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Eight years ago, I heard a shocking story that changed my life. A speaker shared with about 60 audience members, including me, the psychological and emotional traumas which came from her decision to have several abortions. That story became a call to action to help women, and later men, who suffer abortion-related trauma find the compassionate healing they need.
I have always known that women and babies suffer from abortion. But I had never thought about how one incident could turn into years or decades of suffering.
What I've learned since then is that this woman's story represents millions of women's experiences. They are silently suffering because they don't know how to heal, or even where to look. Research conducted by Support After Abortion, the group I founded to help suffering men and women, found that 63 percent of women who experience a medication abortion sought help or feel they could have benefited from having someone to talk to. But while one in three women suffered negative self-image after a medication abortion, more than eight in 10 women did not know healing resources even existed.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that one in four women will have an abortion by age 45, and half of abortions were chosen by mothers who had previously experienced abortion. Abortion is clearly a common choice; so is the trauma women experience before, during, and after it.
In our divided political era, it's easy to dismiss concerns about men and women suffering after abortion as "conservative" or "pro-life." But that is a disservice to the 75 percent of women in our study who identify as "pro-choice." Supporting legalized abortion doesn't mean that a woman is immune to the adverse effects of abortion, or doesn't want or need help dealing with those effects. Healing after abortion isn't political; for those who need it, it's essential to overcoming the traumas which often lead to, and come from, an abortion.
This human suffering is the reason our leaders must do more to provide for women suffering after abortion. Red states focus on banning abortion while letting private ministries like Rachel's Vineyard and independent groups like mine take lead. But that means mental health resources may be limited in those states.
On the flip side, blue states prioritize rapidly expanding abortion without considering the harm done to millions of women whose decision wasn't "pro-choice"—but was made out of panic due to the financial and relationship concerns Guttmacher has found dominate the abortion decision. Those states are creating a different problem than red states—one of buried feelings, in which women may feel they can't open up to friends and mental health professionals out of fear of social isolation and ostracism.
But whether a woman suffering after abortion lives in a red or blue state, she is a human being. Her story—like that of the woman who changed my life—is one of trauma begetting trauma. This is something we recognize in all states when past traumas lead to alcoholism or poor relationship choices; we must now expand our perspective to include suffering after abortion.
Support After Abortion has helped hundreds of women and men find healing resources. We've trained thousands more people to be a compassionate ear, giving suffering people confidence that, yes, they can be accepted, loved, and healed. We've made inroads with church leaders, helping them to provide the most effective and compassionate care. Now we're calling on lawmakers to pull off their own blinders and provide the resources necessary to help women who suffer after abortion.
Janine Marrone is founder and board chairman of Support After Abortion.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
