Subject: Elliot Institute News, Vol. 6, No. 2
The Elliot Institute News
From the Leader in Post-Abortion Research
Vol. 6, No. 2 -- Jan. 25, 2006
Visit us online: http://www.AfterAbortion.Info
12 Ways to Help Spread the Unchoice Message #2: Don't Assume Abortion Was "Her" Choice
News Briefs
New Study Suggests EC Doesn't Reduce Pregnancy or Abortion Rates
New Testing Recommendations Could Increase Pressure on Parents to Have Abortions
A Message From Someone Who's Been There
Leslie Graves
If you are suffering after abortion, you may feel very alone. You may have experienced abortion many years ago and never told anyone. You may be struggling with a more recent abortion.
You are not alone in what you have been feeling, and you don’t need to be alone and isolated as you recover. If you are in emotional or spiritual pain after abortion, there are resources and options available to you in your journey to renewed emotional and spiritual well-being. As you reach out for assistance, you will discover a community of compassionate, experienced men and women who will be able to offer skillful and significant help.
As you investigate the resources listed here, keep in mind that not every program is a good fit for every person. Please keep trying until you find a person or group where you are truly safe, comfortable and welcome. Bear in mind that any time you reflect back on a painful time in your life, you will most likely feel worse before you feel better, because you will be thinking and feeling more on a daily basis about what happened. That’s normal, and it’s one reason why support is so helpful on your journey.
However, some people may try a particular resource, and continue to be in a lot of pain, experience flashbacks and intrusive thoughts, or have behaviors that they dislike and want to stop but which are continuing. If that happens, you may be tempted to say, “It must be me, and I can never expect to truly experience peace and joy again. Because of what happened, I will always have to struggle with destructive thoughts and unhealthy behaviors.”
Pease keep trying! Many, many people have experienced complete healing of their post-abortion symptoms through one of these programs. My prayers and encouragement are with you as you walk on this path of recovery. Others, including me, have walked it before you. We know that what once seemed impossible peace, forgiveness, restoration to a sense of wholeness, is indeed possible. However deep your trauma and your sense of pain and emotional turmoil, I encourage you to look forward to recovery with renewed hope and confidence.
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Read more at www.unchoice.info/healing.htm. This page also includes information and links to post-abortion recovery groups.
"Giving Sorrow Words" Exposes Injustice of Abortion
"This is a book about women who don't exist."
Melinda Tankard Reist's opening sentence in the introduction to Giving Sorrow Words eloquently captures the status of many post-aborted women today. Even after more than 30 years of American debate about abortion, many women who have experienced abortion are silent, overlooked, and unable to speak of their experiences to others.
Yet, in the pages of Giving Sorrow Words, women share their untold stories. Many tell how they were left to face a crisis pregnancy alone, without practical and emotional support or knowledge of available options. Many share how they were coerced into unwanted abortions through threats, pressure, emotional blackmail, and even violence. Many tell of being misinformed and mistreated at abortion clinics. Many tell how abortion, instead of averting a crisis, left them with lingering scars of trauma, pain, loss, and grief. Many tell of being dismissed after abortion, shamed into silence, and told to "get on with their lives"—or even to "get lost" because their stories aren't welcome.
Originally published in Australia, Giving Sorrow Words shows that, regardless of location, many women throughout the world experience the same soul-shattering pain and regret after abortion. Tankard Reist draws on the experiences of more than 200 women from varied personal, social, economic, religious, political and ethnic back-grounds, including some who grieve their own losses from abortion but still consider themselves to be "pro-choice."
Tankard Reist, a respected journalist, political activist, and human rights advocate, bookends moving personal stories from 18 women with two detailed chapters that examine the many factors leading to abortion. She shows how abortion, rather than empowering women, actually creates a society where they are expected to sacrifice their maternity to the demands of others and preserve the status quo.
The women in Giving Sorrow Words—like many of their American counterparts—describe abortion as an isolating and heartbreaking experience. This book is an important tool to help readers understand the needs and concerns of women everywhere, and the difficulties and pressures women often face before and after abortion. She writes:
"Hearing the voices of women speaking through this book, the reader might be more sensitive to the burdens carried by a friend who has walked the lonely road of abortion. The woman considering abortion might gain greater insight into what she could face afterwards. The man who never has to contemplate such a decision for himself might more readily appreciate what con-fronts a woman when she faces it."
Giving Sorrow Words is available for $14.95 plus shipping from the Elliot Institute under its Acorn Books imprint. To order, call 1-888-412-2676 or send an email to amy@afterabortion.info.
12 Ways to Help Spread the Unchoice Message
#2: Choose your words with care; don't assume an abortion was "her" choice"
If Americans knew the truth about unwanted, misinformed or forced abortions ... they would not push women to abort or deny them the opportunity to heal. Millions still suffer in the wake of a procedure that was never safe ... never just ... and never about free or fully informed choices.
Americans have been kept in the dark and many unwittingly push their daughters, wives, sisters or friends into unwanted and dangerous abortions. Meanwhile, countless women who have lived the abortion nightmare are resorting to despair or even suicide. It is urgent that we educate others about abortion's injustice and danger to everyone involved. With your help, we can stop others from pushing abortion in lieu of authentic choices and offer renewed hope and healing to women, men and families hurt by abortion.
Below is just one way you can help this important effort. To see the complete list of 12 Ways to Help, click here.
2. Choose your words with care; don't assume an abortion was "her" choice.
Try to use language that doesn't presume it was "her choice." For decades, many women were pushed or even forced into unwanted abortions, while others were presented with false information from trusted medical authorities. Still others faced impossible, no-win ultimatums. There is no one-size-fits-all abortion scenario, but abortion's inhumanity to everyone involved is real. It's an "unwanted, unsafe and unfair" substitute for the real support that women deserve. Share this seldom-reported perspective with others. Encourage people to visit www.UnChoice.info for free downloadable fact sheets, ads and healing resources regarding this issue.
New Study Suggests Emergency Contraception Doesn't Reduce Pregnancy or Abortion Rates
Researchers have found that easier access to “emergency contraception”—also known as the “morning-after pill”—hasn't reduced rates of pregnancy or abortion, according to a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The researchers published a review of 23 studies that examined the impact of increased access to emergency contraception on pregnancy and abortion rates. They reported that while easier access to the pills increases the number of women who use them, “no study has shown that increased access to this method reduces pregnancy or abortion rates.” Further, the authors noted that predictions that the drug would reduce pregnancy and abortion rates “may have been overly optimistic” and called for more research on this issue.
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New Testing Recommendations Could Increase Pressure on Parents to Have Abortions
Two leading medical societies in the U.S. and Canada are recommending that doctors encourage Down Syndrome testing for all pregnant women, a move pro-life groups say could lead to more abortions.
Currently, screening tests are generally offered to women age 35 or older, who are considered more at risk for having a child with Down Syndrome. The American College of Obstetrics & Gynecologists issued new guidelines in January that calls for the tests to be offered to all pregnant women, instead of just to older women who are considered most at risk for having a child with Down Syndrome. The Canadian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is also calling for an increase in Down Syndrome testing and the group’s executive vice president told the National Post that this would give more women the opportunity to abort. Although ACOG says that early diagnosis will allow parents to seek support earlier, there is no cure for Down Syndrome and critics fear that more testing would increase the pressure on parents to abort.
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