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] Date Posted:03/24/09 3:55am In reply to:
Pat
's message, "Re: Changed My Mind" on 03/23/09 11:55pm
Pat - this is the thing that has thusfar stopped me. As a clinician, I know the stats and the research, and I do not doubt it. I have come across the occasional woman who seriously appears to have "no regrets" - but I am wondering how many women can truly say that at the end of the day. And one cannot predict exactly which "camp" they might fall into post abortion. This is why I am alarmed to find myself feeling this way. Once again, taking morality out of it - taking the rights of the unborn out of the equation (hard to do) - what happens to the emotional life of the woman involved? This is where the pro-choice stance appears to have no definitive answers. And this is what has kept me from doing anything to end my pregnancy. That fear of deep and unrelenting regret.
I volunteered for awhile as a P.A.S.S (Post Abortion Stress Syndrome) counselor at our local pregnancy resource center because there was such a need for this demographic of women. The abortion clinics couldn't offer this service without acknowledging the liability, so they could offer only referrals, some sliding scale - but none free.
What I noted with interest during my time doing that counseling is how few women I saw who had just had abortions. I think there is a certain period of denial. There were a few who were within a month or two of their abortion, but most were a year or more, sometimes many years, after the fact of their abortion and were just now coming to terms with it.
This is one reason why I am thankful when I see women considering abortion being encouraged to not to react hastily to the fear we all have when something unplanned and seemingly daunting comes to us. Abortion is so huge, so much more than merely 'removing a pregnancy.'
And as you note, there is a huge portion of that that is concern for women. We have instincts! And we don't do well when pressured either from within or without to overrule them.
