The Grim Reality of Abortion's Aftermath

It is not always true, but usually is. Even when the "other side" is presented in a highly sympathetic light --abortion is the greatest thing in a woman's life--so long as our side--abortion represents a colossal failure of love--is presented even-handedly, the cause for which we labor comes out way ahead.

Such was the case a couple of weekends ago in a segment of PBS's "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly." The title of the piece was "Abortion Healing." You can watch the segment by going to http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week937/cover.html#.

By way of background "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" describes itself as "breaking ground in news reporting since its national debut on PBS in September 1997. Hosted by veteran journalist Bob Abernethy, this one-of-a-kind television newsmagazine provides insightful coverage and analysis of the news, people, events and trends behind the headlines in the rich world of religion and ethics." I have only seen the program occasionally, and I wish it were otherwise.

Since the program is only a few minutes long and (I trust) you will dial it up on your computer, let me just ever-so-briefly made a couple of comments.

The program's primary defender of abortion, the Reverend Rebecca Turner, pulls double-duty. She is a woman of the cloth and the executive director of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, an oxymoron if ever there was one.

Her rhetorical strategy for denying that an untold number of women suffer trauma following an abortion is to trot out the oldest pro-abortion canards.

She says that women's first response is relief. We have NEVER said otherwise. "Terminating the pregnancy" is advertised as a "solution"--and, short-term, it often feels that way. It takes a few weeks or a few months before the mechanisms women use to hide what they've done to their child and to themselves break down.

Rev. Turner also says that it's "completely fictitious" to "say that there's a particular syndrome that women are always going to go through after they have an abortion." But, again, no one has ever said that all women suffer from Post-Abortion Syndrome. What researchers and counselors do say is that at the root of various addictions, disorders, and depression suffered by some aborted women, is the trauma of abortion.

"She pays a heavy price," says Dr. Theresa Karminski Burke. "You know, some people can ignore it. Some people can run from it. Some people can numb it through drugs and alcohol. But on some level, just as a human being, we pay a price when we engage in destruction of life."

But to know how true this is, all you have to do is watch and listen to women who are participating in Rachel's Vineyard, which Dr. Burke founded. Rachel's Vineyard describes its mission thusly on its web page:

"Married couples, mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings of aborted children, as well as persons who have been involved in the abortion industry have come to Rachel's Vineyard in search of peace and inner healing." The on-camera pain of these women is almost palpable.

When you listen to them weeping--and think back to a comment made by another woman ("Sometimes abortion is the most morally responsible and loving choice we can make. Amen.")--you are reminded of the almost infinite capacity of the human mind to deceive itself.

Please take a few minutes and go to http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week937/cover.html#

Please send any comments or questions to Dave Andrusko at dandrusko@nrlc.org.