The London Independent newspaper carries a regular feature entitled ‘Dilemmas’. The dilemmas are presented in such form as to pose questions requesting answers or suggestions from readers of the paper. It is assumed that the dilemmas are genuine ones. The following is the text of the most recent problem presented under the name Judith:
‘Ten years ago I had an abortion. I never thought that I wouldn’t one day get pregnant in the future and now I find that I regret bitterly what I did.‘At the time I thought I wouldn’t be able to look after a child, and the father was a violent man and the prospect of having to put up with him for the rest of my life, even only as a visiting father, made me scared. But now I find that I can’t stop myself thinking about “what might have been”. It’s too late now, at 42, for me to have a child – I’ve had tests and they showed it’s unlikely I would be able to conceive – and anyway I haven’t got a man in my life at the moment. How can I ever get over the agonising feeling of having made such a big mistake in my past?’
Sadly the advice offered by the columnist, and the letters published in the column, is appalling, it fails to recognise or take into account the reality that Judith expresses in the last sentence of her sharing.
Real help is available from groups such as Rachael's Vineyard and Silent no More
Real help is available from groups such as Rachael's Vineyard and Silent no More
These organisations reach out to women hurt by abortion, encouraging them to actively seek healing by attending special abortion after-care programs. The programmes encourage women to face the truth that they have terminated a life, the life of a baby and that until they face and accept this reality it will be hard for them to obtain the healing they so urgently need. In due course those women who are ready to do so, are Invited to speak out, to tell the truth about abortion's negative consequences in a similar way to that which has been expressed by Judith in the published dilemma
