Seven years after her abortion, Pat Layton was driving down an interstate highway in Florida when she burst into tears. The Christian talk show playing on her car radio featured women talking about their abortions. They mentioned their struggles with drugs, alcohol, anger, depression, and shame. Layton had experienced all of those problems and she was finally realizing that they stemmed from her abortion as a college student in 1977.

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“The whole reason that I had wanted an abortion was to be independent and to have a good job,” Layton said. “I had actually accomplished what I had wanted.”

But she was miserable. It took seven years for Layton to realize her abortion was causing her pain.

Now researchers are trying to dismiss the pain women like Layton have experienced. Last week, the academic journal Social Science & Medicine published a study that claimed post-abortive women feel more relief than regret in the years after their abortions. Researchers, led by Corrine H. Rocca of the University of California, San Francisco, followed up with 667 women who had abortions, tracking their emotions from one week to five years after the procedure.

“We found no evidence of emerging negative emotions or abortion decision regret,” the study claimed. In its conclusion, the paper argued that its findings challenge pro-life laws that regulate abortion access on the basis of protecting women’s emotions. But stories like Layton’s challenge those conclusions. She has since written Surrendering the Secret, an abortion recovery Bible study used across the country. Layton said her abortion recovery began that day she was driving on the highway.

Pamela Whitehead, executive director of ProLove Ministries, said it took her a decade to identify the effects of terminating her pregnancy. Just days after her abortion in 2001, the 9/11 terrorist attack happened, and she buried her grief. In the following years, she attempted suicide, became addicted to drugs, and lived in a homosexual relationship even though she wasn’t a lesbian. It wasn’t until 2011 that Whitehead realized her abortion had been the “precipitating factor” of her self-destructive decisions. “I could trace it back to that event,” she said. . .

In contrast to the study’s findings, Whitehead said her emotions resulted directly from her abortion. . .

Whitehead and Layton both noted the study looked at a limited number of women. The report said only 37.5 percent of the women asked to participate in the study consented, and even fewer completed it. The final number of women, Whitehead said, represented less than .01 percent of the total number of women who have abortions every year. Layton pointed out that women who experienced any trauma or shame related to their abortions were the least likely to participate in such a study.

Other research verifies the negative post-abortive experiences of women like Whitehead and Layton. A 2018 literature review examined past studies that addressed the effects of abortion on the mental health of women. “The association between abortion and higher rates of anxiety, depression, substance use, traumatic symptoms, sleep disorders, and other negative outcomes is statistically significant in most analyses,” the review found.

Another study published in 2017 surveyed post-abortive women, most of whom had sought abortion recovery services at pregnancy care centers. Of the 987 women who participated, 67.5 percent said they visited a psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor after their first abortion—a significant increase from the 13 percent who already received mental health services before the abortion. The researchers also found an increase in the percentage of women who used prescription drugs for mental health following their abortions.

But the conclusions of the UCSF study downplay these negative mental health effects of abortion. The resulting data puts vulnerable women––and unborn babies––at serious risk while propping up the argument that abortion is justifiable.

“It’s nothing but somebody’s wasted time trying to justify abortion and trying to make it look like it doesn’t hurt women,” Layton said.

(Excerpt from World. Article by Leah Hickman.)

(Editor’s Note: IFA Staff are in DC at the March for Life. We have met and heard from dozens of women and men, in just one day, about the harm and regret of abortion. As we have heard stories about what the Lord is doing, we can share some simple prayer points with you–

1. Pray for Christians to be merciful, graceful, kind, and open to the Lord’s leading in responding to friends and family who have been involved in abortions.
2. Pray for opportunities to share the healing truth of Christ with people who regret abortion–their healing will only be found in Him.
3. Pray for the truth to get out, that no one will be isolated in pain without hearing the Gospel message.)