Is Abortion a Trouble Free Solution?

According to a global study, over 40 million induced abortions are carried out every year worldwide. Women seek abortion for a variety of reasons, ranging from financial problems to a failed and abusive relationship that results in their not wanting any ties with the man. At times abortion is chosen to protect a reputation. Such was true in the case reported by Dr Susan Wicklund in her book, This Common Secret-My Journey as an Abortion Doctor. A patient she helped to abort confessed that her parents were very religious and could not afford to let her have a baby out of Wedlock, let alone permit her to commit the unforgivable sin of abortion.

Regardless of the situation, the decision to terminate a pregnancy deliberately is not an easy one, it is often intensively painful. The consequences haunt the very people who carry out abortion for a very long time as they grapple with guilt. In a research study carried out in 2004 on 331 Russian women and 217 American women, more than 60% of American women were unable to forgive themselves while 50% of the Russian women were guilty.

The truth is, every decision to carry out an abortion is done in haste and under serious pressure from peers. However, after the stressful procedure is over, women’s cognitive abilities return to normal, often ushering in feelings of pronounced guilt, sadness and regret. The regret is always centered on the question; did abortion terminate a life that already existed? Many women are often misled to think that an embryo was nothing but a mass of tissue whose removal meant nothing. However, they later realize with regret that they had been misled and that they would not have had abortion if they had been told the truth. They then get angered by grief at the loss of their child and what they thought was a trouble free solution was actually not a solution after all.