There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.
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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik
In each case, please go to the link for the complete article.
PHYSICAL HEALTH
Induced abortion, whether chemical or surgical, is a trauma for the hormonal system, which is all geared for pregnancy, this when hormonal balance is an important basis of global health. The violence required to tear out and dismember the child in no way compares to spontaneous abortion, where the child dies of natural causes, and the link that unites the baby’s body to its mother’s is much weaker, not to say non-existent. The violence of induced abortion can easily cause lesions, scarring, perforations and hemorrhaging, all the way to generalized poisoning. All of the preceding can cause fertility problems, amongst other consequences.
If full-term pregnancy represents too much of a threat to a woman’s life or health, then there will need to be recourse to Cesarean delivery. No need to take the child’s life.
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND RELATIONAL HEALTH
However, even if there are no negative impacts from the abortion on a woman's physical health or fertility and ability to conceive again; the sheer violence of the induced abortion cannot do otherwise than at the very least give a woman pause to reconsider and experience regrets.
One can expect normal feelings of loss and grief over a miscarried or stillborn child; however there would generally be little if any cause to feel guilty or responsible.
We cannot say the same for an induced abortion, which is a deliberate choice, decision, and act on the part of a woman and of the man, whether or not he supports her in the decision or abandons her to her own resources to make a decision about her pregnancy all on her own.
The thousands of women registered in post-abortion healing programs throughout the world often report that induced abortion has left them frigid, cold, distant and aggressive, as well as depressed and even suicidal, many attempting in vain to drown their pain through substance abuse. Their couple was not able to resist this post-abortion syndrome. Many had recourse to induced abortion to try to save their relationship, but induced abortion ended up destroying it, as well as their capacity to start a new one.
Some have recourse to induced abortion in an attempt to dissimulate an affair. But women attest that keeping secrets, i.e. the affair and the abortion, are a heavy load to bear. They realize that the golden rule for family relations is indeed true: “The more secrets there are in a family, the more dysfunctional it becomes”. A secret is a weed that grows and spreads over time and that always ends up suffocating both the one keeping the secrets and the one secrets are kept from. Whether we like it or not, honesty will always be the best policy. But without secrets, soap operas could not last very long, could they?!
Revealing an affair is difficult, but hiding it, is even more difficult. If we do not feel ready to welcome this child as our own, then there will always be open, semi-open or closed adoption. Bringing a pregnancy to term is difficult, but bearing the physical and psychological consequences of induced abortion, is even more difficult. It is an illusion to think that seeking to divest oneself of the consequences of one’s actions can lead to happiness… It is also an illusion to think that going against nature and life is a good strategy for happiness and well-being.
An equally debilitating consequence of abortion is likely experienced by the men who were glad to be there for the fertilization - whether intended or not - but who at the first sign of "trouble" upon hearing the news that she is pregnant, "run for the hills" and abandon the woman, leaving her high and dry to face the consequences of her pregnancy alone, on her own, without his support or sympathy. The Creator designed woman, in her natural capacity to give life and nurture it, to be cherished and cared for, accompanied and supported by man. Whenever a man fails to rise to the occasion to "be there" for woman, he is profoundly diminished in his identity and self-worth. We can undoubtedly observe the negative consequences of "denatured men" in relation to many of our society's social ills and troubles.
There do not appear to be many studies, if any, of the consequences experienced or suffered by men who participate actively or passively, by abandoning the woman, in procuring an induced abortion.
Here follow a few glimpses of the kinds of research that has been done and continues to be done on these issues, which are of such importance and consequence for women, men, and society.
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Please follow the links to go to the original sources of these published studies.
Abortions happen in the lives of real people... apparently one in three women in the U.S.A. have had at least one abortion by age 45. Here are a few of the stories these women wanted to publish on the Internet.... https://nymag.com/news/features/abortion-stories-2013-11/
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NCBI Resources PMC US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
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Abortion and mental health
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
David M. Fergusson
Summary
A recent Royal College of Psychiatrists' statement concluded that current evidence on abortion and mental health is inconclusive. This contribution examines the background to the Royal College of Psychiatrists' statement and the issues it raises. It is concluded that the best route to resolving such issues is through further and better research.
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NCBI Resources PMC US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
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GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE
Abortion and Mental Health: Myths and Realities
Susan A. Cohen
First published online: August 1, 2006
HELPING WOMEN COPE AFTER HAVING AN ABORTION
To be sure, it is not unusual for a woman to experience a range of often contradictory emotions after having an abortion, just as it would not be unusual for a woman who carried her unintended pregnancy to term. It was not until recently, however, that a specialized organization was formed with the purpose to provide postabortion counseling in a nonjudgmental context. Founded in 2000 in Oakland, California, Exhale operates a national telephone hotline by which trained, volunteer peer counselors help women who have had abortions, as well as their partners and families, talk through their feelings, immediately after an abortion or even years later.
Exhale “believe[s] there is no ‘right’ way to feel after an abortion. We also know that feelings of happiness, sadness, empowerment, anxiety, grief, relief or guilt are common.” Executive Director Aspen Baker suggests that giving women an outlet for discussing their feelings—whatever they may be—is a healthy part of the process toward emotional well-being. Baker has observed that a woman’s negative emotions after an abortion may be due, at least in part, to the reaction of her partner or to those of family members, who might condemn or exclude her for having an abortion or for becoming pregnant to begin with. Exhale is helping to remove the stigma surrounding having an abortion, so that women and their support networks are better equipped to cope with their feelings—an essential part of the process that until recently may not have received as much attention as it deserves.
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The course of mental health after miscarriage and induced abortion: a longitudinal, five-year follow-up study
BMC Medicine 3, Article number: 18 (2005)
Abstract
Background
Miscarriage and induced abortion are life events that can potentially cause mental distress. The objective of this study was to determine whether there are differences in the patterns of normalization of mental health scores after these two pregnancy termination events.
Methods
Forty women who experienced miscarriages and 80 women who underwent abortions at the main hospital of Buskerud County in Norway were interviewed. All subjects completed the following questionnaires 10 days (T1), six months (T2), two years (T3) and five years (T4) after the pregnancy termination: Impact of Event Scale (IES), Quality of Life, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and another addressing their feelings about the pregnancy termination. Differential changes in mean scores were determined by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and inter-group differences were assessed by ordinary least squares methods.
Results
Women who had experienced a miscarriage had more mental distress at 10 days and six months after the pregnancy termination than women who had undergone an abortion. However, women who had had a miscarriage exhibited significantly quicker improvement on IES scores for avoidance, grief, loss, guilt and anger throughout the observation period. Women who experienced induced abortion had significantly greater IES scores for avoidance and for the feelings of guilt, shame and relief than the miscarriage group at two and five years after the pregnancy termination (IES avoidance means: 3.2 vs 9.3 at T3, respectively, p < 0.001; 1.5 vs 8.3 at T4, respectively, p < 0.001). Compared with the general population, women who had undergone induced abortion had significantly higher HADS anxiety scores at all four interviews (p < 0.01 to p < 0.001), while women who had had a miscarriage had significantly higher anxiety scores only at T1 (p < 0.01).
Conclusion
The course of psychological responses to miscarriage and abortion differed during the five-year period after the event. Women who had undergone an abortion exhibited higher scores during the follow-up period for some outcomes. The difference in the courses of responses may partly result from the different characteristics of the two pregnancy termination events.
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The Linacre Quarterly Volume 72 | Number 1 Article 9 February 2005 Long-Term Physical and Psychological Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: A Review of the Evidence John M. Thorp Katherine E. Hartmann Elizabeth Shadigan
Given the central role that abortion has played in the lives of women over the past thirty years, we are distressed by the lack of term-term, welldone research designed to understand the sequelae. A clear and overwhelming need exists for a large epidemiologic, cohort study of women with an unintended or crisis pregnancy. Follow-up across participants' lifetimes with careful measurement of other pertinent exposures would dramatically advance knowledge. Until such an investigation is invested in, women are making important health decisions with incomplete information. A commitment to such research would seem to us to be morally neutral common ground upon which both sides of the abortion/choice debate would agree is critical.
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THE IMPACT OF ABORTION ON WOMEN
HEARING before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SPACEof the COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITEDSTATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSIONMARCH 3, 2004U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 21-303 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016
© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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