Healing the consequences of abortion - the beginning

Perhaps you had an abortion or arranged and even pressured someone to have one. Maybe someone you loved had one without your knowledge or consent. You may have been involved in the abortion industry, or counselled someone to have an abortion. Has the experience proven to be a personal tragedy? If so, you are a survivor of abortion.

If memory of the abortion hurts, or your coping mechanisms no longer work, we would like to help you to find the healing, and the peace of mind, that we know is available for those suffering after abortion. The following pages are just an introduction. The healing process is just that..a process..but we pray that as you read, your heart will be opened to the possibilities of being set free, finally, of the pain, and that you might contact us for ongoing help.

Dealing with Denial

It might be painful, but hang in there, the truth WILL set you free!

Pretending there are no negative feelings about the abortion, or "denial", is the most central factor in the consequences of abortion. It may be very recent, or you might have been trying to forget for a long time. In either case, if you really want to be healed, then the first step is to stop pretending, and face the truth.

"It might be painful, but hang in there, the truth WILL set you free!"

Facing the truth

For many of us, making excuses is how we have coped. It is easy to blame someone else. Now is the time for truth. It might be painful, but hang in there, the truth WILL set you free!

The Truth about Abortion

We have already discovered that abortion is not the easy solution it might have seemed. Especially for those who were "sure" about their decision, the consequences are difficult to comprehend. The truth is that abortion is the deliberate ending of an innocent life. For those who may have acquiesced in the abortion accepting this truth is the first step toward being set free from the pain that has followed.

Why do I feel pain?

Although the reasons for abortion differ, there is a common link between the "symptoms" or consequences. Most women suffer grief after an abortion, Since many have not deliberately acknowledged the child who has died, it may not be recognized as such. Guilt is also a common emotion after abortion, as is self-hatred or self-blame. This is true even for those with no religious belief. Why is this so? We believe it is because abortion is a violation of God's moral law. When we violate God's Law, it is called "sin". Abortion is sin. When a human life is taken unjustly, we have sinned against God, the Creator, in whose image that life was made. Our subconscious knowledge of this is what produces guilt.

The Consequences

The Bible tells us that the consequences of sin is death. This means more than merely physical death at the end of the life span. It means a spiritual death, a separation from the God who created us. We are also told that we have all sinned, we have all fallen short of God's standard. That means that you were already a sinner, even from birth. The abortion has not made you a worse sinner than you were, or than anyone else, but it has probably left wounds and scars that some other behaviours in your life have not...

What is more, when someone sins, the innocent as well as the guilty suffer the consequences. In an abortion, the most obvious is the innocent baby who has died, but others can unwittingly be affected, and perhaps you are one of these. Remember, although you may be innocent of this particular sin, yet in God's eyes you are still guilty of sin. When we realise how far each of us falls short of God's standards, we are less likely to condemn those who commit what we consider to be a greater sin.

The Good News

The good news is that God has not left us in our sin. God's love for His creation was so great that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for all the sin of all the world. This includes the sin of abortion, in spite of what you might have been told.

His mercy and His love are so great that no matter what we have done, He is willing to forgive us and make us whole.

Jesus was absolutely without sin, yet on the Cross, He paid for all sin, including the sin of abortion. When God raised Jesus from the dead, He was saying, in effect, that Jesus' sacrifice was enough. God's justice had been satisfied and now He reaches out to us in His great love and mercy, offering forgiveness.

Finding Forgiveness

The Bible tells us that is we come to God in genuine repentance, then He will forgive us because of what Jesus has done. Jesus' death and resurrection mean we now have a way into the presence of the God who created us. Instead of continuing to be separated from Him, we can now have a one-on-one intimate relationship with a loving God who has promised that He will never in any way reject us!

Who heals?

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is our Healer, our Peace, and our Joy. Those of us who identify with your pain - who have been where you are now - have experienced the truth of this.

We came to Jesus at first, simply because we were desperate, and He brought healing and wholeness into out lives. We came to Him, heavy with guilt, and He took it away. On the Cross, He carried not only our guilt, but also our grief and our heartache. When we came to Him with these, He freed us from them. Yes, memories remain, and we cannot bring back the baby lost in the abortion, but we are no longer destroyed by those memories. Because of Jesus and His working in our lives, we have overcome, and so can you.

Hope

"His mercy and His love are so great that no matter what we have done, He is willing to forgive us and make us whole." Hope is what brought us to Jesus.. hope that we could be rid of the pain: that we could sleep again: the we could look back without fear.

We came to Him in hope of healing, and we have found the Lord Jesus to be all that we had hoped for, and much, much more. He understands our grief, our loss and our anger. There is nothing we feel that He doesn't understand. But when He died for us, He did so to set us free. His mercy and His love are so great that no matter what we have done, He is willing to forgive us and make us whole.

Freedom

You may be wondering what all this has to do with you. You do want to be free of the consequences of abortion, but you're not sure you want to "get into religion"?

What we have been sharing is not about religion. It isn't about good works, or general belief in God, or even going to church. It isn't the "what" that has worked for us, it is the "who" - Jesus. Remember, we tried everything else and nothing worked. But a new beginning in life for us started with a wonderful personal relationship with Jesus. Please go to the next section There is Hope.