After an abortion, many women struggle to move on. However, few seek out help for the thoughts and feelings they are having, despite the fact that post-abortion counseling can make a significant difference in improving your mental health and well-being.
If you find yourself going through the same continuous thoughts related to an abortion you had, we would encourage you to review the questions below to reach a better understanding of how this is affecting you and what steps you can take for healing.
Simply put, most women who choose abortion are going against their own moral codes, and this explains why they feel guilty afterward. And guilt is what stops them from talking about it or getting the emotional help they deserve. A number of counselors who have explored this issue in some depth have identified a condition that they call “Post-Abortion Syndrome” (or PAS), defined as an ongoing inability to:
If you have ever had an abortion, you probably feel very much alone with the memories of your experience. Perhaps the father of the baby has long since passed out of your life. Or it seems as if no one wants to hear about your pain anymore. So you’ve taken all those complicated feelings surrounding the abortion decision and stuffed them down and tried not to think about them, right?
Did you know that 44 percent of all American women will have an abortion at some point during their lifetime? More than a million American women will have an abortion this year, but hardly any of them talk about it. Why is that?
Many women who have abortions are very uncertain about their decision. On one hand, their feelings say, “This is my baby…I will do what I need to in order to protect and nurture this child.” But too often, their circumstances say, “This is not a good time to have a baby…abortion is legal and easy; it’ll be as if it never happened…it’s the only solution to this mess.”
Healing and Education for Abortion-Related Trauma (HEART) exists to provide women in post-abortion trauma with the caring support they need as they walk through the pain and guilt of past abortions.
Please call us to make an appointment for a confidential interview. 702-366-1247
Reference: Hope and Healing, published by the Elliot Institute.