“Rachael’s Vineyard” Retreat for Healing after Abortion
If you are suffering from the after-effects of an abortion, come and experience the healing love of Jesus Christ at a “Rachael’s Vineyard” weekend.
Retreats are held in June and November at St. Gabriel’s Retreat Center, 631 Griffin Pond Road, Clarks Summit, Pa, sponsored by the Diocese of Scranton.
The weekend retreat will combine discussions, spiritual exercises, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a Memorial Service and a Mass of Resurrection. Participation is strictly confidential and offers a beautiful opportunity to experience God’s love, forgiveness, and compassion.
For information/registration, contact OPM/Pro-Life office 207-2228 or Barbara Slack at Catholic Social Services, 207-2283. The Cost is $100 for meals, private room and all retreat materials. If you have financial difficulties, assistance is available.
Olivia Gans
In January 29, 2005 Olivia Gans, President of American Victims of Abortion, addressed a crowd of 420
persons who assembled at St. Mary’s Center in downtown Scranton for the Annual Respect Life Prayer Breakfast. On the 28th she spent the morning and early afternoon at Seton Catholic High School in Pittston, PA speaking to five classes reaching between 130 and 150 students. I accompanied Olivia to Seton Catholic. Thanks to Deacon Robert Roman for the invitation. Excerpts from Olivia’s talk follow::
When I presented myself to the movement I was a shattered mess. My
commitment to this cause is because of someone who cannot be with us
today because of the foolish decision I made in 1981.
Even as I was preparing to abort my child on February 27, 1981, I see God
preparing to use that experience for good. I come here to help us understand who
the women who choose abortion are. It isn’t the truth that women abort
because of hard cases. They do it because abortion is there. Abortion is
available and it is presented as the logical and reasonable thing to do. My
own abortion experience was so ridiculously typical. I was in college, unwed and
unemployed. Neither my boyfriend nor I were practicing real love. If we were, we
would have never rejected the child who was the perfect presence of our love. I
just wanted to make everything normal again. I wanted to believe my boyfriend
had my best intentions at heart. I wanted to believe he loved me. We were open to
the lies.
We went to four abortion providers. I had to go to four to find someplace we could
afford without putting me in the hospital. By the time of my abortion I was in the
first or second week of my fourth month of pregnancy. My precious child
was already learning to suck his or her thumb. It was not a something, but
someone. No one explained to me that she was already completely formed
only very, very small. No one said, “Your child is already turning
somersaults, and having hiccups. Do you know all that?”
Instead, I was told how stupid and irrational and selfish I was not to have an
abortion. People would later dismiss it as “You had a bad experience.” No I had
four bad experiences. My dignity was degraded to the point where I was beginning
to think, “Maybe they’re all right and I’m nuts.” I wasn’t pro-life or pro-abortion at
the time. I just thought I wouldn’t get pregnant, it won’t happen to me. Now I was
vulnerable to fear, manipulation and lies. Many women I meet around the country
and the world express that sense of degradation and humiliation.
The second abortionist we went to was filthy. He had dirt under his
fingernails. His office was filthy. I said, “ I can’t do it here because this man
scares me.” He never once looked into my eyes, but only looked at the father of
my child and said, “This is not a big deal. I take care of little problems like this
every day.” Not only was my child irrelevant and invisible, I was irrelevant and
invisible. Abortionists have a lack of respect for the children and also for the
women. Over and over I’ve heard women say, “I didn’t think anyone even knew I
was there.” The only people who benefit from abortion are the abortionists. And
they demand their money in advance.
Everyone has been affected by abortion but they may not be aware of it.
There have been 4,000 abortions a day for over thirty years. There are
people who should be here who aren’t.
My world personally is different because these people, especially my child, are not
here. Women who abort struggle to cope with the decision and try to make the
memories go away. Our lives are never the same again. Abortion affects marriages
and the relationships that women have with their other children.
It has been over thirty years now. There has been plenty of chance to study what
happens to women after abortion. But little research has been done. What we
know comes from individual researchers who are sometimes drawn into the
movement because of what they learn.
Many of the disorders psychologists treat, anorexia, bulimia and obesity other self-
destructive behaviors are sometimes the result of abortion. Alcoholism, drugs,
intensive cigarette smoking, cutting and self-mutilation. each of these can be caused
by abortion.
Women suffer the physical complications of abortion. Both men and women suffer
emotional complications. Often abortion is overlooked as the cause. Many
counselors and psychologists have sent women for abortions to solve other
problems and are personally responsible for abortions.
Dr. Vincent Rue, Dr. Ann Speckard and the Association for Inter-Disciplinary
Research have done excellent work in investigating the after-effects of abortion
To learn more about their work Visit: Recent years have brought a dramatic increase in the number of scientific studies published world-wide documenting the psychological
damage frequently ushered in by abortion. Negative effects of abortion on various aspects of women’s mental health and quality of life are now well-established. The newer research has overcome many methodological shortcomings
plaguing earlier work, leading to much clearer answers to several basic questions including the following:
1) Does abortion introduce risks to women’s mental heath? 2) Does abortion adversely impact other aspects of women’s lives (e.g. intimate relationships, parenting,
etc.) even if they do not suffer from a diagnosable ailment? 3) Are the risks associated with abortion greater than those associated with childbirth?
Psychologist Writes About Womem Who Have Problems Following Abortion
Theresa Burke writes about women who have had problems following their abortion experience in the book Forbidden Grief.
