Booklet tells of abortion’s mental pain

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 39

Booklet tells of abortion’s mental pain

Wellington reporter A 19-page booklet, "The Abortion Aftermath,” has been written and published by Mrs Marilyn Pryor, of Wellington, a former president of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. She said that during 12 years of Involvement in "the pro-life cause” she had frequently encountered an emotional aftermath to abortion. Sometimes the women approaching her had been strangers, sometimes close friends. For some the abortion had been recent; there were others who still wept over abortions done 30 and 40 years earlier With some it took the form of denial, like knitting baby clothes for the baby that would never come to birth, Mrs Pryor said. With others it took the form of being “supermums” to their other children.

One had been a close friend who had come to her in despair because her psychiatrist had dismissed her belief that the two abortions in her life had precipitated her severe emotional disorders. “Whether pro-life or pro-abortion, from these women I heard that there is an emotional aftermath to abortion and tor many it is severe,” Mrs Pryor said. There was not way the memories of these women could be obliterated or the clock turned back. At long last there were people in the helping professions who were starting to acknowledge what women had known for a long time — faced with the abortion aftermath, women needed specialised help in putting their lives back together. Mrs Pryor said her booklet was intended to help bring that realisation home to New Zealanders.