Abortion: A Choice Against Women
By Fr. Frank A. Pavone:
National Director of Priest for Life
Abortion is often presented as an issue of
"women's rights". It is seen as something desirable for women, and as
a benefit to which they should have as much access as possible. In fact, to be
"pro-life" is seen by some as being "against women's
rights".
If you sometimes feel this way, examine the facts
presented here. You will see that, in fact, abortion harms women, ignores their
rights, and exploits and degrades them. Anyone concerned about women will do
well to know these facts.
Surveys of women who have had abortions, (see, for example,
David Reardon's book, Aborted
Women, Silent No More), show that abortion is not a question of giving
a woman a "choice." It is, tragically, a situation of women feeling
they have NO CHOICE, feeling that nobody cares enough about them and their
child to give them any alternative besides going to the abortionist. The woman
feels rejected, confused, afraid, alone, unable to handle the pregnancy- -
and behold, in the midst of all this, she is told by society, "We will
eliminate your problem by eliminating your child. Go get an abortion. It's
a safe, easy, and legal solution."
The fact is that though abortion is legal, it is NOT
safe and easy, nor respectful of the woman.
Carol Everett used to run an abortion clinic. She is
now pro-life, and she tells how women are not given the full truth about the
abortion procedure. When they ask "Will it be painful?" they are told
"No", even though serious pain is involved. When they ask, "Is
it a baby?" they are told "No". Many women have found out only
AFTER their abortion that their baby already had arms, legs, and sucked its
thumb, before they aborted it. The clinic workers are told not to volunteer any
other information if they are not asked. Why can't we respect women enough to
tell them the whole truth?
Women are not told of the many harmful physical and
psychological effects of abortion. It is NOT safe. There are, for example,
fifteen psychological risk factors that need to be investigated before this
procedure. They usually aren't. Women who have abortions are twice as likely to
have a miscarriage if they get pregnant again. One of the reasons for this is
"cervical incompetence". During an abortion the cervical muscle is
hastily stretched open, and hence can be rendered too weak to stay closed for
another pregnancy. Another complication is ectopic pregnancy, a
life-threatening situation in which, due to scar tissue in the womb from the
scraping of the abortion, a fertilized ovum is blocked from entering the uterus
and so begins growing in the fallopian tube and eventually ruptures it. Since
abortion was legalized, ectopic pregnancies have risen 300%. Many other
physical complications can arise, as the chart below shows. It has also been
proven that complications and deaths of women from abortions are
UNDER-REPORTED, and recorded under different causes than abortion.
Psychological effects are also very real. Women
suffer from PAS (Post-Abortion Syndrome). They experience "impacted
grief"; that is, grief which festers within then like pus because they and
others deny that a real death has occurred. Because of this denial, mourning
cannot properly occur, yet the pain of loss is still there. Many have
flashbacks to the abortion experience, nightmares about the baby, and even pain
on the anniversary of the due date. One woman testified that she still suffers
from her abortion of 50 years ago! Nobody concerned about women can responsibly
dismiss these facts.
Effects
of Abortion
(Prepared
by WEBA. Women Exploited by Abortion, as a warning to other women to avoid the
risks of abortion surgery)
Physical Effects Psychological Effects
-Sterility
-Guilt
-Miscarriages -Suicidal impulses
-Ectopic pregnancies
-Mourning/Withdrawal
-Stillbirths -Regret/Remorse
-Bleeding and infections -Loss of
confidence
-Shock and comas -Low self-esteem
-Perforated uterus -Preoccupation
with death
-Peritonitus -Hostility/Rage
-Fever/Cold sweat
-Despair/Helplessness
-Intense pain -Desire to remember
birth date
-Loss of body organs -Intense
interest in babies
-Crying/Sighing -Thwarted maternal
instincts
-Insomnia -Hatred for persons
connected with abortion
-Loss of appetite -Desire to end
relationship with partner
-Exhaustion -Loss of sexual
interest/Frigidity
-Weight loss -Inability to forgive
self
-Nervousness -Nightmares
-Decreased work capacity -Seizures
and tremors
-Vomiting -Feeling of being
exploited
-Gastro-intestinal disturbances
-Horror of child abuse
What kind of concern for women is shown when we put
more stress on killing the child than helping the woman to bear her child? The
abortion mentality looks on pregnancy as a disease. It does not take women
seriously in their unique privilege and power of bearing new life! Some say
that the pro-life movement is run by men trying to control women. But did you
ever realize that the abortion industry is run primarily by men, who make a lot
of money by performing this degrading operation on women? Abortion does not
take sex seriously, either. Instead, it makes it easier for men to exploit
women sexually. As Rosemary Bottcher, a Feminist for Life, has written,
"Abortion reduces women to the status of sex machines which can be
'repaired' if necessary. Abortion helps ease his (the man's) anxiety about sex
and relieves him of the last vestige of responsibility. At last sex is really
free!"
Many women are coming to realize these facts, and
have formed the National Women's Coalition for Life (703-960-4519). Let's stop
fooling ourselves that abortion is a woman's "right". The pro-life
movement offers women over 3,000 centers throughout the country where they can
find compassion, assistance, and real alternatives and life-giving choices. The
abortion movement offers them no choice except a wounded body, a scarred mind,
and a dead baby. The choice is obvious.
Used by permission from Priest for life.
Priests for Life
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
Fax 718-980-6515
e-mail mail@priestsforlife.org
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