A non-faith based approach to helping women heal from abortion trauma

According to Support After Abortion, the results of commissioned consumer research suggest that nine out of 10 women don’t know where to go for abortion healing, and that while roughly three quarters (74%)  of women seeking abortion healing have some type of religious affiliation,  73% of those same women do not regularly attend religious services. Given this, Support After Abortion proposes that starting with a non-faith-based approach to abortion healing can effectively help women.

“By unaided natural reason, we can determine that human life has intrinsic value and that therefore the taking of innocent human life is wrong,” said Natalia Juzyn, S.T.L. “Thus the natural consequences of deliberate killing of innocent human life are to be expected. Healing on the level of nature may be the best possible preparation for receiving the more profound spiritual healing offered in sanctifying grace. In order to receive that grace, however, one must first come to faith.”

Practically speaking, starting on “a natural level” looks like addressing the emotional, psychological, and perhaps physical fallout a woman may be experiencing in her life, and then helping her tie that back to her abortion experience(s) in order to begin processing the grief, loss, shame, and trauma, as well as the life circumstances that led her to abortion.

Support After Abortion Weekly FB Live EP 24 with Molly Keilty

Live Action News spoke to two women who have previously shared their abortion healing stories about their reaction to this type of abortion healing approach.

“Although I had grown up in a Christian home, I was living so far outside of faith, without a loving [on my part] relationship with God that I really had no idea how to wade through the muck in my life to even seek amends with Him,” said Betty. “[…]It took almost 10 years for me to seek help and when I did it was secular. I wasn’t ready to delve into the topic of God. […] I can imagine that for someone who has never had a faith background or maybe even as an atheist it would be of utmost importance to begin the healing process with the acknowledgment that there is a person, a child they need to grieve for. When that process begins, the soul might then be opened to the miracle of life, and if a miracle, then a gift from somewhere, someone, namely God.”

Jess, another woman who has had an abortion, told Live Action News that while she agrees, “As St. Paul shares, we start with sharing milk because they are not yet able to eat meat.”

“I know first-hand how it feels to not believe in God,” she added. “And when I did believe in Him, I did not like Him. How could He have abandoned me in my times of need? Molestation, rape, homelessness, abortion, etc. I didn’t hate Him, but I certainly didn’t feel like He was ‘for me.’ So to encounter people who speak God through their mouths was a turn off to me at that time [following the abortion].”

READ: Research shows post-abortion trauma is very real, and women aren’t alone

Today, Jess models her non-profit work on the example of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. “She wore her religious sari, not to go out and by mouth tell people they needed to love God, but by caring for them in a way that showed them God’s love and eventually they trusted God because they trusted her first,” she explained.

Support After Abortion teamed up with The Word Among Us Partners to create a non-faith-based curriculum for those impacted by abortion. It’s available as a series of booklets meant to serve as “a stepping stone” to engaging women on a spiritual level. Support after Abortion’s next virtual healing conference is happening now.

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