Posted on 07/15/2023 2:14:53 AM PDT by Morgana
Pro-life advocates have been helping parents deal with post-abortion trauma for decades through professional therapy and counseling, retreats, Bible studies, research, story-telling and more.
The grief, trauma and regret affects moms and dads, siblings and grandparents, and it is much more common than abortion activists claim.
But there are some therapists who blame pro-life advocates, not the unborn baby’s death, for negative emotions and mental health problems associated with abortion.
Kelsey Reep, an Asheville, North Carolina therapist who specializes in “abortion support,” believes that “the absence of positive social support” and “stigma” are to blame for negative emotions about abortion, according to North Carolina Health News.
She said she began her practice, Aligyned Counseling, in 2021 after noticing that most post-abortion counseling services were pro-life.
“There weren’t very many options of support from a pro-choice, empowerment perspective out there that I could find in North Carolina and in my area,” she said.
In the interview, Reep insisted that pro-life laws cause more mental harm to women than abortions do.
“I think stressors will increase due to more restrictions and less access to the procedure,” she told the news outlet while reflecting on the repeal of Roe v. Wade. “Based on research, being denied an abortion is worse on mental health than being able to access it.”
Reep should have said “based on some research” because many studies show the opposite. Numerous studies in recent decades have linked abortions to increased risks of suicide, depression, anxiety and other mental health problems. For example, one study in the British Medical Journal found a suicide rate nearly six times higher among women who had abortions compared to women who gave birth.
However, Reep said she tells her clients that there are no mental health risks to abortion.
“Something I try to convey and always reiterate both professionally and personally is that having an abortion does not increase the risk of psychological disorders, according to the American Psychological Association,” she told the news outlet.
In therapy, Reep said she helps her clients process their emotions from “a reproductive justice–oriented and feminist lens.” She admitted that many patients’ feelings about their abortions are complex and contradictory, and she emphasized the importance of helping women learn to process, not suppress, their emotions. Reep said she also wants to provide a safe place for them to talk, free from judgment.
These things are important and pro-life therapists provide them through their post-abortion counseling. But they also acknowledge the source of their clients’ problems: the death of their unborn baby. Many pro-life counselors are post-abortive mothers and fathers themselves who understand that healing begins by acknowledging the truth.
In many cases, the mothers and fathers chose to have their unborn baby aborted. In others, pregnant mothers were forced or coerced into the decision, and fathers tried unsuccessfully to save their unborn babies’ lives. In any of these situations, the root of the pain is the grief and often guilt involved with the unnecessary killing of their child – a unique and irreplaceable human being. Pro-life counselors help parents grieve by naming their child and sometimes holding a funeral or special service in remembrance. Often, learning to forgive themselves also is part of the healing process.
But all this stands in sharp contrast to Reep’s pro-abortion counseling. She never acknowledged that an abortion involves an unborn baby or that the baby’s life was valuable.
Her comments in the interview raised questions about how she deals with clients who realize that aborting their unborn babies was wrong. Does she try to convince them that “stigma” is really to blame? That any reason for an abortion is a good reason? That their aborted baby’s life is not something worth grieving over?
It’s pro-life advocates who provide true, compassionate healing to these parents, because healing cannot be achieved without first accepting the truth that killing an unborn baby is wrong.
You mean money-grubbing, baby-killers don’t care about their “patients” after they collect their fees? Incomprehensible! /s
The least those money grubbers could do is rub their temples and provide aroma therapy with scented rocks.
You don't hear that much any more.
What, bad feelings after snuffing out an innocent life!? Whoever would have thought that?
These folks utter disconnect from reality is truly frightening. This truly is atrocity from absurdity!
IOW, there is a person with no conscience and no soul and doesn’t understand the normal human reactions to murdering your own child.
One thing to remember is these women and their men who have abortions are often unprepared to make responsible decisions:
Teens as much as not
Poorly educated
Hormonal
Going though crisis
Financially unprepared
No parental guidance
They will be devastated by their choice and many will live a life of regret and shame.
Which is why I blame it on the leftist politicians, activists and medical “professionals”. All the dam money we send to Ukr, Afghanistan…wherever the current war flavor is, or paying welfare/social security benefits to illegals etc We should spend some to help these confused young adults and their unborn children.
IMHO.
This exposes their lie: if it was just a lump of cells, there would be nothing to mourn.
At the base of their lie is their satanic desire to destroy humanity, so that they can become gods and rule over the resulting utopia. Really diabolical.
Right, what the author is saying is if we completely normalize it, remove any stigma, treat it as normal, the woman won’t suffer any ill effects...just like with the gays and trannies. It’s working out really well. /s
Indeed.
Exactly.
I’m sure in the olden days they had counselors to make mothers feel better when their babies were sacrificed to Moloch, too.
"Yes,lady" I'd say to her "that's what *your* baby looked like before you allowed a butcher to tear him or her to shreds.Feel better now?"
How can you feel good after killing a defenseless, innocent American?
If you expect me to celebrate if a woman tells me she had an abortion you are bat crap crazy.
No I’m not going to condemn her, she will have to answer to God for her mistakes and failings just like we all will. I am not without empathy, I won’t shun them or shame them for their actions, but I sure am not going to reinforce or celebrate her actions.
if you think for one second I am going to pat her on the back and jump for joy because she did, you are flat out nuts.
Yes the lie that it’s just a blob is pervasive.
I went through a spontaneous abortion at home with my first wife at about 8 weeks.
My wife who had bought into that garbage had her world view changed after first hand witnessing the truth. She had never been one to consider abortion herself but bought into the blob of cells/woman’s choice narrative.
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