“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.†(1 John 1:9)
How can God forgive me when I can’t forgive myself?
Statistics show that 43 percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime, making abortion as common an experience as divorce. In addition to this, more than twice as many women have abortions as get college degrees.
Yet, for many, an abortion is a carefully guarded secret shared with only a few close friends, if at all. In turn, many post-abortive women never fully understand the root of their anger, their depression, their damaged self-esteem or their self-destructive and sometimes compulsive behaviors.
Many veterans of wars carried images of horrors they could not express nor purge from their memories. They were later diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). In the same way, research suggests that post-abortive women are prone to suffer a similar disorder termed Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS). In both syndromes, the outward symptoms may lay dormant for years before surfacing.
While PAS mainly affects post-abortive women; the symptoms can extend to the fathers of aborted children, parents who encouraged abortion in their teen-aged daughters, or friends who were simply supportive of the decision.
Devotion taken from the website of the North American Mission Board (SBC).