A tired old trope seems to keep resurfacing in the abortion debate.
“You have no empathy (for women),” a woman told Live Action founder Lila Rose, who was discussing abortion on The Dr. Phil Show. Rose, unruffled, replied that “abortion is devastating to a woman’s mental health. Nobody talks about it.” She was going to say more, but, ironically, she was cut off by the same audience member who a moment earlier had accused her of lacking care and empathy for women.
STACEY ABRAMS’S CLOSING ARGUMENT: WEATHER INFLATION BY ABORTING ALL YOUR CHILDREN
This trope has been thrown at pro-life activists for decades, but it bears no resemblance to the truth. Here’s how we know this: As of 2019, 3,000 pregnancy resource and help centers had been created and funded by pro-lifers to provide free ultrasounds, maternity housing, adoption assistance, and more for millions of expectant women.
These centers provided 732,000 pregnancy tests and 486,000 ultrasounds. They gave away 1.3 million packages of diapers, 30,000 car seats, and two million baby outfits to women and children in need.
Unlike Planned Parenthood centers, which received over $600 million from taxpayers the same year, most PRCs and PHCs are run by small staff and volunteers and receive no government funding. Yet, they outnumber Planned Parenthood centers 5-1.
The Catholic Church likewise steps up every day to help women in need. It is the most prominent and active opponent of abortion in the world, but it doesn’t stop helping once babies are born. Its official U.S. charity arm provided women, girls, and their families 1.9 million nights of emergency shelter and nearly 36,000 permanent housing units in 2021. Catholic-affiliated abuse shelters and hotlines abound, and specialized clinics such as WISH in Missouri provide safe places for deliveries by pregnant women dealing with drug addiction and broken families. Over 500,000 babies were born in Catholic hospitals last year, just some of the many services women received at the 654 Catholic hospitals in America.
Why do pro-life organizations provide so much help to women? Contrary to some abortion proponents, who have no problem shutting down pro-life women’s voices, it’s because we want women to become the best version of themselves.
Abortion ends an unborn child’s life, but a new study from Support After Abortion found that it also devastates the women who experience them. One in three women who went through a medication abortion told Support After Abortion that their self-image changed for the negative after the abortion, and 63% of all women who experienced a medication abortion tried to seek help or said they would have benefited from talking to someone.
But despite what is clearly a serious need, only 18% of women even knew that healing related to abortion was actually available.
No matter what abortion advocates say, the fact that women suffer after abortion should expand, not shrink, our empathy for them. They and their children aren’t just statistics; they are real people who, according to the Guttmacher Institute, are going through financial and relationship crises that have them in a panic. Their panic, often based on past trauma, leads them to choose abortion. These traumas then compound themselves: Guttmacher’s research shows that about 50% of women who choose abortion do so more than once.
I know the devastating harm of abortion, as well as how healing can create profound positive change, personally. About a year ago, a good friend tearfully disclosed a decade of crushing regret and depression after an abortion she had hidden from the world. She found healing in talking to a therapist, experiencing mercy and forgiveness by going deeper into her Catholic faith, and, eventually, opening up to friends and family who embraced her pain as their own.
Abortion advocates often claim that we need more empathy for women in crisis pregnancies. I agree, which is why I’m a proud Catholic and supporter of pregnancy resources and help centers. It’s also why I embraced my friend when she risked being vulnerable in her transparency. And it’s why pro-lifers show up for women in need every day, across their entire lives.
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A former Broadway touring actress who also starred in LifeTime’s The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns, Stacey Sumereau is a nationally recognized Catholic speaker and host of the Called and Caffeinated podcast.
