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(LifeSiteNews) — A new study commissioned by a nonprofit group put a spotlight on the toll abortion takes on fathers, a demographic very often disenfranchised in the abortion conversation.

The April 2023 National Men’s Abortion Study, which was commissioned and published by Florida-based organization “Support After Abortion,” noted that, while the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade “was celebrated by feminists as a major victory for women’s rights,” fathers of preborn babies were left without “any right to advocate for the children they helped conceive.”

According to the study, 71% of respondents reported “adverse change” after their abortion experience. 

“[T]he majority of men experience some negative impact from their abortion experiences,” wrote Support After Abortion Men’s Task Force member Greg Mayo in a white paper outlining the study’s findings. 

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Mayo, an author, speaker, and podcast host whose personal grief and trauma related to two past abortion experiences sparked his advocacy, noted that “some men are deeply impacted by abortion, regardless of their personal views on abortion or whether or not they had a voice in the decision.” 

The 71% of respondents who said they experienced an “adverse change” following the abortion decision broke down into 31% pro-choice-identifying and 40% pro-life-identifying. 

“That pain manifests in many ways, as with any grief or trauma,” Mayo said. “Men in the study reported depression, sadness, guilt, regret, anxiety, anger, thoughts of what could have been, emptiness, substance abuse, a sense of lost fatherhood, and other emotions.”

“Because the societal conversation surrounding abortion is primarily about women, men’s grief is often disenfranchised,” he wrote.

The white paper cited Dr. Brian Nguyen, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California and reproductive health researcher, who said fathers are often cut out of the narrative surrounding abortion even though many are impacted by it.

“Men have been minimized, if not completely overlooked, in the [abortion] conversation,” Dr. Nguyen told The New York Times.

Nguyen, who co-authored a National Survey of Family Growth study that found that one in five men have an experience with abortion by the time they reach age 45, added that that number is “likely an undercount” since “[n]ot all men are aware of the pregnancies they cause and those that end in abortion.” 

While a recent study found that men are most often the primary influence in women’s decision to abort their children, anonymous testimonies shared in the white paper include heartbreaking comments from fathers trying to emotionally grapple with the loss of their children, whether or not they were directly involved in the decision.

“Almost 10 years ago I got my girlfriend pregnant. She didn’t want to keep it. Being a dad is what I always wanted,” one man shared. “To this day it haunts me to the core. I sunk into a depression and lost who I was. I still have trouble being around babies. I still would like a family of my own, but I need to get around this first. Please, help me.”

Another respondent called his involvement in an abortion decision the “absolute worst thing I have ever done.”

“Words can’t describe the pain and overwhelming guilt that is always with me,” he said. “I have no one to blame but myself.”

“I wonder what my child would’ve been like today,” another man shared. “This really got bad after the birth of my only child. Major feelings of guilt and regret.”

RELATED: Father brings wrongful death suit against women who helped abort his unborn child

According to the research, 83% of men with abortion experiences either “sought help or said they could have benefited from support,” even if they weren’t ideologically opposed to abortion. 

However, men dealing with the effects of abortion experiences come up against “a lack of healing resources for men and a lack of their preferred options for care,” underscoring “the need to support men who are impacted by abortion.”

“Men perceive that their thoughts and feelings are dismissed or not valued, and many remain silently in pain,” Mayo said in the white paper. “Men need safe spaces and compassionate support to tell their stories, grieve, and move forward on their path to healing.”

The study concluded that more options are needed, both religious and secular, to help men grapple with post-abortive grief. A reported 40% of men who responded to the study wanted religious-based help, while 49% were interested in secular options.

Support After Abortion said the results of the research will help them in their work “to promote compassionate, nonjudgmental care that can heal hearts and spirits, empowering people impacted by abortion to live with dignity, strength, and joy.”

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