A Long, Cold Journey to the Truth

By Olivia Gans, Director, American Victims of Abortion

Thirty years ago on a cold wintry day in January 1973, a terrible deception was perpetrated on tens of millions of American women. Slogans replaced truths and over 43 million unborn children paid with their lives.

Thirty years after Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were handed down by the Supreme Court, women are still paying a heavy price. But I am glad to say, at long, long last, the truth--that abortion kills children and devastates women--is beginning to emerge.

Remembering that terrible day, on the anniversary of those horrid decisions, I was proud to join with women from across the country who announced to the world in front of that very same Supreme Court building that they would be "Silent No More." Karen Cross explains the significance of that gathering in her story on page 34. Here I would like to discuss another important development: the growth of an entire ministry dedicated to healing post-aborted women around the world.

Future generations will look back at the history of legalized abortion in America and question how intelligent women and men could be so deceived as to fight to legalize and then maintain abortion. Partly, it was because they were sold a bill of goods--that abortion was an "answer" to so many social and personal problems.

This lie persuaded them to avoid seeking real answers, answers that respect the dignity of both mothers and their children. Their blindness has helped perpetuate a "procedure" that degraded women and takes the lives of some 1.3 million babies each year in the United States alone.

As a result of the Supreme Court's decisions which made abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy in all 50 states for any reason at all, millions of women, including myself, are bereft of our children and sick at heart. Some of us have been physically scarred by our abortions.

Many of us have felt emotionally overwhelmed by despair, anger, and grief. All of us have been damaged by decisions that so carelessly cheapened the value of the lives of our children. But there is hope.

Since about 1982 there have been ongoing efforts to provide real opportunities to heal some of that damage. Counselors, many pastors, and some therapists have devoted themselves to help heal the suffering that so many women experience after abortion.

Programs, often developed with the hands-on experience of the women and families of those in pain, have led the way. It is hard to find a state now that doesn't have some good help available for women and also men that have had an abortion experience. Hopefully, more such programs will be established.

The presence of women who can expose the "safe and legal" slogan for the evil deception that it is has helped the Movement immensely. With the support of family and good counseling, they have stepped out into the harsh light of public scrutiny.

From the early 1980s onward brave women have come forward to share their own stories. At hearings on parental involvement laws and women's right to know bills, their honest testimony has sounded a note of truth.

Tragically, they continue to be often ignored by the secular media and disregarded by social policy makers committed to the agenda of pro-abortion forces. It has become commonplace to hear an abortion proponent suggest that the testimony of these brave women is somehow "irrelevant" to the debate.

"It is just your bad experience. That doesn't matter," we're told--proof positive that what really happens to real women is of little importance to those who promote abortion. But Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS) is a grim reality, as inescapable as the force of gravity.

A fascinating aspect of the post-abortion experience is that in many countries outside the USA, there are increasing efforts to reach women and men with abortion histories. Most of the work to form PAS programs similar to those in America has been done in Europe.

After several visits by myself, England launched a British Victims of Abortion outreach in the early 1990s. (It was the very first group of this kind outside the USA.) There has been a book of testimonies published from its work, the first of its kind in Britain. This year it has released a new video for instruction and help at pregnancy centers.

Similar efforts are underway in Poland, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, and Switzerland to name just a few. PAS programs are now well established in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Thanks to connections I and others have made with pro-life groups while working at the UN there is now real interest in creating such work in many other parts of the globe. Tragically the demand grows as abortion is legalized in more places.

What we have learned for sure is that wherever and whenever abortion occurs around the world it always takes the life of a child and hurts women. One dead, one wounded.

Thankfully, we are now hearing from more members of the scientific community whose work is challenging the notion that there are no long-term problems after abortion. Research that demonstrates a link between induced abortion and breast cancer, infertility, suicide, depression, and a host of other serious problems is appearing in reputable medical journals.

Still too many in medical circles continue to chant the mantra that abortion is "safe" for women. Abortion remains the most underreported and underinvestigated surgical procedure in the country--which imperils women's lives and health.

Thousands of women and families from all over America and the world are finding each other and providing to one another a support they did not find at the moment of their individual crisis. When we most needed help, the only things we received from abortion promoters were ridicule and rejection. So our babies died for lack of genuine support and encouragement.

We are mothers and fathers left with aching hearts and empty arms. We have not been silent over these past years, and we will not be silenced now. Our pain is real.

There is much to be learned from our experiences that will protect and benefit women in the future. It can no longer be assumed that abortion is "good" for women or that we want abortion. America must seek out the truth about abortion's damage to all concerned. We must prepare ourselves to provide real answers and life-affirming solutions to mothers and families in crisis.

It has not always been easy to stand up and say that our abortions were wrong and that the cost was our children's lives as well as our despair. Yet now is not the time for silence--it is the time for truth so that lives may be saved.

From http://www.nrlc.org/news/2003/NRL02/olivia.html

Two great resources are www.hopeafterabortion.com and www.helpafterabortion.com.