Touchstone Magazine mentioned a few months ago that in their September issue they would be running an article by Rachel McNair on the psychological effects of performing abortions.

The September issue is now out and although Touchstone doesn't put all their articles online, I'm glad to say that this article is available online here:
The Nightmares of Choice.

"What is the emotional impact of doing abortions on the people who do them? Those who do them have written and said enough to show that it is no ordinary medical procedure. Some, like Tisdale, suffer nightmares. Others suffer many of the other symptoms associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), once called "shell shock" and "battle fatigue." The practice of medicine, of healing, should not give you nightmares, should not leave you shell-shocked.

In the following, only pro-choice doctors and nurses and official medical publications will be quoted...Their belief that dealing constantly with abortion was an unusual and significant source of stress, more so than ordinary medicine, did not by any means come from opposition to abortion."

I'll have more to say later.

My local paper has a column today about a man who recently underwent a vasectomy. He writes, "Some doctors make you bring in your spouse and go through 'the talk' to make sure you're sure."

As regular readers of this blog know, one of my recurring subjects is the notion that women thinking about abortion ought to get plenty of counseling beforehand, so that they have informed consent about all the risks.

However, the idea of informed consent and 24-hour-waiting-periods for women considering abortion is universally denounced by reproductive rights groups. The claim always is that by the time a woman walks into the abortion clinic, she has done all the thinking she is ever going to want or need to do.

When I read about the counseling that this man got to make sure he was sure about a vasectomy, it occurred to me that reams of information probably exist on vasectomy regret, vasectomy counseling, and risk factors for vasectomy regret.

Sure enough, if you enter "vasectomy counseling" into your search engine, you'll find a wealth of information on how to make sure that a man is truly ready for that irreversible snip...even though it isn't nearly as irreversible as an abortion, one might add.

Here's one example.

I note that one of the factors that put a man at risk of suffering from vasectomy regret is coming to the decision at a time of personal stress or crisis.

Hm.

AAPS: Political pressure prevents women from finding out about abortion risks.

Another new post-abortion ministry.

Peter Nixon of Sursum Corda comments here on my post of a few days ago about Saints in the Making.

He writes:

"I think what Emily has identified is actually a weakness in a lot of types of Catholic ministry, where those we serve (and perhaps it is that very word itself that is the problem) can become 'occasions of grace' for us rather than people in their own right. On the other hand, I find that--perhaps for this reason--that Catholic ministry is much less prone to the kind of aggressive prostyletizing that one occasionally finds in evangelical Protestant service organizations."

I do appreciate that this happens in some evangelical service organizations, including some evangelical peer-ministry PA groups. The "need to heal" others takes different forms but it is never pretty.

And, a blog reader wrote me to say that:

"I thought your remarks were very on target and something I struggle with all the time. I am often left with feelings of being a 'token' post-abortive person and take offense at the way many approach the work and that 'holier than thou' attitude. I get particularly frustrated when people seem to jump on the band wagon because PA seems to be the in thing to do now...or when they judge the success of things on how THEY are feeling, or on feelings at all which can change once an emotional high has passed."

Right on, sister.

From the Christian Science Monitor, Russia begins to reconsider wide use of abortion.

"'Artificial termination of pregnancy after week 12 is fraught with grave consequences for a woman's health,' says an official spokesman for Russia's Health Ministry. 'Abortions account for 30 percent of maternal mortality in Russia. It has been decided to reduce these dangers.' The dangers include sterility; abortion is a leading cause of increasing diagnoses of infertility in Russia."

The Phoenix New Times: The Practice, Trial begins for controversial abortionist.

"As the criminal trial against abortion doctor Brian Finkel entered its first trimester last week, this became clear: When the time comes, Finkel's lawyer is going to have to tie the accused sexual abuser into stirrups, then drug him to keep him off the witness stand. Finkel was in his favorite place -- center stage -- at the long-awaited jury trial in downtown Phoenix before Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Cates.

During the often graphic opening statements, he constantly peered into the packed spectators' gallery for friendly faces (front row -- his wife of three decades, his daughter, and a few other supporters), and for media types.

Finkel shook his head from side to side slightly as he digested prosecutor Blaine Gadow's opening remarks. He also scribbled frantically on his yellow notepad and whispered often into one of his attorneys' ears.

Once, this self-proclaimed lightning rod for the right-to-life movement was one of the nation's most visible abortion doctors, appearing often on national television shows, defending both his practice and a woman's right to choose. Now, the 53-year-old Finkel is in a down-and-dirty fight for his own right to live the rest of his life however he chooses, instead of behind bars. "

"At times the guilt over the abortion draws into its dragnet many old guilts, leading to severe depression. In other instances, the overwhelming guilt cannot be managed and leads to pathologic projection. The immediate assimilation of the traumas is no assurance of successful integration: in later years new guilts may reawaken the dormant guilt, and one sees women at the menopause suffering torment over an abortion performed many years before."

Theodore Lidz, MD, a psychiatry professor at Yale University, at a 1942 medical conference.

Tell Them I Love Them, a new post-abortion ministry in Minnesota, has announced that it will be holding a one-day conference on Saturday, November 22.

The featured speakers are Norma McCorvey of Roe No More,, Theresa Burke of Rachel's Vineyard and Linda Bartlett of Lutherans for Life.

Medical Assistant Quit after Finkel misconduct.

"Dawn Normoyle, 35, said she once even smacked Finkel on the arm and told him to quit it after he touched the clitoris of a patient during an exam. 'It didn’t seem like it was right,' said Normoyle, a Florida resident who worked for Finkel in 1994 and 1995. 'He told me that’s how he does pelvic exams.'

Finkel is on trial on 66 counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault.

Thirty-five women have said he fondled their breasts or genitals during exams or penetrated them with his hands. Normoyle said she didn’t report Finkel because she wasn’t sure if what he did was proper procedure. Defense attorney Richard Gierloff said Finkel’s actions were medically proper.

Normoyle, who met Finkel when he performed an abortion on her, said he examined her after she quit her job and she asked him not to touch her the way he touched other patients — a request he respected, she said. Gierloff cross-examined Normoyle for about an hour Monday."

'Mary Doe' Files to Reverse Doe v. Bolton Abortion Decision.

Earlier today, Sandra Cano--the "Mary Doe" of the 1973 US Supreme Court Doe v Bolton abortion case--filed a Rule 60 Motion to overturn that case.

In doing this, Cano joins Norma McCorvey (the Roe of Roe v Wade), who filed suit in July to overturn Roe.

"Doe v. Bolton struck down the Georgia Health Exception Statute that required the agreement of three doctors to perform an abortion for the health of the mother. In effect, in Doe the Court gutted Roe's trimester limitations, allowing one lone abortionist to perform an abortion for profit for any reason up until the delivery of the baby.

Women across the nation who have suffered the tragic effects of abortion are joining Cano's effort to reverse Doe. Over 1,000 women have provided sworn statements for Doe's Rule 60 motion. "We're standing with Sandra Cano in saying the Doe decision was a mistake. We now have conclusive evidence that abortion is physically dangerous and emotionally devastating," said Dianne Donaudy. 'It harms women. Each of us deeply regrets having an abortion. We want the public, especially women, to know the truth about the tragic and harmful consequences of abortion,' she said."

See this link at Operation Outcry for a vast array of information on the Sandra Cano's Rule 60 Motion.

Another terrific side-effect of abortion.

Trial of Abortion Practitioner Shows the Motivations Behind Abortion.

From LifeSite News.

"Brian Finkel claims he is a spokesman 'for the little woman,' but that pales in comparison to his insatiable need for attention. He has become almost the only abortion practitioner willing to appear on national television shows.

Ron Fitzsimmons, director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers and the man of 'I lied through my teeth' fame when it came to partial-birth abortions, confirms that Finkel is one of only a half-dozen abortionists nationwide he can tap at a moment's notice to appear on television.

Finkel says he does abortions because of the illegal ones he's seen, both in the U.S. and other countries where he lived while serving as an Air Force doctor. He saw women who would bleed and hurt for days from the procedures.

He also says he wants to 'help' women because, back in the mid 1980s, no doctor in the area would perform an abortion on his daughter despite it being legal.

Now Finkel is on trial for allegedly abusing the very women he says he is out to protect. However, it's not the first time he has been under scrutiny for abusing patients.
In 1984, the Board of Osteopathy reviewed case #516 which involved "alleged sexual misconduct during exam." The Board dismissed it in April 1985. In 1987, case #704 came before the board alleging fondling during examination.

After an informal interview in October 1987, that case was dismissed. Why? The executive director of the Board of Osteopathy at the time was the former president of Arizona Right to Choose."

After decades, Russia narrows grounds for abortion.

"Russia's abortion regulations remain permissive there are still no limits on abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy but the new restrictions appear to reflect the first stirrings of a wider debate here over the morality of abortion, as well as the effect abortions are having on women's health and on the demographic future of Russia.

Ever since 1955, when the Soviet Union lifted a ban that had been imposed by Stalin in 1936, abortion here has been a common and widely accepted means of birth control, giving Russia one of the highest abortion rates in the world.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the increased availability of contraceptives has resulted in a substantial decline in abortions in Russia from a high of 4.6 million in 1988 to 1.7 million last year. But now the Ministry of Health, under pressure from conservative lawmakers, has decided to reduce the number further through government-imposed restrictions on what has effectively been free and virtually unlimited access to abortion.

Anatoly A. Korsunsky, the Health Ministry's chief of maternity and childhood health, said in an interview that the new restrictions had been carefully weighed, taking into account the risks abortions carry for a woman's health. Abortions in the later stages of pregnancy and repeated abortions, which are common here, pose the greatest risks to fertility and health generally, he said. "