Women Who Regret Their Abortions Rally at the Supreme Court Monday

LifeNews ^ | 1/18/07 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Hundreds of women who have had abortions and regret their decisions will rally at the Supreme Court building on Monday. Abortion is one of the most common surgical procedures but rarely do women who have them talk about it. One pro-abortion organization hopes to change that.

The Silent No More Awareness Campaign is organizing the rally which has quickly become a highly anticipated annual event in the short time since its inception.

On Monday evening, 35 courageous women from all over the country will tell all, sharing the secret that once controlled their lives.

These women have joined the campaign to take their message to the nation and to tell the public that women deserve to know the truth about the emotional pain after abortion and that help after a painful abortion experience is available.

"This is not a rally about abortion politics as usual, it's about reaching out to people who are struggling after an abortion and don't know help is available," Georgette Forney, event organizer and director of Anglicans for Life told LifeNews.com in a statement.

"It's also about helping the public understand that reproductive rights aren't really right for women. Abortion affects us emotionally, physically and spiritually," Forney added.

This is the fifth anniversary of women who have had abortions staying silent no more. This year, testimonies will feature a couple from St. Louis sharing the pain they lived with after aborting their first child years ago.

More than 20 post-abortion rallies and gatherings are taking place nationwide during the last two weeks of January this year as state Silent No More groups carry out their own events.

The rallies also come at the time when leaders in the field are pointing to a host of medical and mental health problems women face following an abortion.

In October 2006, some fifteen of Great Britain's leading obstetricians and psychiatrists penned an open letter to the London Times acknowledging the psychological consequences of abortions.

Also last year, a university researcher in New Zealand conducted an extensive study on thousands of women and found that 40 percent of those who have abortions suffer from mental health problems following an abortion.

Those problems included depression, addictions to alcohol or drugs, sleep disorders, thoughts of suicide and the problems were much greater than those faced by women who had miscarries or carried their pregnancy to term.

Related web sites:
Silent No More - http://www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org

[diamond6]

I cannot even imagine the incredible pain, grief and regret a mother goes through after an abortion... so sad.

Prayers for them.

[Nevernow]

I'm pro-life, I'll start with that, and I've argued this many times, so don't mistake what I'm about to say as what I believe. It's just the response I get when the personhood of the fetus is admitted.

The general response once a choicer admits a fetus should have a right to citizenship:

"But no citizen has the right to use another citizen's body! LOL look at McFall v Shimp!"

They fail to mention that abortion involves active killing whereas McFall v Shimp involved denial of an organ, or that the mother (along with the father) is responsible for causing the child to need her body in the first place.

Overturning Roe isn't enough. This is all or nothing. People are dying. Abortion was legal in some states before Roe, and if Roe is overturned, other states will make it legal too. The battle is constitutional protection from abortion. It's a battle that can be won, but it involves legally defining a fetus as a citizen and addressing the issues here that differ from Mcfall v. Shimp.

[GoldwaterChick]

I am a grandmother and perhaps because I come from a different generation have never met a woman who admitted to having an abortion. I've often wondered with all the birth control methods available why there are so many abortions. I also think it is truly bizarre that women who have had them are so proud of the fact and publicize it. As someone has said, all the people who support abortions had mothers who didn't abort them.

I'm curious as to how you know that only a very small portion of women who have had abortions regret it. Do you have facts to support that most of the nearly 50 million women who have had them have no regrets?

[HamiltonJay]

Those problems included depression, addictions to alcohol or drugs, sleep disorders, thoughts of suicide and the problems were much greater than those faced by women who had miscarries or carried their pregnancy to term.

I feel for most of these women, I really do.. conned into lies from the Feminists who fed them crap and called it sugar. Girls are lied to almost from birth about this issue by activists on the left. Especially those who were not raised in a religious home... because you will not see any argument against this heinousness generally other than from religion... so they are spoon fed lies without any counterarguments at all.

[Hildy]

You sort of contradicted yourself in your post. How many people have you actually heard boast about having an abortion?

I believe the majority of women who have had an abortion, are not PROUD of it, but deeemed it necessary and have gone on with their lives. The ones who are vocal, whether on the pro or con side, have agendas. Those who come out and say they regret it. I don't doubt it. But alot of women who have had abortions have other issues as well.

[Nevernow]

[Hildy]

Let me ask you something...what about personal responsibility I read so much about on this website? Nobody chained these women up and FORCED them to have an abortion. They had options. And please don't tell me they didn't know. Abortion was the right thing for them AT THE TIME, and now, their lives are crap, and they need something to blame. THAT'S what I really think. A Victim once...a victim always. You're telling me they needed the government to tell them what was right and wrong? Is that what you're really saying?

[Hildy]

Have you actually SEEN someone wearing this t-shirt?

[cgk]

These women really do regret having had abortions. They never really "get over" what they have done.

SO true. And - You're very VERY welcome, and thank YOU so much for the tireless work you do for the unborn and their mothers!!

[Nevernow]

Yes, at the mall about two years ago I think. That's how I found out about it. I've seen it a few other times since then. Then again, I live in a very liberal area, so makes sense that I would.

And to answer your question before...

I've talked to people who didn't believe it was a baby until they had later pregnancies where they kept their children and did sonograms, listened to heartbeats, or studied more into it in order to keep their pregnancy healthy. They're told things like, it's just a lump of tissue, it's selfish to have a baby if you don't have much money, etc.

People usually don't force abortions...but they do sell them.

I wouldn't use this as an argument to end abortion. I'd use it as an argument for better education...making sure women see sonograms, making sure women know what happens when, things like that. It does have an adverse affect on many women, I'd use this argument to push social change and make more of an effort to protect pregnant women.

[MHGinTN]

Is that one of your 'I'm only trying to help you people' posts?... Just trying to keep track here.

[Hildy]

I wouldn't use this as an argument to end abortion. I'd use it as an argument for better education...making sure women see sonograms, making sure women know what happens when, things like that. It does have an adverse affect on many women, I'd use this argument to push social change and make more of an effort to protect pregnant women.

You'll be surprised to hear that I agree with you.

[Nevernow]

I'm not surprised at all.

I was just taken aback that you seemed to trivialize the pain of women who DO regret their abortions.

[GoldwaterChick]

I haven't heard any women "boast" about an abortion. I have read many comments, however.

I have often thought about the 40,000 plus babies aborted. Out of that astonishing number of lives lost, it seems to me it's quite likely that among them could have been great researchers who could have discovered cures for some of our worst diseases. That's just for starters.

Our daughter-in-law said her thinking on abortion totally changed when she saw the ultrasound of their child.

Isn't it interesting that the media only talks about a fetus; it's only a baby when a celebrity becomes pregnant.

[GoldwaterChick]

Thank you, Nevernow. This shows how sick our society has become. This is a badge of honor, something to be proud of? The lack of respect for human life has spilled over into the lack of respect for others. Witness our cities where a person sees someone wearing something he/she wants, and takes it, and often that life too. They have no respect for themselves and no respect for others.

The mayor of Philadelphia is blaming the Iraq war for the violence and death on the streets. No, it's a lack of respect for the lives of others; life is cheap, in their eyes.

[Antoninus]

Oh boy...hundreds of women....the thousands and thousands and thousands of women who don't regret their abortions were busy leading their lives.

You do realize that these are only the ones with the immense courage to speak out about it publicly. You should listen to some of their accounts. They're positively heartbreaking.

If after listening to them, you still think abortion doesn't have a grievous human toll above and beyond the baby that's killed, you must be delusional.

[Antoninus]

You have a right to believe what you want to believe. I'm telling you you're wrong. The numbers bear me out.

Numbers? What numbers? The truth is that it takes a phenomenal amount of courage for a woman to proclaim publicly that she had an abortion and that she now regrets it. Most people simply do not have that kind of courage. One shouldn't assume that because a few hundred women are willing to publicly proclaim that they regret their abortions, that all the rest don't--simply because of their silence on the issue.

Again, I encourage you to read some of the accounts. Many of them are positively shattering. As more women find the courage to speak out, I think you'll find the ranks of the "I regret my abortion" movement growing larger and larger.

[Antoninus]

You see women who kill their unborn children as being on the "winning side" of this issue?

Don't let the rhetoric fool you. The pro-abortion side is desperate to keep the "I regret my abortion" movement silent. Remember, they even tried to run a huge feature in Ms. Magazine last year about women who were "happy" about their abortions. They well recognize the treat this aspect of the pro-life movement represents.

[Vaduz]

Wonder women wonder their guts don't fall ouy.

[linda_22003]

I would like to see abortion become a thing of the past, but I have to say I think it will be achieved through technology before it is achieved through the legislative or judicial process.