Women are often told that abortion is the path to freedom and ensuring a better future, but many post-abortive mothers have spoken out about the detrimental effects their abortions had on their lives. One woman named Marina shared her story on Facebook, telling of her suffering after abortion. Her words were translated and shared on Aleteia:
“… If you were to throw your child from the balcony, you’d suffer the consequences legally, but especially humanly. The ache would haunt you every day of your life. You’d have to learn to live with it, and if you didn’t learn to forgive yourself (a long, arduous, difficult journey), it would wear you down to the bone. If you do the equivalent when the child is in your womb, you can avoid the legal consequences (prison), but humanly, the pain weighs down every fiber of your being … The fact that it is legal is like an anesthetic: you have a pain in your soul, you anesthetize it socially, so you’re better. But it is just asleep: the pain is there, and remains temporarily anesthetized inside you, but your conscience awakens it from time to time, and it’s excruciating, frustrating, and in some cases devastating.
READ: Fathers explain their abortion regret: ‘I have never been the same since’
Marina continued with a warning, that women are not being told the truth when abortion is packaged as the key to freedom.
… Legalization of abortion? It’s a huge deception. Our sacred freedom, which has life and death consequences, is being deceived: ‘Do what you want, your life is yours alone.’ [It’s] is a huge lie in this case, because there are actually two lives involved (three, really, because there is a father) and one of the three is totally innocent; and supposedly that “life” is yours. “Death” is yours, I should say… it’s a deception disguised as progress, as false freedom.
She spoke of how she feels she is dying every day, and wishes she could warn women about abortion:
Millions of anesthetized women are wandering the world when they could have enjoyed a single kiss with their sweet baby: maybe he would be sick or disabled, maybe healthy … but each baby is the expression of a truth that nobody can misunderstand … life is always life … I am so grateful to the pope who says — speaking about abortion — “Is it right to rent a hitman to take someone out? Is it right?” This question should be shouted out and I want to cry out too: “Women, do not put your children in the hands of a hitman! They will die, and you will die with them, day after day … I did it and I am still dying. Don’t do it!”
Marina finished by pleading with women to choose life, encouraging them to really investigate all options. “There are pro-life help centers in every city: that’s where you have to go,” she wrote.
READ: Could a pregnancy resource center have saved Victoria from abortion regret?
What about children who might suffer? In those cases she says, “… if your baby is sick, look for the first mother you know who has a disabled child and ask her to tell you from the bottom of her heart what life has revealed to her. Do not be fooled by those who say it is only suffering … It is not so; every story is always, and above all, a love story.”
A recent study published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons found that the majority of women who responded said their abortions had no positive effect on their lives. 60% said they had an abortion to make other people happy, and an incredible 75% said they were pressured into it. Many women also said they needed counseling afterwards.
Post-abortive women need compassion and care from pro-lifers; many of them regret their abortions, and thankfully, there are organizations that can help, like Rachel’s Vineyard. Abortion is not the key to freedom that abortion advocates claim it is. It doesn’t just take the life of a preborn baby; it can harm the mother, too.
