Post Abortive Mother: Another Article Denying our Pain from a So Called Expert

After personally suffering in silence for fifteen years, because no one would acknowledge my feelings or validate the grief, depression, anxiety and a host of other things I felt following my abortion, it was a welcomed confirmation when I finally found a mental health professional who confirmed what I knew as true. That is the correct approach. Not the approach of trying to make me believe I was crazy for my feelings. That is precisely what Brenda Major is doing by continuing to deny what countless women feel following abortion.

P>BRONX, NY (Catholic Online) - I love Sunday mornings. My usual routine has me getting up early, going to mass, and then coming home to a cup of coffee, and the Sunday news while curled up on the couch. It is my day to relax and take it slow.

So, when I came across another article by Brenda Major, Ph.D., in The Washington Post, "Mental Health is the new antiabortion battleground. But the science is all wrong", trying to tell me, once again, that there is no such thing as post abortion stress, I was perturbed. She again denies the truth and even tries to argue that States seeking to pass informed consent legislation are somehow misleading women.

Personally, I am beginning to find it all a little tiring. I know I am not alone. 

After personally suffering in silence for fifteen years, because no one would acknowledge my feelings or validate the grief, depression, anxiety and a host of other things I felt following my abortion, it was a welcomed confirmation when I finally found a mental health professional who confirmed what I knew as true. That is the correct approach. Not the approach of trying to make me believe I was crazy for my feelings. That is precisely what Brenda Major is doing by continuing to deny what countless women feel following abortion.
 
As usual, Ms. Majors cites purported "scientific studies" that she says do not substantiate that abortion increases the incidence of mental health problems for women. She then goes on to tell us about the study she chaired in 2008 by the American Psychological Association which reached that same conclusion. What she fails to tell us is that the study was done by those actively involved in what they call "reproductive issues". This is one of many euphemisms used by the opponents of the Right to Life for abortion. They just do not like to use that word it seems. 

I always wonder where they get the women for these studies, since having worked in post abortion recovery work for twenty years, and being involved in groups such as "Silent No More" and "Operation Outcry", (two groups loaded with post abortive women who feel otherwise); I don't know one woman who was in such a study. One only has to search the internet to find countless women suffering mentally because of abortion.

Of course, the usual strategy to brush us all off as "antiabortion activists" instead of the post abortive women that we are, always permeates her argument. It is as if being classified as antiabortion or Pro-Life automatically discounts your voice. Never have I seen us labeled as what we truly are, moms who have experienced abortions and have suffered afterwards. Instead of being front and center in the debate as we should be, great efforts are made to ignore our voices.

Ms Majors goes on to argue that those whose abortion bothered them must have had risk factors before the abortion, as if participating in the death of your child were not enough to invoke those feelings. She goes on to say we are being "convinced" of these feelings by others. No one is "convincing" us. If she is so sure that we are capable of making our abortion choices, why is it she does not think we are capable of our own feelings?

Most disturbing to me however, is that as a mental health professional, Ms. Majors is more concerned for women who made what she considers the "right decision" to be able to say so without fear of condemnation, then she is with acknowledging the feelings of those who are suffering from depression, anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal ideation.

Brenda Major is right, the science may be all wrong, but she is the one making the real mistakes. The good news is we don't need her validation nor do we believe her rhetoric anymore and I can finally relax on my couch on Sunday morning no matter what she writes.

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Theresa is the Director of Lumina/Hope & Healing After Abortion, a post abortion ministry under the arm of Good Counsel Homes, founded by Chris Bell and Rev Benedict Groeschel, CFR.  With the Sisters of Life, Theresa also co-developed the healing ministry, "Entering Canaan, a Sacramental Journey to an Inheritance of Mercy". Along with the Sisters of Life and Friars of the Renewal Theresa conducts retreats for women, and men suffering from abortion as well as siblings of those who have been aborted. She also does public speaking and training to educate on post abortion stress. She can be reached at lumina@postaboritonhelp.org , 877-586-4621 or http://www.postabortionhelp.org

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