Are you struggling from the feelings of guilt and pain over a past abortion? Know that you’re not alone, and you're not outside of God's love and redemptive care. We would count it a privilege to come alongside you on this journey of healing and forgiveness. Here are some options to get you started:
Focus on the Family has a staff of trained and caring counselors who offer a one-time complimentary consultation from a Christian perspective. They can also refer you to counselors in your area for ongoing assistance.
Focus on the Family has a staff of trained and caring counselors who offer a one-time complimentary consultation from a Christian perspective. They can also refer you to counselors in your area for ongoing assistance.
In an honest and heartfelt interview, Greg Smalley, Vice President of Marriage at Focus on the Family, opens up about what it’s like to be a post-abortive father.
Carrie was a student at a Christian college when she decided to have an abortion. Because of Christ, today she knows full freedom. You can, too.
Cynthia Wenz shares her incredible testimony of discovering God’s love and forgiveness. As a teenager, Cynthia lived recklessly and strayed away from the Lord. By age 29, she had three abortions, numbing herself from the reality of killing her children. After realizing her mistakes, Cynthia became pro-life and experienced many years of turmoil and grief before undergoing post-abortion recovery.
Al and Lisa Robertson discuss the challenges they faced early on in their relationship, particularly her struggles with guilt and shame over a past abortion. The Robertsons explore the topic of forgiveness, and Lisa offers compassion to women struggling with a past abortion, encouraging them to seek hope and healing from God.
Melissa Ohden, the survivor of a failed abortion attempt, shares her incredible story about the power of love and forgiveness as she relates how God’s grace enabled her to build relationships with her mother and other family members.
When Serena Dyksen was just thirteen years old, she faced an unplanned pregnancy and an abortion that affected her entire life. She and her husband Bruce encourage you to see the overflowing grace of God in your circumstances, as well as His perfect plan for healing in your life. Whether abortion is a part of your past or a current decision you are trying to make, there is hope! (Part 1 of 2)
Author Jennifer Polimino, a stay-at-home mother with a ministry to moms, describes how she’s experienced God’s grace and healing from a past characterized by abuse and emotional pain.
Author and speaker Patricia Layton describes how God has helped her find emotional and psychological healing after an abortion she had when she was younger, offering encouragement and hope to women who are struggling with similar pain. Pat also discusses her ministry to post-abortive women and dismantles the cultural lie that “abortion hurts no one.” (Part 1 of 2)
My dad had to carry me out over his shoulder after the abortion. We got in the car and silently agreed to never talk about what happened.
What are some of the after effects of abortion? Find out more about post-abortion syndrome and the hope and healing available.
How can I deal with the guilt I feel over a past abortion? I thought I’d get over it quickly and move on with my life, but my regret has gotten worse over the years. I feel trapped, isolated, and desperate.
Is it normal for me to be dealing with troubling emotions as the result of a past abortion? It happened years ago, but I still have a really hard time coping with my feelings.
What can I do to help other women discover freedom from the emotional and psychological aftermath of an abortion? I know firsthand how devastating it can be to wrestle with post-abortive guilt. But I’m happy to say that in Jesus Christ I’ve found joy in being released from that burden and forgiven for my past mistakes.
Why won’t my friend talk about her abortion? It’s obvious that she’s in bad shape emotionally, and I’d like to help her. But every time I try to broach the subject, she clams up. Do you have any insights into what she might be thinking?
Moving Forward After Abortion: Finding Comfort in God, by Camille Cates
Counselor Camille Cates points women who may be facing hurt, confusion, and unanswered questions after an abortion to finding grace and mercy in God’s love.
Solitary Sorrow: Finding Healing & Wholeness after Abortion, by Teri and Paul Reisser
This impressive book is written by a family therapist and a physician who have counseled hundreds of post-abortive women. Honest, accurate, and practical, it offers hope and encouragement to women seeking healing after abortion. A must for post-abortive women, their friends and family, pregnancy center counselors and other who seek to help.
Forgiven and Set Free: A Post-Abortion Bible Study for Women, by Linda Cochrane
Forgiven and Set Free guides suffering and hurting women to bring their emotional scars from abortion “out of the dark past and into his holy light,” where true and lasting healing can take place. Appropriate Scriptures help women deal with issues such as relief, denial, anger, forgiveness, depression, letting go, and acceptance.
Cradle My Heart: Finding God’s Love After Abortion, by Kim Ketola
Abortion continues to be a hot topic in politics, women’s rights, and medical practice. But for the eight to ten million American Christian women who have had one, abortion is a spiritual issue as well, raising questions of life and death, heaven and hell, grief and loss.
Forgiven and Set Free: A Bible Study for Women Seeking Healing after Abortion, by Linda Cochrane
No matter what influences a woman to end a pregnancy, the physical, psychological, and spiritual side effects are real and not always anticipated. Linda Cochrane has been there. With an understanding spirit and a gentle hand, she guides hurting women to bring their emotional scars “out of the dark past and into his holy light” where true and lasting healing can take place.
Broken Into Beautiful: How God Restores the Wounded Heart, by Gwen Smith
God delights in transforming lives. In Broken Into Beautiful, singer and songwriter Gwen Smith’s first book, she tells the real-life stories of women with shattered dreams, shameful secrets, and damaged souls, and the God who makes them beautiful again. Each chapter features a compelling personal story coupled with relevant biblical teaching and application.
Healing the Hurt, Digital Download, by Teri and Paul Reisser
Do you feel alone with the memory of an abortion you chose to have? If so, you’re actually not alone! Thirty-three percent of American women have an abortion at some point, but hardly any of them ever talk about it.
Recognizing that behind every abortion, there’s a man involved, Stephen Arterburn offers hope to post-abortive men as he describes how he found God’s forgiveness amidst the guilt of coercing a past girlfriend to have an abortion. He also discusses the need for Christian men to advocate the value of all human life.
Radio host and counselor Stephen Arterburn candidly shares how he pressured his college girlfriend into getting an abortion, and how the guilt and shame haunted him until he learned to fully accept God’s abounding grace.
It’s been twenty years, but Joseph’s brothers haven’t forgotten. They’ve moved on with their lives and haven’t mentioned Joseph for a long time. There’s no
Stephen Arterburn went to college to get a Christian education, but what happened is that he got a girl pregnant – and pressured her to have an abortion.
Women aren’t alone in dealing with the guilt and grief that follows an abortion.
What can I do to help other men find freedom from the emotional and psychological aftermath of being involved in an abortion? Years ago I pressured a girlfriend to have an abortion. I struggled with guilt, shame, and remorse for a long time. But I’m happy to say that in Jesus Christ I’ve found joy in being released from that burden and forgiven for my past mistakes.
Is it normal for me to be dealing with troubling emotions as the result of a past abortion? It happened years ago, but I still have a really hard time coping with my feelings.
As a pastor who regrets an abortion in my past, I want to say that there is hope for those who have participated in, or who have had an abortion.
Healing a Father’s Heart: A Post-Abortion Bible Study for Men, by Linda Cochrane and Kathy Jones
Includes practical information to help hurting men work through the stages of post-abortion syndrome and find comfort in the reassurance of God’s love and acceptance.
(Both Parents) – I’ll Hold You in Heaven: Healing and Hope for the Parent Who Has Lost a Child Through Miscarriage, Stillbirth, Abortion or Early Infant Death, by Jack Hayford
Drawing from concrete passages in Scripture, Hayford offers compassionate, reassuring answers for parents who’ve lost children through miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, or early infant death.
(Both Parents) – Putting Your Past Behind You: Finding Hope for Life’s Deepest Hurts, by Erwin Lutzer
In Putting Your Past Behind You, Dr. Lutzer explains what the Bible says about God’s role in the process of separating hurting and discouraged people from their pasts.
(Both Parents) – Recreatable: How God Heals the Brokenness of Life, by Kevin Scott
ReCreatable begins with the story of a glass baking dish, the delectable aroma of tantalizing brownies, and an unseen defect that turns the promise of something delicious into a minor disaster, leaving glass fragments and brownies irretrievably intermingled. Both the dish and brownies are irrevocably lost.
(Both Parents) – When God Interrupts: Finding New Life Through Unwanted Change, by M. Craig Barnes
Our lives are constantly changing. It’s hard to keep up, to keep our balance. It’s hard to keep trusting in God. And it’s especially difficult when the changes we’re faced with are unwanted: the death of a loved one, a child leaving home, an illness, a frustrated dream.
