Abortion Counseling:

Abortion Counseling experience has revealed that post-abortion trauma is normal and common. Pregnancy loss is real. And when their loss was their choice there is a serious combination of guilt and grief. Many women experience post-abortion depression.

Listening is the best approach in helping a woman in an unplanned pregnancy. A skilled caregiver will ask questions that will draw out her true desires and provide information that affirms her individual worth, as well as the worth of her child.

Even if only 1% of women will experience post-abortion stress and 10% will suffer a form of depression, 10,000 and 100,000 women respectively will need help each year. Many women are told that abortion is a minor surgical procedure after which many experience relief. What they are not told is that many of these same people proceed to struggle with their decision for 10, 20, and 30 years until finding true relief. Every year, thousands of women and men participate in post-abortion recovery counseling.

Parenting is hard, adoption is hard, and abortion is hard. Abortion is not an easy choice. There are serious potential consequences to abortion: physical, emotional and spiritual. Some women regret their abortion decision and suffer greatly. The issues of right and wrong and life and death are being brought to the post-abortion recovery room. Many women ask, "If abortion is legal and my right, why do I feel bad after I've had one? Am I wrong for feeling bad? Is there something wrong with me or is there something wrong with abortion?"

There will always be women with unplanned pregnancies. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Society needs to reach out to them with compassionate care and practical resources.