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While the study only asked about the year prior to the abortion, many post- abortion counselors have found that many women who have had abortions report a history of sexual abuse, perhaps in their childhood. Most discussion about abortion and sexual abuse concerns what happens if a woman or girl becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest. The article below (excerpted from the book Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion) explores the the further connection between abortion and a history of sexual abuse that may have occurred before the pregnancy took place.
Abortion and Reenacting Sexual Abuse Theresa Burke, Ph.D., with David C. Reardon
It has been my experience that a high proportion of women suffering post-abortion trauma also have histories of molestation, sexual abuse, or incest. Most other post-abortion counselors with whom I deal have reported a similar observation.
In a survey of women in post-abortion counseling groups, 21 percent reported a history of childhood physical abuse and 24 percent reported childhood sexual abuse.1 And in a random sample survey of the general population, Dianne Russell reports that approximately one in three girls is sexually abused before age 18 and one in four is abused by age 14. These alarming statistics have a good deal to do with patterns of abuse and crisis.
"One Week After the Abortion One Woman's Story of Sexual Abuse and Abortion
My sister and I were both victims of incest. My sister was being sexually assaulted by my brothers for a number of years when she got her first abortion at the age of sixteen. Had she been questioned by anyone as to how a minor like herself had come to be pregnant in the first place, perhaps she could have been saved from any further abuse within the family.
This is indeed what should have happened in any agency that claims to be concerned about preventing child abuse. As it turned out, she was given the abortion without my parents’ consent or knowledge and then returned to the same environment.
Years later, after having given birth to three children, and having had many years of psychotherapy and antidepressant drugs, she became pregnant in a crisis situation. She was advised by friends and self-appointed do-gooders to abort the baby to take care of herself. This caused her a great deal of distress and anxiety. The decision was very difficult for her and in her weakened state she succumbed to the “sensibility” of their arguments and scheduled the abortion.
She was crying when she entered the clinic, she cried throughout the procedure, and was sobbing as she left. No one at the clinic asked her any questions that might upset her any more. But of course, had anyone asked her, they might have recognized that she was not emotionally strong enough to stand the abortion. Had they inquired about her health history they may have seen her as the high risk patient she was.
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