The post-abortive life is not widely known. There are few reliable studies that lay out the devastating aftermath. Testimonies have been silenced either by the participants themselves due to guilt and shame or by the pro-abortion industry. Many appear outwardly as if they’ve moved on, but are barely surviving with its dark pain deep inside their soul. The truth is, after abortion, many live wanting to die before taking the secret to their grave.
This does not exclude God’s children. Many saints are afraid or reluctant to heal for several reasons, some being that healing is costly. It’s painful and difficult. It’s a controversial topic making incessant rounds through the media, which can be consistently retraumatizing for those still sensitive to its impact on their lives. It can also be hard to know where to begin with healing, but mostly, whether directly or indirectly, there is ample pressure on all sides to remain in bondage to the sin of abortion.
Remaining unhealed is more socially acceptable, even among those who claim to serve The Healer. Grieving over abortion for a season is human, but in a state of brokenness and shame along with external influence, it’s easy to give into a deserving mentality that festers and stunts spiritual growth into a lifelong lament. In the political sphere, this is what anti-abortion advocates naturally want or expect to see. It helps their narrative. From the post-abortive perspective, this ongoing expression of pain and suffering can help give warning to future generations while also continually validating a personal state of regret. They can tell the next generation ‘this will ruin your entire life’ for effect, anything to prevent another soul from making the same mistake.
A life filled with unrelenting sorrow can look and feel like justice to those who know the sin that it is, but intentions don’t always line up with biblical truth. The destructive aftermath of participating in ending a child’s life is undeniable and unavoidable, but there is true freedom from abortion in the healing of Christ. There is a healing that wipes our tears and replaces them with the joy of a future and a hope, not just in theory, but a real freedom that will meet us right where we are in this world.
Like any sin, the consequences live on. The crime has been committed and the children are never coming back, but God’s mercy extends far beyond all of our sins into eternity. Satan wants us to display the power of sin through its evidence in our lives, but the Lord wants us to display the power of His victory on the cross in our lives through His redemptive testimony. Choosing to live in lifelong anguish and self-destruction in order to prove to others the magnitude of our grief may feel like a display of understanding sin or the amount of love or loss for the aborted children, but it actually minimizes the omnipotent power of the resurrection.
Healing from abortion may seem like an impossible feat, but so did having an unexpected child. The father of lies who prowled and devoured in the abortion mill is now preying on shattered hearts in the aftermath. Only faith can overpower fearful confusion and fuel the victory inside this internal war zone.
Healing is not often instantaneous. It can take a lot of time and work, but it’s possible through a relationship with The Healer and with His sanctifying Truth at our fingertips. Still, walking the path won’t be easy. People will not like it. Many will find it offensive, even unjust, but we were put here to become a lamp of assurance shining on a hill for the unseen, not a flame flickering under a bushel of insecurity to please the world.
Christ did not come for a battle or partial defeat. He came to win. He came to save souls, defeat death, and destroy the works of the destroyer. When it comes to sin, there is no partial healing in Christ. The debt was paid in full. He came knowing that many would shed innocent blood and He humbled Himself to become obedient to the point of death on the cross to shed His anyway. Refusing this gift of full forgiveness and removal is pridefully making sin bigger than His sacrifice.
Through repentance and surrender, Christ’s renewal of the Spirit holds the power to overwhelm us with steadfast love and completely remove the deadly cost of our sin. Regardless of persecution or backlash, it glorifies God to walk with dignity as one who has been counted worthy of His salvation and healing.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Psalm 103:8-13
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds…Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
Psalm 147:3,5
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
John 10:10
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 5:8-11
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
