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NRL News
Post-Abortive Women and Men Finding Wholeness Travel down any corridor at any time at National Right to Life’s upcoming three-day national convention and as likely as not you’ll see a sign for a workshop with Olivia Gans’s name on it. Gans, the director of American Victims of Abortion (AVA), is always a whirlwind of activity at these conventions and she will be again when activists from around the nation gather July 3–5 in Crystal City, Virginia. Herself the victim of an abortion in 1981, Gans brings a message of hope and reconciliation to women and (increasingly) men who have been emotionally wounded by their involvement in the death of an unborn child. A speaker in 17 countries and a frequent guest on television, she increasingly talks and writes about what Gans calls the “ripple effect” of abortion. This commonsensical proposition—only those with minds immune to evidence believe women are alone in their abortion decision—has been hidden largely because abortion has been seen as a “political” issue. But, as Gans points out, while much more research needs to be done, there is a growing body of evidence that abortion has a long-term negative impact not only on many women but also on the fathers of these children. Abortion, she says, is a lose-lose-lose proposition. “If abortion is bad for children, because it kills them,” Gans asks, “and we find out because of good solid research that abortion is harming the mental or physical well-being of women—and subsequently the fathers of those children as well and subsequently members of their extended families—then at some point we will have to ask as a society, ‘if abortion is bad for all these people and causing all this damage, who is it good for?’” We all know the answer, she says. “The abortion industry.” When Gans gives speeches, she often points to her own experience as testimony to the healing power of the pro-life community. “I knew how steadfast pro-lifers were from the very first National Right to Life national convention I attended in 1982, how hard they tried to try to figure what they could do to help,” she said. As AVA director, Gans travels the length and breadth of the country. A major advantage of this, she says, is that she is exposed to many post-abortion reconciliation programs, including the newest ones. Gans says the linchpin to a successful program is that it does not offer a “magic wand” treatment. There are no “quick fixes,” she says, to what is a “death experience” which requires working through grief. And as with any grieving process, Gans explains, the woman who has aborted must work through anger and denial, regret and confusion. This process can not be hurried, she says, any more than it can be with any other profound grief experience. “Abortion is a lifetime loss,” she tells her audiences, but it is one “that we will help you find the tools to live with.” Speaking in the first person to illustrate the point, Gans says, “You are going to help me learn how to remember what I have very successfully forgotten.” The woman or man who has been through an abortion experience “needs to learn how to appropriately, tranquilly remember the child who died in that act of violence that touched all of us.” And with the growing sophistication of the post-abortion reconciliation movement—including its outreach to men—Gans is increasingly confident this crucial goal is being met. “These programs are helping women and men to find wholeness.” |