A known pro-life activist, Abby Johnson, started a new project designed to help women take legal actions after experiencing complications and physical harm due to abortion.
Hurt After Abortion was launched last month as the latest project of Pro-Love Ministries, which was founded by Johnson, who is former Planned Parenthood Employee of the Year. The project is a partnership with the Thomas More Society, a notable Catholic law firm.
On their website, it says that:
"We have heard the stories of many women who have suffered physically and emotionally from a past abortion. Many of us have never shared what happened to us with another person. Some of us carry the shame and regret of making the decision and others of us have minimized the harm done to us because abortion is being "normalized"."
"Just because something is "normal" doesn't mean it is okay, doesn't mean it is healthy, and doesn't mean it did not hurt you. "
"Your experience matters and you deserve to be heard."
Hurt After Abortion provides referrals for legal consultations which are customarily free of charge, referral to an "options-based approach to emotional and spiritual healing for women who would like to process their experience and be restored from the impact that abortion has had on their life," and assistance in accessing their medical records.
The Executive Director of Hurt After Abortion, Pamela Whitehead, described the project in an interview with the Christian Post.
"We have a website and the hope is that women who have been physically harmed by having an abortion procedure and who are seeking help in some way would find our site," Whitehead said.
"We offer a free legal consultation and if the lawyers decide to take her case, then their services would be free of charge to her. We also offer a referral to an options-based healing network for abortion that would individualize the care to that woman based on her needs."
One of their projects is providing assistance for women who want to access their medical records in which "many people don't even know that they have that access, that they have that right. Often women, part of their healing journey is looking back and trying to remember exactly what happened."
She also described their new project as "limitless."
"We really believe that God is going to send the women to us. We know without a doubt that many of these women are sitting at church. ... We believe that many of those women are sitting in our church pews seeking answers, looking for help and also not finding it, so we hope to be that help." she continued.
In another interview with the Christian Post, Abby Johnson mentioned that she always wanted to put billboard signs outside of abortion clinics that simply says: "Have you been hurt after an abortion?"
She said that she would always see advertisements for law firms saying "If you've been hurt by these products or if you've been hurt by this thing or that thing, call this law office." And she thought, "why aren't we doing something like that in the pro-life movement?" and explained how she even called her private attorney to discuss this matter.
According to their project's website, physical harm caused by abortion includes "heavy bleeding, infection, incomplete abortion, damage to the cervix, scarring of the uterine lining, perforation of the uterus, (and) damage to internal organs."
The process of abortion can also result in psychological harm, such as "eating disorders, relationship problems, flashbacks of abortion, suicidal thoughts, sexual dysfunction, alcohol and drug abuse, (and) self-harm," as well as the emotional "hurts" of "guilt, regret, depression, (and) anger."
Hurt After Abortion aims to help those who have experienced any of the results by abortion mentioned above and is already looking down the road for new opportunities to expand their pro-life ministry.
