The Consequences of Abortion

 
Abortion is a very controversial issue which divides people within their own communities, their own families, and their own religion. I am dismayed when I hear Catholics declare that they are pro-choice, which is in direct opposition to Catholic teaching. In addition to not aligning with Catholic doctrine, abortion has many other consequences, both physically, psychologically, and spiritually. 
 
The Catholic Church’s stance on abortion is definite and not open for debate: as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states explicitly in its section on human life, abortion is not condoned and human life must be protected from the moment of conception. Some people seem to think that being pro-life is a Catholic point of view. I would say that being pro-life is based on biological facts. While the Church believes in the revealed truth of God and in His commandments of not killing, it also uses its reason. No reasonable person can deny the scientific evidence that abortion ends the life of a human being at its earliest stages. I believe that the truth of abortion, and its consequences, need to be discussed openly and reasonably, wherever possible, to foster a culture of life in our society. 
 
The pro-life movement worldwide has been fighting on behalf of the unborn for decades. This issue has been trivialized for far too long by referring to the unborn child by nouns which downplays its human identity (fetus, sac of cells, non-person, non-viable, etc.) and by using euphemistic language such as reproductive healthcare, bodily autonomy, and a woman’s right to choose, which softens the reality of this life-taking procedure. Abortion needs to be kept at the forefront of the ongoing debate between abortion advocates  and those defending the sanctity of human life at all stages. Sometimes it takes explicit rhetoric to jolt the slumbering conscience of abortion proponents into a conversion of minds and hearts.  

 
Repercussions of abortion 
While the scourge of abortion is obviously harmful to pre-born babies, it is also detrimental to the physical and psychological health of the mothers. When I was twelve years old, I heard the twenty-two-year-old daughter of an acquaintance of ours exclaim that she couldn't understand how she got pregnant; she had been using the contraceptive pill since she was fifteen years old. Oftentimes, women have the unwanted surprise of getting pregnant despite using contractive methods. This young lady did not want the child for  various reasons and decided to have an abortion. At the time, in Canada, in the 1970s, abortion was not legally accessible, so she went to New York to have this procedure done. Her father later recounted how the doctor had to use curettes to scrape out the lining of her uterus. I now understand that this is the dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure which is performed post-abortion to scrape the uterine lining of any remaining pregnancy tissue, also known as retained products of conception. This procedure is meant to prevent infection or hemorrhage. After the abortion and D&C surgery were complete, this healthy and vibrant young woman was told later, by her own doctor, that she would never be able to bear a child; she was effectively sterile. This was possibly due to uterine scarring  or  uterine perforation. Are women informed about the possible consequences for future fertility before having an abortion? In addition to learning that she had lost all chances of bearing a child in the future, her boyfriend, who had accompanied her to NY to get the abortion, left her a few weeks later, never to see her again. We never knew why he left; it was not our purview to ask indiscrete questions. As for her parents, they had to reconcile themselves to the knowledge that they would never be grandparents given that their daughter was their only child. All around, this abortion was a cause of sadness for many people, in addition to causing the death of an innocent child.  
 
Psychological trauma and spiritual healing 
This brings me to another aspect of abortion: the psychological trauma and guilt which surfaces, sometimes many years later. Despite the abortion industry’s use of euphemistic language, they cannot deny the scientific reality that abortion kills a growing human being inside the mother’s womb. At some point in their lives, the truth of what happened to their baby will haunt some women. A person in my own entourage suffers from alcoholism and depression, decades after having undergone an abortion. She suffers psychologically and has been on anti-depressants for years. I truly feel sorry for her; she does not practice her Catholic religion, therefore she has never sacramentally  confessed her abortion, nor has she sought spiritual help and guidance from a priest or a religious sister. No one dares to speak about the evil of abortion in her presence. People who know her better than I do fear that she would commit suicide. This is the fallout of abortion: women may be traumatized psychologically by the inhumane action of abortion for the rest of their lives. If only they could turn to God in their despair and seek spiritual help, they might be able to ask forgiveness and atone for the sin of aborting their child. Spiritual healing would go a long way in helping to treat the psychological consequences of abortion.  
 
Chemical abortions 
While an in-clinic abortion, with medical supervision, is a terrible ordeal, chemical abortions are one of the most egregious traumas a woman can go through. Women can receive abortion pills, either through the mail or at the pharmacy, without doctor/nurse/medical supervision. Where are the care and concerns for the woman’s health and well-being with chemical abortions?  Just imagine the trauma a woman goes through when she aborts her baby at home. Where does the baby’s body end up? She is all alone, witnessing the death of her own child. Is the woman hemorrhaging? Are there human remains of her child still inside her body? Will she get an infection? No woman should go through such an inhumane experience.  
 
The timing of the abortion.  
An abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy is terrible but imagine the horror of second and third trimester abortions. Do people even know how late-term pregnancy is “terminated”?  A rather graphic explanation of this procedure is supplied by the Red Madre Foundation, whose mission is to assist women in crisis pregnancies, describing in detail the method known as “partial delivery,” where the baby is summarily killed while his/her head is externally exposed. The actual method of killing is quite brutal and downright barbaric, involving scissors, the base of the baby’s neck, a catheter and a suction apparatus. It dehumanizes the life of the tiny human being completely. And, sad to say, this is going on as we speak in abortion clinics, on a regular basis, throughout the world. I do not know if women are told exactly what happens to their child when they opt for a late-term abortion. Perhaps they would change their minds if they did.  
 
Ultrasound evidence 
There is also the 1984 documentary video The silent scream, by Dr. Nathan Williamson, which also graphically explains what an abortion entails. With the aid of an ultrasound, viewers are able to visually witness a tiny defenseless 12-week in utero human being trying to evade the suction of the tool used by the abortionist. It is heartbreaking. I will forego the cruel details of how the baby is extracted from its mother’s womb; readers can view the video and see for themselves. Once the ordeal is over, the medical staff must ascertain that the entire body is accounted for, to make sure that nothing is left inside the woman lest infection and/or serious medical problems arise from leftover human  remains inside her womb. This precaution is taken when the woman has a surgical abortion, in a clinic, with a doctor. Obviously, this step is not taken when a woman aborts her baby at home, alone, without care or supervision. 
 
A former nurse’s testimony 
There is a former Member of Parliament in the UK, Nadine Dorries, who recounts her experience as an 18-year-old nurse of participating in the abortion of a baby boy, at 27-week gestation. She had been working on the gynecological ward and had been ordered to discard an aborted baby’s body which had been dropped in a bedpan. Ms. Dorries had removed the paper covering from the recipient and, in her own words, was shocked at what she saw: “...tiny baby boy, blinking, covered in mucus, blood and amniotic fluid, gasping for breath, his little arms and legs twitching.” This young nurse was shocked to her core, weeping and rocking the bedpan in her arms, until the baby stopped breathing: “I checked my fob watch: a little boy had been born, lived and died in the space of seven minutes. Mine was the only face he saw, my sobs the only sounds he heard.” She never forgot this traumatic episode. This woman’s experience shows the consequence of abortion on both the baby and the abortion participants. 
 
Final reflection 
Objectively speaking, abortion is the destruction of a growing life. It also reflects the abandonment of pregnant women who find themselves in precarious situations, whose only perceived recourse is abortion because of the lack of concrete accompaniment on all levels, including emotionally, financially and spiritually. Abortion is anti-woman and anti-children. Feminists and pro-choice advocates maintain  that abortion sets women free, as if having children enslaves them in some kind of bondage that needs to be expunged. If we were to obey the dictates of these vocal opponents to motherhood, humans would become extinct before long. Society needs to care for both mothers and their babies. Laws need to be enacted to ensure that both women and their babies are protected.  Let us pray to God that society may adhere to His commandment of loving one another and of not destroying life. 
                                                                                                                              
Marie Brousseau 
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