical and psychological problems facing post-abortive women.

We in the prolife movement who work side-by-side with women who have had abortions witness the havoc of the abortion choice. We see the women who are piecing back their lives, who are recovering from the regret, or the substance abuse, or the flashbacks of the abortion, or the depression or the destruction of their marriage.

Yes, the unborn are not the only victims of abortion. We are all victims; we have all been touched by 29 years of a policy of abortion on demand. While we cannot turn back the clock and erase those horrendous January 22, 1973, decisions, we can move forward with determination not to abandon the woman contemplating an abortion. It is within our power to provide her with a life-giving choice. We can resolve to reach out with compassion and love to the woman who has made the abortion choice. As we move into this 30th year of the abortion scourge, we can rededicate ourselves to courageously speaking the truth. Abortion kills a living, unique human being and wounds the woman who makes that fatal choice.

 

Back to Table of Contents