Patricia Partain
God’s grace is sufficient for all our sin–even a past abortion. With 44% of all women in America today having had an abortion at some time in their past life, there is someone you know, or someone reading this article who can benefit from this writing. If you have not found that hope for healing, read on.
The woman who holds a Christian worldview is likely at some point after her abortion to feel like a second-class citizen in God’s economy. Even though she knows this to be incompatible with Scripture. She usually will either turn away from the church completely or try to prove herself by being good long enough until God will finally forgive her.
The post-abortive woman often has a very difficult time believing that forgiveness is available for her selfish and catastrophic choice. She lives in a compartmentalized state in which her head and heart knowledge do not match. If you have been involved in an abortion, know that you are not condemned to silent suffering for the rest of your life.
Steps toward healing include allowing yourself to grieve and admit you do have emotional and spiritual wounds that need tending. Denial, anger, self-hatred, and unforgiveness toward others all manifest themselves in daily ways.
Depression, co-dependence, addictive behaviors, eating disorders, sleep disruptions, emotional numbness are all outgrowths of an unhealed wound. The enemy, Satan, would have us bound by this, crippling our affecting our world of marriage, parenting, teaching, and relating to other women with wounds of any kind. The firm grasp on forgiveness involves knowing Who ultimately has paid the debt and allowing intimacy with God to be restorative.
The first step in the healing journey is peeling away the callus formed by years of denying and repressing the painful emotions connected with the abortion experience. Why is it necessary to dredge up that which the mind has worked so hard to forget? Because the grief, anger, and guilt a woman felt about the events surrounding her abortion were never processed. They were bundled up and hidden away because they were too painful to deal with.
There are women who have faced this experience and found the love to get across this bridge to complete healing and peace. Contact one of these women by visiting www.care-net.org or phone your local Crisis Pregnancy center under Abortion Alternatives in the yellow pages.
