> This can happen in a post-abortive’s woman’s heart at any time ... or not at all, if she is not open to receiving grace.
What you say is absolutely true — and if I gave the impression that Abortion was an unforgivable sin, my apologies.
Abortion is only unforgivable if it goes unacknowledged as being Wrong, or even worse yet, claimed as being Right.
Either way, Sinners aren’t “Victims” — because God does not victimize us. They are either Sinners, or they are Forgiven.
Quite so. However, not all sins are committed with full knowledge and full consent of the will. These are required for a mortal sin, along with grave matter, which there's no question abortion is.
Modern young women often have never considered the fact that abortion is a grave sin. It's legal, after all, and practically all the celebrities are "pro-choice." Nor is there full consent of the will under pressure from family, for example, or in a panic because "My parents will kill me!" Of these two issues, I suppose the first is more common, because our societies and most institutions simply don't recognize abortion as a sin.
However, because it is a sin, it psychologically traumatizes the sinner, even if she's not aware of it. Just as you go splat if you jump off a building, even if you don't recognize the law of gravity, you psychologically and spiritually go splat if you kill your baby, even if you didn't know it was wrong, or didn't think you had a better choice.
To conclude (because I have to start cutting up vegetables for supper and some kid wants to check his email), I agree with you and trisham that the process of reconciliation for post-abortive women cannot in any way "fudge" the gravity of the sin or their responsibility for it. One has not repented of sin if one has not taken responsibility for sinning.