Are you struggling from the feelings of guilt and pain over a past abortion? Know that you’re not alone, friend. We would count it a privilege to come alongside you on this journey of healing and forgiveness. Here at Focus on the Family, our goal is to help individuals and families thrive in Christ—we want to do the same for you.
Cynthia Wenz shares her incredible testimony of discovering God’s love and forgiveness. She now advocates for pregnancy resource centers across the nation.
Cynthia Wenz shares her incredible testimony of discovering God’s love and forgiveness. She now advocates for pregnancy resource centers across the nation.
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. (Part 1 of 2)
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. (Part 2 of 2)
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. (Part 1 of 2)
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. (Part 2 of 2)
Lindsay Christensen and Laurie Haynes, both of whom serve in leadership roles at pregnancy resource centers, share powerful stories from their ministry to post-abortive women and men, offering encouragement and hope to listeners who may be struggling with the emotional anguish of a past abortion.
Talking With Your Spouse About an Abortion in Your Past
Overcoming Rejection to Live in God’s Love, with Lisa TerKeurst
Lysa TerKeurst shares transparently on what rejection has felt like in her own life from an emotionally absent father, to an unwanted pregnancy which led her to abortion. She shares practical ways we can overcome our shame and find our identity in Christ, be a vessel to share that love to others, and not let our circumstances dictate our attitude.
Finding Healing and Hope After an Abortion, Part 1 & Part 2, with Patricia Layton
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.”
A Mother’s Heart Redeemed by God, with Jennifer Polimino
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.
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.
Surrendering the Secret – Bible Study Book: Healing the Heartbreak of Abortion, by Patricia Layton
Author Pat Layton, founder and president of A Woman’s Place Ministries, helps women find the path to healing through honest interactive Bible study, meaningful group experiences, and caring community. With more than 20 years of experience in guiding women to healing, Pat outlines a process that has proven effective over and over again.
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.
Finding Emotional Healing After an Abortion
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 remorse and regret have only gotten worse over the years. I feel trapped, isolated, and desperate.
Post-Abortion Emotional Struggles
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.
Post-Abortive Woman Wants to Help Others Overcome Guilt
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.
Don’t Deny Your Grief
It’s hard to see it through the pain of losing a baby, but denying or glossing over your grief doesn’t allow you to remember him or her with love. It doesn’t help you become the courageous, confident and healthy woman you truly want to be.
Dealing With the Trauma of a Past Abortion
Many women who choose abortion struggle with guilt – guilt that stops them from talking about it or getting the emotional help they deserve.
Healing the Hurt of a Past Abortion
A lot of women feel hopeless about ever resolving the pain connected with their abortion. But healing is possible.
Post-Abortive Symptoms
What are some of the symptoms associated with Post-Abortion Syndrome?
Understanding a Post-Abortal Friend
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?
Supporting the Post-Abortive Woman During a Pandemic
Right now, there are millions of post-abortive women hurting and all they can see are obstacles.
Post-Abortive Hope and Healing
Many women who struggle with post-abortion issues believe no one understands. This false belief fuels the shame surrounding abortion and may prevent them from seeking help.
Talking With Your Spouse About an Abortion in Your Past
Fatherhood Lost: Abortion’s Lasting Impact on Men, Part 1 and Part 2
Kurt Ramspott and Aaron LeCave discuss the often-overlooked impact of abortion on men and offer hope and encouragement to those who wrestle with grief and guilt over a past abortion.
How Abortion Impacts Men
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.
The Crucial Role of Men Standing for Life
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.
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.
Dealing With Abortion Regret as Men
Most of us men bear burdens from regretful choices and fearing God or others may find out. And, for some of us, this burden is abortion regret.
Men: Moving Past the Pain of Abortion
Women aren’t alone in dealing with the guilt and grief that follows an abortion.
Man Overcoming Abortion Guilt Wants to Help Others
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.
Every Abortion Involves at Least One Man
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.
My Child Would Have Been 22 This Year-Shane’s Story
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.
Post-Abortion Emotional Struggles
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.
Don’t Deny Your Grief
It’s hard to see it through the pain of losing a baby, but denying or glossing over your grief doesn’t allow you to remember him or her with love. It doesn’t help you become the courageous, confident and healthy woman you truly want to be.
Understanding a Post-Abortal Friend
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?
Father’s Day, When You Are Post-Abortive
In a single moment, my heart turned from being filled with hate to being beautifully broken and submitted.
You can also search our directory for a licensed Christian counselor in your area via Focus on the Family's Christian Counselors Network.
