In pregnancy counceling the aftermath, or emotional effect is never discussed. I had a friend who'd had an abortion in her college years. She never married the guy. Sometime later, when she had married a diferent man, she became pregnant. She said that she'd shoved the guilt of the abortion as far back into her mind as she could possibly manage. When she sat in the doctor's office for the pregnancy with her husband, they asked her a routine question. "Is this your first pregnancy?" She said it hid her harder than a ton of bricks and she cried and cried! After that she devoted her time and eventually became president of a pregnancy crisis center which educates against abortion. It was hard work, but they had great sucess in educating, and persuading mothers to the alternatives.
Sadly, her second child was diagnosed with leukemia when he was three. He died when he was six. I think a part of her felt that it was punishment for the abortion, that at this point, had been so so long ago.
I am very sorry for your friend's loss. My sister also had an abortion as a young woman. She has problems with it to this day. She has since had 4 children and one with residual paralasys from a stroke enutero. There used to be a time, before I was saved, that I could understand a woman's right to choose, but since giving my life to christ, I know in my heart that I could never do that. The question was brought up to me tonight if I would do it in the case of a rape. My answere was quick and heart felt "What did the unborn child do wrong"? It is not the fault of the unborn child that the father was a sick man. I have also seen a situation just like this work out very well where the mother was raped and kept the child. Her daughter is a beautiful, peaceful spirit. Thank God for miracles however they come. God bless you in your work.