The Christian community has taken a stand on the issue of abortion. To end a pregnancy is to end a life. Not potential life. Life. We object to abortion. We work to change civil laws that violate God’s moral law. We fight for the plight of the unborn.

The world knows we are for the life in the womb. They know we are against abortion. But do they know we are also for the mother?

Every year, more than one million abortions are performed. At least one-third of American women will have had an abortion by age forty-five.

Before we dismiss this as a problem outside the Church, surveys indicate 78% of those who have had abortions claim some religious affiliation. One survey indicates that one in five women who aborted their baby were born-again or evangelical Christians. Hundreds of thousands of women sit in church each week with a secret that is destroying them. These are women we know and love: our friends, daughters, sisters, wives—maybe even our mothers…or ourselves.

The baby in the womb is not the only victim of abortion.

Women with abortion in their history often struggle with Post-Abortion Syndrome. Symptoms include guilt, promiscuity, and suicidal thoughts. Eating disorders, emotional isolation, and alcohol or drug abuse can follow. Crying spells, depression, and nightmares are common experiences.

Yet these women struggle with connecting their past abortion to the symptoms they experience sometimes decades later. They become experts at stuffing the event behind them, convinced that what’s past is past, unrelated to their present circumstances. Even if they are saved and serving in church, they are emotionally stuck, unable to get past the abortion that altered their life forever.

Confidential abortion recovery programs provide an opportunity for women to receive the support of facilitators and peers who understand their pain. Many of these facilitators and peer counselors have abortion in their own history and have experienced God’s forgiveness, healing, and restoration.

Post-abortion recovery classes address biblical principles that apply to all areas of life, not just abortion. Participants discuss topics such as the need for healing, the character of God, post-abortion symptoms, and the importance of forgiving and being forgiven. Forgiveness is an especially significant turning point because of the condemnation they expect from God and other people.

“Love the person, hate the sin” has almost become a cliché within Christian circles. Yet it describes our need to stand for life even as we reach out to offer healing and freedom to people shackled by the pain of abortion.

When abortion occurs, we lose a life. If Christians respond with compassion to the mother, we – and she – may gain a life: the eternal life of a woman who personally experiences God’s grace, forgiveness and restoration.

Surrendering the secret of abortion is painful, but it is a critical journey.

If you are burdened with the secret sorrow of an abortion in your past, contact a local crisis pregnancy center today. For locals on Florida’s Treasure Coast, call Confidential Abortion Recovery Experience (CARE) – a ministry of Care Net Pregnancy Services of the Treasure Coast, 772-249-2473. The call is confidential. Don’t wait another minute to begin your healing.

And for the rest of us? For or against. The world knows what we are against. Let’s start showing them what who we are for.