June 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One woman who says she couldn’t repress a “huge grin” after having her abortion has told her story as a “way to reassure women” who may also be contemplating the procedure.
In an article for RH Reality Check on Friday, entitled “My happy abortion: one woman’s guilt-free story,” freelance writer Jessica DelBalzo described her unusual reaction to the abortion of her third child.
DelBalzo says she was raised in a Catholic household but “can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t pro-choice.” And after bringing “two very wanted, well-loved babies into the world,” DelBalzo writes that, “once things began to deteriorate between their father and I, I knew without a doubt that any future pregnancy we faced would be terminated. In October of last year, I made good on that promise to myself.”
While she says she “didn’t have any qualms about the ethics of my decision,” DelBalzo was “nervous just the same,” but attributed the emotion to “anxiety about medical issues.” After the “incredibly mild” procedure was finished, she said, “I unsuccessfully attempted to repress the huge grin that had developed on my face. I felt euphoric.”
DelBalzo noted that she “felt momentarily guilty” when a fellow patient expressed wonder at her continual smiling. “I quickly reminded myself that it was senseless guilt,” she said.
“That’s right, I speak openly about my abortion,” wrote DelBalzo. “It’s the easiest way to reassure women who are contemplating a termination that the (sic) neither the procedure itself nor the emotional aftermath will necessarily be dramatic.”
“I regret but one thing: that by the time my daughter is in the position to need an abortion, factions of fanatical, misogynistic conservatives may have eliminated her right to choose,” she concluded.
Many women, particularly those who speak out with Silent No More Awareness, describe their abortion experience as psychologically and even physically traumatizing. However, many members of the abortion lobby deny the existence of such symptoms or of Post Abortion Stress Syndrome.
Another controversial, but very different abortion story emerged last month, in which a woman described remaining pro-choice despite the devastating psychological consequences of having had her baby killed.
“Here’s a right I’d march for: the right to wail myself to sleep, to yearn for my long gone baby, yet to know that I needed to delay parenthood,” wrote Kassi Underwood in the New York Daily News.
Read DelBalzo’s full piece here.