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PACE
Post Abortion Compassion & Encouragement
You are not alone
More than a million abortions are performed each year, and many women who have experienced an abortion report unresolved emotions afterward. Difficult emotions may arise shortly after the abortion, or 10, 20, or even 30 years later. Regardless, your feelings are real and important to work through.
What is PACE?
PACE is the Community Pregnancy Center’s Post-Abortion Compassion & Encouragement program. This program offers healing from a past abortion through a 10-week program. Group classes are offered twice a year in the Spring and Fall with individual classes by appointment.
Do you have post-abortion grief?
The intensity of a woman’s emotional reaction to having an abortion can come as a surprise. A woman’s reason for aborting and the circumstances surrounding her choice don’t always indicate what her emotional reaction will be. Society does not always allow women to grieve the loss of aborted children; a woman’s grief can be repressed or denied. Post-abortion grief occurs when a woman is unable to process negative feelings like anger, guilt, sadness, and shame surrounding her abortion experience.
Symptoms of Post-Abortion Grief
Pain from a past abortion can affect a number of things, from relationships to physical health and mental well-being.
- Have you told yourself to forget about the abortion, or continue to deny painful memories?
- Do you have nightmares or flashbacks?
- Are you more depressed or withdrawn on certain dates, such as the date of the abortion or would-be birth, Mother’s Day, etc.
- Do you tense up, hold your breath, or respond in physical ways when abortion is mentioned?
- Have you avoided intimate relationships or become more promiscuous?
- Do you feel unable to forgive anyone who influenced your decision?
- Have you abused your body with drugs, alcohol, food, or self-harm?
- Are you afraid of being unable to have children?
- Do you overprotect or have trouble bonding with the children you have now?