Mother With Abortion Hits Back at Irish Politician Who Called it a “Makey-Uppy Thing”

“You do not understand what abortion does to a woman.”

Patricia Gaughran:
“I’m absolutely disgusted and so angry that you can dismiss women like me.”

By Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
National Right to Life

Last week, we saw how vicious the abortion debate in Ireland has become when a pro-life TD (member of the Irish Parliament, or Dáil), was personally attacked and accused of having “a visceral hatred of women” for trying to amend the extreme abortion bill being rushed through by the Government.

Not content with labelling pro-life TDs as “malicious and vindictive” for seeking an amendment on collecting data on abortions on the same scale as the UK does, pro-abortion politicians have also made comments denying the pain of women suffering after an abortion.

Abortion regret “is nothing”

In a video that has now gone viral, an Irish woman who had an abortion 13 years ago expressed her anger and disgust at remarks made by Lisa Chambers TD.

Ms.Chambers said “abortion regret is a makey-uppy thing, and it does not exist,” in response to an amendment put forward by pro-life TDs Carol Nolan and Peadar Tóibín on access to ultrasound scans.

When Mr Tóibín countered that he included the access to ultrasounds “because abortion regret is a significant issue,” pro-abortion TD Kate O’Connell chimed in, saying, “No, it is not. It is nothing.”

Filming in her car so that her three living children would not hear her, Patricia Gaughran hit back at this dismissal of abortion regret.

Are you telling me I’ve made this up?

“I’m absolutely disgusted and so angry that you can dismiss women like me and thousands of other women out there who have suffered with depression, with anxiety, from suicide, drink, drugs, hospital stays–like me,” she said. “I have suffered. I’ve been in hospital after my abortion twice from trying to end my own life because I couldn’t live without my child.”

“I’ve suffered for the last thirteen years from anxiety and depression,” she added. “Are you telling me that my symptoms, that my abortion story, that what I’ve suffered was a makey-uppy thing? Are you telling me that I’ve made this up?”

“You do not understand what abortion does to a woman,” she said.

Ms. Gaughran demanded that the politician go and “educate” herself and offer an apology to post-abortive mothers who have suffered from the choice they made.

The video has currently been viewed over 50,000 times.

Care for women?

Ms. Chambers offered a belated apology “for any upset or hurt caused” but insisted her words were taken out of context and she was seeking to highlight that abortion regret is not an accepted medical term – something no pro-life TD had claimed. The research around the mental health implications of abortion can be found in Abortion and Women’s Health.

Care for women seems to have increasingly little to do with the debate in Ireland, as ministers insist that abortion services be ready by January 1, despite there being no clinical guidelines in place, and doctors not yet being trained.

Website: National Right to Life

“I Didn’t Realize Abortion Bothered Me Until…”

There is a Moment When the Need for Help Becomes Clear

By Cullen Herout
National Right to Life

In April of 2011, I began working with the post-abortion ministry Rachel’s Vineyard. Over the years, I have had the privilege of hearing the stories of many women and men who have an abortion in their past.

Each and every story that I’ve heard is unique, complex, and riveting in its own way, and through these stories, I have come to a deeper understanding of the mental, social, and relational impact that abortion can have in a person’s life.

One of the things that always strikes me when I reflect on the stories I’ve heard is the variation in the amount of the time that passes before individuals decide they want to share their abortion stories and explore how the abortion has negatively impacted their lives.

Sometimes it takes women (and men) five or 10 years before they are willing to explore the topic. Sometimes it is several decades before they are ready to address it. Many times, it is even longer than that. We once had an 85-year-old woman attend a retreat. Forty-five years after the fact, she had finally decided she was ready to take steps to put the abortion in her past.

It is a fascinating, and simultaneously tragic, thing to see how long the pain of abortion can stay hidden in a person’s life.

Perhaps equally as interesting is exploring how each of these individuals came to understand that abortion had a negative impact on their lives. Many times, these individuals acknowledge that they have spent many years trying to rationalize their abortions.

Some have admitted that they became staunchly pro-choice in an effort to justify the abortion in their pasts. Some have simply suppressed the negative feelings, afraid that if they were to verbalize any negativity, they would be forced to address the problems that arise as a result. Still others have never told anyone of the abortion in the first place and believe they have nowhere to turn to share their thoughts or feelings.

There are myriad reasons why a person might wait many years before addressing the negative consequences that arose as the result of choosing abortion.

But for each of these individuals who eventually come to verbalize remorse or negative thoughts regarding their abortion, there is a moment in which the realization of the negative impact of their abortions is made. 

There is a moment when the need for help becomes clear. This moment can often catch these individuals by surprise, especially if the negative thoughts and feelings have been suppressed or ignored over the course of time.

National Right to Life continues here

Woman Shares Heartbreaking Story of Abortion Regret: ‘His Name Would Have Been Jude’

By Cassy Fiano
Live Action News

When facing an unplanned pregnancy, it can be easy to feel like abortion is the only way out. But too often, women don’t realize that what seems their saving grace could back to haunt them. Post-abortion regret is a very real issue, and one woman chose to open up about her heartbreak for YourTango.com.

Jamie Berube says she was six weeks pregnant when she had her abortion. “He put on a song by Father John Misty called ‘Hollywood Forever Cemetery,’ and for the rest of my life whenever I hear that song I will think ‘that was the song that was playing the first time I got pregnant — pregnant with a baby I couldn’t keep,'” Berube wrote.

“I’ve done a lot of ‘bad’ things in my life. I’ve made choices that will forever haunt me no matter how much money I shell out for a shrink,” she continued. 

“But the choice that I made on that day, the choice to sign my name on a piece of paper that would give my consent to terminating a pregnancy is chief among the ones I regret most. Yes, I regret my abortion. I regret not thinking through it more carefully. I regret not considering that I might have been a really great mom. And I regret that there’s no amount of regret that can reverse the decision I made.”

Berube also revealed that she had chosen baby names: Penelope Wren for a girl, and Amory Jude for a boy.

Berube underwent a medication abortion, and saw her baby in a sonogram photo before the abortion. “Seeing a picture of the ultrasound made my eyes tear up. I could hardly make out anything but simply knowing there was the beginnings of a human behind that photo made it hard to breathe,” she said. 

She explained to the father of the baby, who came to the appointment with her, that she just had to take some pills and then it would be over, saying it was less complicated than she had thought it would be. But that was just a facade. 

“Internally I felt suffocated by the grip of three thousand hands. How had my life come to this?” she asked.

She took the pills, and immediately knew that everything had changed. She asked him to stay with her after the abortion, but he refused. Their relationship was over. 

“I pulled back to kiss him but he turned his lips away so that mine landed on his cheek,” she recalled. “And that’s when I knew. I felt it in my gut. There was someone else. And after the abortion was over, we would be too.”

Live Action News continues

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