Free Republic

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from researchers at a university in New Zealand indicates 85 percent of women who had abortions report negative mental health issues as a result. The report is the latest from professor David Fergusson and his team showing abortions cause problems for women.The University of Otago team examined the medical history of over 500 women and concluded having an abortion generally “leads to significant distress in some” women who have them.It noted women reporting adverse reactions to their abortions were up to 80 percent more likely to have mental health problems and risk...

The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention. Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise." Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would somehow make them disappear, would confirm their utter impossibility. That Irene Vilar embraces the role of motherhood is a grand incongruity,...

An addiction that only motherhood could cure Irene Vilar tries to explain the pathology that led her to abort 15 pregnancies The two little impossibilities want Mami's attention. Loretta, a self-assured and quietly focused 5-year-old, hides squiggly line drawings under the furniture at a relative's home in Alexandria. Lolita, a high-spirited 3-year-old, sways to Beethoven's "Für Elise." Mami scoops up both daughters. They tumble into the soft embrace of the couch, all squeals and nuzzles and squirmy delight. The girls start wriggling loose, and Mami pulls them back. One more hug. For an instant, it's as if releasing them would...

A self-confessed abortion addict has revealed how she had 15 terminations in 17 years in an extraordinary act of rebellion against her controlling husband.

In 'Impossible Motherhood,' Irene Vilar, now a mother of two, writes of what led her to have 15 pregnancies ended. Reporting from Denver - Irene Vilar's house, a charming old place on a leafy block outside Denver, is a monument to her mothering. Half the downstairs has been transformed into a preschool, with picture books, educational toys and art supplies in organized disarray. Outside, her little girls, 3-year-old Lolita and 5-year-old Loretta, are decorating the walkway with brown-eyed susans plucked from the garden. It is a scene of almost magical domesticity. Inside, their mother, a striking 40-year-old literary agent with...

Fifty one rejection letters -- that is the number Irene Vilar received before she finally found someone to publish a tale so extreme it would surely be fiction if it wasn't her personal story: A woman who says she had 15 abortions and describes it as an addiction. The book, Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict -- a graphic and disturbing tale of one woman's abortions and her personal quest to understand her actions -- is bound to provoke a fury when it is released next week. It is no surprise that publishers backed away. Ms. Vilar says the...

Should doctors and hospitals be required by the federal government to maintain a national network of electronic health records for every individual in America that indicates, for example, whether that individual has had an abortion, a sexually transmitted disease, a mental illness or a drug problem? Such a system has already been mandated by the stimulus law enacted in February, and politicians in Washington, D.C., would now prefer not to answer straightforward questions about it. Americans should not let them get away with it. The stimulus law provided for “the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure” that would...

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions... Latina author Irene Vilar's new book, "Impossible Motherhood," explores her dark past: 15 abortions in 16 years. Pro-choice, she hopes her shocking story will spark a national discussion on abortion, one that won't compromise a woman's right to reproductive freedom. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed...

Irene Vilar worries that her self-described "abortion addiction" will be misunderstood, twisted by the pro-life movement to deny women the right to choose. Her book, "Impossible Motherhood," which will be released by Other Press on Oct. 6, chronicles her own dark choices: 15 abortions in 16 years, much of it as a married woman. As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar -- a literary agent and editor --- says she has already sensed "an inkling of hatred." Vilar has scheduled only closed-door interviews and will not do a book tour. At the urging of her husband,...

Milwaukee, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Project Rachel, the organization that has helped thousands of women rebuild their lives following the problems and pain of an abortion, is marking 25 years of ministry. The anniversary is a bittersweet moment because the need for such a group only arises out of death, pain and heartache. Vicki Thorn founded the ministry, which started as a project out of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and she has seen the physical and emotional scars of an abortion in the bodies and hearts of countless women. She told the Catholic News Service the anniversary has been "an awesome...

Like many black women, I once believed the doctor who told me my babies were no more than "a blob of tissue." I wanted to believe it. Eventually, I realized I was wrong, that I was a secondary victim of abortion. I repented and found healing through God. Today, I work in the civil rights movement of the our century -- the right of every one of every race to live... Abortion has taken a gruesome toll on the black community, killing more than AIDS and crime combined. Some 14 million black babies have been aborted since the 1973 U.S....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a new national survey conducted by the Polling Company for the pro-life organization Americans United for Life, a majority of Americans say they know someone who has had an abortion. A majority of those surveyed also believe that abortion hurts women. The Polling Company, a nationally known firm, asked the questions about abortion's effects during a May 17-18 survey with 800 adults across the country. Asked if they personally knew someone who has had an abortion, some 68 percent said they know a woman who had one while 30 percent said they did not. Of...

Contact: Margaret, 888-735-3448, ext. 251; Georgette Forney, 412-398-7885; both with Silent No More Awareness CampaignSTATEN ISLAND, NY., May. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Leaders of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign (SNMAC), the world's largest network of individuals harmed by abortion, responded today to Planned Parenthood's new Mother's Day appeal and urged post-abortive women to seek healing."Just when it seemed Planned Parenthood's Mother's Day fundraising letters couldn't get more hypocritical, this year they've brought in a children's author to say we should honor mothers by donating to the nation's largest abortion business," said Janet Morana, co-founder of SNMAC.   "Honoring mothers by giving money to Planned...

A play created by a member of a Minnesota theater company aims to be an alternative to "The Vagina Monologues," a popular campus play but one that is often criticized for its sexual explicitness. Jeremy Stanbary of Epiphany Studio Productions says his play, "The Vitae Monologues," portrays powerful stories of hope and healing from women who have suffered from the psychological and physical effects of abortion. Stanbary, founder and executive director of the Minneapolis-based Catholic production company, was inspired to write this play a few years ago after hearing women and men speak publicly of their experiences dealing with post-abortion...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The organizers of the 40 Days for Life campaign say their joint effort with Silent No More, a national group for women who have had abortions and regret their decision, was a success. Shawn Carney tells LifeNews.com he is hearing stories of how it was a positive impact for participants and their communities."Women -- and men -- who've experienced abortion stepped forward with signs reading 'I regret my abortion' and 'I regret lost fatherhood,'" he said. "The need for post-abortion healing increases every day, but so does the invitation for hope and healing after the...

Go to the blog for the the video that accompanies this. This is MY personal story... *** My Journey Through Abortion and Backby Shari My story starts in my childhood. I grew up with 2 alcoholics and a stepfather who sexually abused me. My parents divorced when I was 9 years old and my mother quickly remarried. The sexual abuse started within a month of their marriage. I was never raped, but it was always threatened and I lived in constant fear. What a terrible thing for a child to live through. I looked at my kids at 9 years...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life movement has a rich history of focusing not just on the death of an unborn child in an abortion but on the pain and regret millions of women fell following an abortion. Some of those women who wish they could undo their abortion decision and choose life will speak out again at this year's March for Life. Members of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, a network of men and women harmed by abortion, will give their personal abortion testimonies at Thursday's event.They will join the hundreds of thousands of marchers in the...

Intense feelings of guilt, shame, and anger are reported by many women who have had abortions. Psychologists generally agree that about 10 percent of the 1 million women who have abortions each year experience severe emotional trauma following the procedure. There is no consensus, however, about how many women experience less severe symptoms, collectively known as post-abortion syndrome or post-abortion emotional distress. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry indicated that 50 percent of women who have abortions experience post-abortion emotional distress. Another study conducted by Dr. Phillip G. Ney and reported in The Psychological Aspects of...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- While numerous studies confirm abortions cause women subsequent mental health issues, abortion advocates downplay them so abortion isn't seed in a negative light. But one doctor who counsels women after abortions says the proof is in the actual experiences of women who regret their choice.Dr. Linda Mintle, who counsels women after abortions, says she sees problems such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse on a regular basis in the women who have had abortions."Abortion is a loss," Mintle told CBN News on Wednesday."It's a loss of a life and so it only makes sense that even...

Balitmore, MD (LifeNews.com) -- The lead author of a study last week denying that abortion increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems for women is responding to criticism of his research. Johns Hopkins University professor Robert Blum specifically responded to LifeNews.com articles taking the study to task.Blum's team at JHU examined numerous studies and drew the conclusion that abortion doesn't increase the risk for mental health problems.LifeNews.com interviewed Bowling Green State University professor Priscilla Coleman, whose own research shows women having abortions are more likely to suffer from depression or abuse drug or alcohol.Another critique of the JHU...

Study finds depression suffered by 80% of women who abort Madrid, Dec 9, 2008 / 03:52 pm (CNA).- A study by a group of experts in Spain has revealed that 80% of women who have had an abortion suffer symptoms of depression, while 40% have considered suicide.The study, carried out by psychiatrist Carmen Gomez-Lavin of the University of Navarre, also uncovered other symptoms that affect women who suffer from Post-Abortion Syndrome.  These include sexual dysfunction (40%), drug abuse, especially among adolescents (30%), behavioral changes (60%) or irritability (70%).During the process and in the year that follows an abortion, the study...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study from pro-abortion researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have ignored the link between abortion and depression but women who have been victimized by abortion say they know the pain they feel. Leaders of Silent No More say nothing can dismiss the heartache they and millions of other women have from past abortions.Georgette Forney, one of the co-founders of the group, had an abortion early in life and has been living with the guilt and regret ever since.“As I and thousands of Silent No More women can testify, the ones playing politics with...

No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others. "The best research does not support the existence of a 'post-abortion syndrome' similar to post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. Robert Blum, who led the study published...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- British advice columnist Dear Deidre is at it again on the issue of abortion and, this time, she is playing down a teenager's emotional devastation from an abortion. Her column comes days after three separate studies showed women who have abortions suffer significant mental health problems.An unnamed teenager wrote to Deidre -- confiding in her about the emotional pain she continues to experience following the abortion."I should be happy because my life seems perfect at the moment, but all I do is cry and shout at everyone for no reason," the teen says. "I'm 17. Some...

Women who have an abortion are three times more likely to develop a drug or alcohol addiction and 30 per cent more likely to have mental disorders compared with other women, research has revealed. The evidence from two studies comes as the number of women having an abortion in England and Wales exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year.More abortions – 57,000 – were carried out on women aged 20 to 24 than any other age group. However, there were 4,400 on the under-16s.Anxiety and drug abuse are the most common mental problems after an abortion, according to...

Washington, DC -- A new research study featuring numerous controls and a national data set finds a link between abortion and psychiatric disorders. The study directly contradicts the report the American Psychiatric Association released in August claiming abortion causes no mental health issues for women. The research team found induced abortions result in increased risks for a myriad of mental health problems ranging from anxiety to depression to substance abuse disorders. Ultimately, the authors write that abortion is directly "responsible for more than 10% of the population incidence of alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, drug dependence, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and bipolar...

BALTIMORE, November 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Though she had practiced the procedure as a student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine by scraping out a piece of fruit with razor-sharp abortion instruments, Lesley Wojcik learned that her training could never have prepared her for a real abortion. What caught her off-guard, says the second-year med student, was the brutality of a procedure that subjects women to extreme pain. In a Washington Post article detailing her journey to become an abortionist, Wojcik describes how during her first witnessed abortion, she recoiled in horror as the mother began letting out...

Commentary Confessions of an ‘Ex-Feminist’ BY Lorraine V. MurrayNovember 23-29, 2008 Issue | Posted 11/18/08 at 10:15 AM   When I tell people I’m an ex-feminist, I get a strange array of responses. Some people look shocked and offended, as if I had declared myself among those who doubt that the world is round. Others get a look of joy upon their faces as if they are thinking, “Oh, how wonderful that someone else feels the same way I do!”I am certainly not opposed to women going to college, nor do I think women should be prohibited from pursuing...

New Yor City, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A subway advertising campaign in New York City reaching out to men and women who suffer from abortions or experienced the pain of an abortion through a loved one is yielding results. The woman behind the campaign said thousands have responded with their own post-abortion grief and agony.The campaign relies on the tag line "abortion changes you" and the ads have been seen by hundreds of thousands of New York subway riders during the past month. To date, more than 1,400 New Yorkers have responded by visiting the Abortion Changes You web site. In...

A second national conference on the negative effects of abortion on men has been held, and more may be scheduled.  The conference's purpose explores the revelation that men experience, according to LifeNews.com, profound regret and grief after an involvement in an abortion decision. Vicki Thorn of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing believes consideration and psychological care for post-abortive fathers is long overdue. "It's time we begin speaking about it, and that was my intent in being able to organize these two conferences -- that we begin to speak through the veil of science about the fact that there's more...

The very personal and often uncharitable criticism of Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her family evident in recent media coverage, and the lack of support from many feminist and child advocacy groups, may have a relationship to the collective grief, pain and guilt from personal involvement in the abortion of an unborn child. When an issue strikes at a deeply repressed sensitive wound in a person, often the initial reaction is anger. Every year in the United States, approximately 133,000 pregnant mothers will undergo routine pre-natal tests and receive what is called “poor pre-natal diagnosis,” or PPD. This means...

Contact: Jerry Horn, Rachel's Vineyard, 540-220-0095 STATEN ISLAND, Ny., Sept. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- Kevin Burke, co-founder of the post-abortion healing ministry Rachel's Vineyard, said today that anger directed at Sarah Palin and her family may stem from the repressed grief and pain of those who have had or been involved in an abortion. "When someone publicly opposes abortion, this rejection can strike at a deeply repressed wound in the woman who has had an abortion or the man who has encouraged a woman to abort," said Mr. Burke. "We at Rachel's Vineyard know from our work with thousands of...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A party convention is a great place to expose your message to some of the top political leaders and the country and pro-life advocates took advantage of that at this week's Democratic convention. On two occasions, they drove home the pro-life perspective for Michelle Obama, wife of the pro-abortion presidential candidate.During a woman's political caucus on Thursday, three women who have had abortions and regret their decisions gave Obama an eye opener.During her speech to the Democratic group, the four women walked briskly to the front of the room. Each of them sported T-shirts saying...

A movie has just been finished based on the true story reported by WND of a woman trapped in the bathroom of an abortion clinic who watched helplessly as her baby, who was born alive, died. The film, "22weeks," made by a young, Puerto Rican filmmaker, Ángel Manuel Soto Vázquez, will soon be released in private screenings in select cities as it ramps up for hopeful showings at the Toronto and Cannes Film Festivals. The film, with promotional pages on MySpace and Facebook, describes the movie on its homepage as follows: A young woman is locked in the bathroom of...

A member of the American Psychological Association and one of the trained psychologists asked by the APA to examine their report on the long-term psychological effects of abortion on women, has concluded that it is nothing more than a "politically-motivated exercise" in support of legal abortion. Rachel M. MacNair, Ph.D. wrote that after close examination of it, she saw "no evidence" that the APA's report "was actually interested in keeping up with real science." The report, published earlier this month, claimed to have examined all the available research literature since 1989. It concluded that there were no significant negative psychological...

Women who have had abortions, scientists, and pro-life advocates are joining forces to refute the findings of an American Psychological Association (APA) task force that claims women who have one abortion do not experience any more mental problems than women who decide to give birth. “The best scientific evidence published indicates that among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy, the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective first-trimester abortion or deliver the pregnancy,” said Brenda Mayor, lead psychologist on the APA task force, in a press release about the report, which...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One of the leading researchers into the aftereffects of abortion on women says he believes the chair of the American Psychological Association task force that issued a recent report saying abortion poses no mental health risks for women violated APA's own ethics rules.Dr. David Reardon, the head of the Illinois-based Elliot Institute, says the report is tarnished by the fact that the lead author, Dr. Brenda Major, has violated the APA's own data sharing rules.He tells LifeNews.com Major consistently refused to allow her own data on abortion and mental health effects to be reanalyzed by...

The American Psychological Association is meeting this week in Boston. Some of their findings: Ear infections 'link' to obesityPsychologists Probe What it Means to Think GreenWomen and War And, of course, women suffer no emotional effects of an abortion Just more tripe from the APA. I've probably missed a few of the group's insightful studies.

The United States Supreme Court stated in Gonzales v. Carhart that “it is unexceptionable that some women will come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained … severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.” Abortion is a difficult and complex decision, because it has deep impact upon the woman, her own mental health and well-being, her physical health and well-being, her relationship with the child in utero, her relationship with her husband and/or relationship with her sexual partner, other family members, as well as society as a whole. As a scientist, medical...

Wellington, New Zealand -- A New Zealand researcher who is one of the world's leading experts on the kind of mental health problems women face after an abortion says the new report from the American Psychological Association denying any link flies in the face of the best studies. Dr. David Fergusson conducted a seminal study in January 2006 that found women who have abortions are more likely to become severely depressed.

Washington, DC -- A panel of the American Psychological Association released a new report Wednesday that came to the conclusion skeptics predicted. The organization, which supports legalized abortion, claims abortion causes no mental health problems despite recent research proving otherwise. The group's conclusions aren't a surprise given that pro-life advocates and a psychology professor both noted the organization stacked the panel with abortion advocates.

August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report from the American Psychological Association (APA) published this week claims that there is no meaningful connection between abortion and subsequent psychological disturbances in women. When a woman has a negative psychological consequence, says the report, it is likely only to be in cases where a "wanted" child was aborted for eugenic reasons. "Among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective first-trimester abortion than if they deliver that pregnancy," the report says. The study's conclusions dovetail neatly...

OSLO, Norway, August 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A 2008 study by the University of Oslo in Norway has found that young adult women who have had abortions are more likely to become depressed.The study, which involved 768 women between the ages of 15 and 27, was carried out in order to "investigate whether induced abortion was a risk factor for subsequent depression."According to Willy Pedersen from the University's Department of Sociology and Human Geography, who conducted the study, past studies have suffered in accuracy due to bad design, specifically a lack of control of "compounding factors." The new study strove...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A majority of Americans take a pro-life position opposing most or all abortions, but polls show one-third to one-half of pro-life people believe abortion should be okay in cases of rape and incest. A new book from a rape survivor shows the added horror abortion is that only compounds sexual abuse trauma. In a gripping personal account of pain and redemption, author Nicole W. Cooley offers a candid look at her rape as a young military officer by a trusted friend.She relates the devastating emotional consequences of her decision to abort the child conceived during...

Abortion's Aftershocks Interview With Author Michaelene Fredenburg By Karna Swanson SAN DIEGO, California, JULY 24, 2008 (Zenit.org).- When a woman decides to abort, she mistakenly believes the procedure will erase the pregnancy and that life will return to normal, says the founder of a forum for those affected by abortion. Michaelene Fredenburg is the author of "Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One's Abortion Experience," and founder of AbortionChangesYou.com, an Internet site that seeks to help those who have been affected by abortion to face the tragic truth of their actions. In this interview with ZENIT, Fredenburg...

Washington, DC -- There is no woman in the world who grows up thinking she will have an abortion one day. Whatever the reason for the abortion -- feeling they have no other option or pressure from a partner or others -- many women feel significant guilt and shame. Sheila Harper learned the hard way when she chose abortion as a teenager, carrying around debilitating emotions that led to drugs, alcohol and even a suicide attempt. For seven years, author Harper carried with her the shame and humiliation of her abortion. Eventually she found deliverance through God’s abundant grace and...

Hollywood, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Sherri Shepherd, a co-host of the popular women's television program "The View," said in a recent interview that she's had numerous abortions. She says that she didn't began to change her promiscuous behavior until she became a Christian.In the interview with Precious Times, a magazine for black Christian women, Shepherd, who is 41, said she was "sleeping with a lot of guys and had more abortions than I would like to count.""I felt if someone killed me, it wouldn't even make a difference," she said, talking about how the abortions and other problems caused a...

"Before I converted to Christianity, I was a Jehovah's Witness. In 1993, my mother was dying from diabetic complications. My sister was heavy into drugs, and we would have to go and get her from crack houses. I was in a very physically abusive relationship. I was sleeping with a lot of guys and had more abortions than I would like to count. I had very low self-esteem and just wanted to die. I felt if someone killed me, it wouldn't even make a difference. But God showed me that it would make a difference," she told the glossy.

As new figures reveal the massive increase in multiple abortions, a mother tells of their devastating legacyAmong the throng of women who gather outside the school gates each day, Angela Simmons is every inch the archetypal middle-class mother, fussing over her seven-year-old son Ben and ferrying him between after-school clubs and play dates. Certainly nobody would guess that the 39-year-old former estate agent is one of around 50 women each year in the UK to have notched up her seventh abortion. Government statistics released this week show that record numbers of women are having two or more abortions - and...

Among the throng of women who gather outside the school gates each day, Angela Simmons is every inch the archetypal middle-class mother, fussing over her seven-year-old son Ben and ferrying him between after-school clubs and play dates. Certainly nobody would guess that the 39-year-old former estate agent is one of around 50 women each year in the UK to have notched up her seventh abortion. Government statistics released this week show that record numbers of women are having two or more abortions - and those who do so are not, as might be expected, young teenagers who don't know any...