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April 1, 2022April brings us the celebration of life and hope that is Easter. Less commonly known is that in the pro-life community it is “Abortion Recovery Awareness Month,” a time when we take extra steps to let people know that the hope and life of Easter are available to those who repent of the sin of abortion.
Not only does the Lord bring us forgiveness, but He died and rose again to bring us healing. “By his wounds, we are healed” (Isa 53:5), the Good Friday reading proclaims. In the process of proclaiming that Good News, we educate people about the multiple ways abortion harms all of us, starting with the baby who is killed, and then most immediately with the mother who has undergone the procedure.
Abortion, with its multiple wounds, brings not only spiritual death, but also medical ruin. Libraries of documentation indicate that the health of the nation has been devastated by abortion. One of the best summaries of this evidence is the book Complications: Abortion’s Impact on Women, published by the deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research.
The research shows both short-term and long-term harm from abortion, and the harm comes in physical, psychological, relational, and spiritual forms.
In Complications we read,
the immediate complications of induced abortion include bleeding (hemorrhage), retained tissue, infection, uterine perforation, cervical laceration, and immediate psychiatric morbidity, or depression. Depending on the jurisdiction, these reported complications occur in 3.4 percent to 11 percent of all surgically-induced abortions. The immediate complication rate for ‘medical,’ or drug-induced, abortions is up to four times higher – 44 percent … Since abortion clinics do not follow up with their patients, the true immediate complication rate may well exceed the figures quoted in various studies (p. 91).
These studies reveal, furthermore, that abortion leads to an increased risk of breast cancer, as well as an increase in pelvic inflammatory disease, in autoimmune diseases, in preterm births, in emotional distress, in substance abuse, and in death.
As we think about the ways this impacts the overall health of a nation – and the health care system – we should keep in mind that based on official statistics, those nations that do not permit abortion on demand have a better record of maternal and fetal health than those that do. Poland and Chile have enjoyed dramatic improvements in this area, and abortion has been prohibited there for decades. Likewise, El Salvador and Nicaragua, where the unborn have been protected, have not seen any deterioration in maternal or infant health.
By contrast, the UK, Russia, Guyana, South Africa, and our own United States – in all of which abortion is freely available – have worse records of maternal and fetal health than nearby nations where abortion is illegal. Examples can be multiplied.
The bottom line is this. If we are concerned about the health of our nation, we have to stop killing our children in the womb. With the Supreme Court’s Dobbs case, we may be on the verge of a significant step in that direction. Abortion Recovery Awareness Month can spur us on to do this as we are strengthened by Easter hope.
I am privileged to serve as pastoral director and chairman of the board of Rachel’s Vineyard, the largest ministry in the world for healing after abortion. In that capacity, as well as in my role as pastoral director of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, I see hope and healing at work every day in the lives of the moms and families we serve.
I have helped moms who have had as many as 26 abortions. Even they, upon repenting, can be saints. Let’s never lose Easter hope. And let’s end abortion.
FATHER FRANK PAVONE is among the most prominent pro-life leaders in the world. In 1993 he became national director of Priests for Life. He also is president of the National Pro-life Religious Council. He served at the Vatican assisting the Church’s pro-life work under Pope St. John Paul II.
