Posted on 01/22/2008 11:58:33 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley.
A woman—let’s call her Caroline—was 92 years old. She was dying, in agony, but Caroline’s pain was not physical. It was emotional. Caroline, you see, had been carrying a secret for more than 50 years: As a young woman, she had undergone two abortions, suffered terrible guilt all her life—and now, on her death-bed, afraid that God could not forgive her.
As her palliative-care nurse, Jean Echlin, writes, “At the end of her life she shared with me her agony over her lost babies . . . she felt that she had committed murder.”
Caroline is not alone, as Echlin writes in Perspectives 2007, a publication of the De Veber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research. Echlin also tells the story of a woman named Lydia, who was dying of cancer. Even with the use of a pain pump, which gave her steady doses of morphine, Lydia’s pain did not abate.
“I asked her if her faith or prayer could be of any comfort,” Echlin writes. “Lydia remained silent except for her moaning.” But the next day she confided the truth. “I can’t pray—God won’t listen,” Lydia said. “I killed a precious baby when I was 18 . . .” Lydia’s abortion had taken place more than 40 years ago—and she was still grieving over it.
Caroline and Lydia are but two examples of what the Institute calls an “unexpected correlation” between abortion and pain-relief care. Dying women experience unresolved guilt and psychological pain related to their abortion—guilt and pain that stand in the way of a peaceful death. Their guilt is so great, Echlin says, that it impedes the effectiveness of their pain medication. Only when the abortion issue is resolved—when someone listens to them and assures them of God’s forgiveness—is the pain medication made effective, and the women able to die peacefully.
This is dramatic testimony that abortion is not, as the abortion lobby claims, something women will “get over” in a week or two. It is evidence that we know inherently that we are made in the image of the God who gives life. When we do violence to that image—when we destroy life instead of nurturing it—it has a profound effect on our emotions, our psyche, and our souls.
Today, as we mourn the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the tens of millions of abortions that have resulted from this dreadful decision, we must recognize that there are likely many women among us who are silently suffering abortion grief decades after their babies’ lives were snuffed out. As the De Veber Institute notes, these women need our compassion, and their trauma should be recognized and acknowledged by their care providers.
As we comfort the dying, we must also help the living. We must make sure young women know the truth: that abortion takes a human life; that there are alternatives to abortion; and that there are people who will help them through a difficult, unplanned pregnancy.
And they must be told that the notion that they will simply “get over” an abortion is a bold-faced lie. The truth is that if they walk into that abortion clinic, they may still be feeling the agony over taking their baby’s life—even on their deathbed a half century later.
I should also add that I never did what you did, but only because I was never in that situation. The reason I wasn’t was not because of morality, but because she just didn’t get pregnant. There were a couple of times I thought I was in that situation. I know who I was, and I would have let people talk me into the same thing you did. Thanks for sharing your story.
Deaths of women 15-50 that were not obviously traumatic (MVI), homicide, disease (Cancer) would have an statistical relationship to being abortion related.
Don’t know what that statistical relevance would be 5% or 50% but there are ways and then there are other ways...
Certain % of the suicide deaths are likely related to abortion as well.
True, following up on all those deaths related to having had an abortion would be a lot of effort. But not even directly related medical causes are documented as far as I know. That can’t be that difficult if they do it for almost every other disease, drug and surgically related cause of death. Even psychologically related deaths could be statistically tracked for those under the care of a psychiatrist or psychologist. It certainly wouldn’t account for them all but numbers can be found for causes of suicide based on other emotionally traumatic factors.
The value of statistical analysis is you don’t have to count every case....
Once you come up with the Factor...be it 5% or 1 % you then just need raw numbers....
That’s how polsters manage to poll a few people and project to larger numbers...
Sounds like my ex-boyfriend in high school.
Those poor women featured in this story believed the Devil's lie that it was too late for them to find forgiveness and peace. They believed God would not forgive. The Devil used that to torment them daily and at the end of their lives they just couldn't take it any more.
Abortion has done more to destroy women, even more than feminism has. Abortion is the work of the Devil.
As the old Living Epistles T-Shirt says, “When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.”
LOL
He immediately went off on the “societal contract” tangent. You know, Hitler was supported by the vast majority as well. Seriously, what you end up is mob rule. If the mob in Rome today thinks it’s acceptable to stone Christians or feed them to lions, so be it. Who says it’s wrong?
In the absence of God you have no morals, you have ethics. Ethics as taught in American academia is the study of right and wrong having purged all religious facets. It’s an attempt to teach social taboos and standards of behavior in a multicultural setting where it’s considered intellectual to be secular. It is not without coincidence that the discussion of morals usually includes the word “God,” while the discussion of “ethics” does not. It is not coincidence that some are taught “ethics” in mandatory training at work or can take classes in “ethics” while in school. Ethics is a meaningless term.
(I’m not selling anything)
I’m not trying to save these women, and that’s probably a fault of mine. I’m not in political office. The Free Republic is a home for right wingers, and those who read the posts here (Except the trolls and those feeding intel to other ultra-liberal sites) are generally not needing convinced that this is bad.
(I’m crude)
We’re sharing information, and I’m a crude person. I like to think of myself as a good guy, but I know I’m a crude one. I’m not stupid, but still crude. In fact, even my wife and kids know me as crude. Hell, I’m a Project Manager for a major IT firm, and my peers as well as client know me as being crude. Why do I like crude? Because often life isn’t the big complex gray fuzz some try to make it appear as. Because to this day I’m still trying to figure out what half of those euphemisms mean and whom they help! Because time is valuable and I don’t like wasting it trying to decipher cryptic code intended to not arouse any bad feelings. Also this cryptic code often gets misinterpreted. Because simple and good enough (crude) is the best answer 99% of the time even as a solution to a problem. I can be political and persuasive, but crude in the proper context and venue often serves one well in getting the message across. As you can tell, it works.
(You're right)
This isn’t about me, and I used the world “I” far too many times in my last paragraphs. This is about those who are contemplating a bad choice that can’t be undone and how we can help. You are completely right in that alienating those you’re trying to target will not help. But I don’t think your target audience hangs out in the FreeRepublic.
yeah, but even most hedonists have a trailing conscience. Beyond the lies of their thoughts they know deep down what a horrible thing abortion is.
Prayers for your grandmother.
“Sounds like my ex-boyfriend in high school.”
Presumably he was a boy, not yet a man. So I would not hold him as culpable as an adult. This is part of the bitterness of unmarried teens having sex. They and any baby will suffer, even if the baby is not aborted.
“more than...”
Well, let me fill you in. Just today I got a freepmail from a member of this board who was sickened by just the sort of crap you were posting, and she was judging pro-lifers by it. And keep this in mind: the woman in question has never had an abortion or participated in an abortion decision, and she's not a pro-choicer. Also please note that the posts she was responding to were somewhat tame compared to yours.
I tried to be gentle with the first post, but apparently I need to be more explicit. What you posted was garbage. It was garbage from the pit of Hell. You are no better than these people you call vermin, because like them you are a sinner who deserves Hell. You have just, like me, chosen diferent sins than they have.
There is a big difference between saying something is wrong and sending a message of hate.
There is a big difference between being careful about one's own morals and being self-righteous.
What you call crude is really just being hateful. And when I'm trying to save lives you make my job harder, and then pat yourself on the back for being such a great communicator.
There...was that crude enough to get through to you?
And thanks, I had not thot of that (duh).... Imagine carrying that after all those years.
I have, in my own way. It didnt bother me then, but about 10 years later (maturity) it weighed heavily upon me. I am at peace with this now. Thanks for asking.....
Thanks for the encouraging words.
I’m not the most gregarious of posters, but in this case I think it is important. It was a life changing experience.
Perhaps so ... and if this is how you talk to non-Christians, I would strongly recommend that you avoid any attempt at evangelism. Your comments are the of the sort that has done tremendous damage to my daughter's faith: they're a perfect example of how "some Christians talk a lot about love, but they certainly don't show it."
To put it bluntly: your comments are exactly the sort that give Christians a bad name. Perhaps a bit of personal reflection is in order.
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