Many women going into abortion clinics are uninformed about risks of an abortion. They are often are unaware of the lasting impact it can have on them physically, relationally, and emotionally.
“20 to 30% of women experience negative prolonged post-abortion reactions”
Dr. Theresa Burke has studied the impact abortion can have on a mother’s relationship with future children. She shares a situation she sees often from a sibling of an aborted child.
“They grew up with extremely detached and depressed mothers, and they can attest very clearly to the attachment issues they suffer because their mom wasn’t able to bond with them.”
Dr. Burke explains that the cause of this often stems from grief and guilt that was never dealt with from a past abortion.
“If you haven’t grieved a pregnancy lost and then you have a later wanted child, sometimes there is ambivalence and detachment because that grief hasn’t happened. You might be afraid the baby is going to die, there’s all sorts of anxieties about that.”
A new, wanted child becomes a trigger and can cause problems during the pregnancy and after the baby’s birth.
“But if a mom’s up tight, if she’s being triggered, if she’s having panic attacks, that letdown isn’t going to happen and then her baby will scream, she’ll feel like a terrible mom.”
All of these are important health risks that women need to be told in order for them to better establish an informed consent for an elective surgical procedure that can have an impact not only on their own health, but on the health of future children as well.
The effects of abortion on survivors
