By Jenna Murphy
HOUSTON, July 17, 2008, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Recent brain imaging studies conducted in The Human Neuro-imaging Laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas show that a mother is triggered physiologically by as little as a picture of her child.
The brain images captured while 28 different first-time mothers looked at their infant showed that the brain’s reward centers are activated by an increased blood flow, thus creating a “natural high” effect. These same areas (associated with thinking, movement, behavior and emotion) are activated in many cases of addicts when their addiction is satiated.
Observers have inferred from these findings that abortion’s ramifications are not only ‘spiritual and emotional’ but also physical, as the developing physiological relationship between the child in the womb and the mother is suddenly cut off, causing a physiological ‘cold-turkey’ effect.
“When a mother is abruptly and violently disconnected from her child there is a natural trauma. She has undergone an unnatural death event. In many cases, she has violated her moral ethics and natural instincts. There has been a crushing blow to her image of ‘mother who nurtures, protects and sustains life,’” said Theresa Burke, the founder of Rachel’s Vineyard in an interview with Zenit.
The biological nature of the mother-child relationship and the resultant trauma caused by abortion has been confirmed in numerous studies.
A research review in a 2006 issue of Current Women’s Health Reviews outlines a study that reinforces previous findings showing that women who have abortions are up to five times more likely to become dependent on drugs and/or alcohol ‘to cope with the after effects of the trauma’ (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06012307.html).
Related LifeSite coverage:
Post-Abortion Counsellor Says Women Develop Complex Relationship With Unborn Child
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030605.html
Abortion Leads to Substance Abuse for Significant Number of Women
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06012307.html
Abortion Causes Mental Disorders: New Zealand Study May Require Doctors To Do Fewer Abortions
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/060210a.html
Mothers Who Work Outside Home Risk Shortening their Sons’ Lives Study Shows
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04091407.html