Published December, 2000
It can be argued that every person in the United States has been touched by abortion, even if they don’t know it. Nearly 1,500,000 women have abortions each year. And since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, over 31,000,000 American abortions have been performed. Christians can not count themselves exempt. One out of six women who have had an abortion are evangelical Christians.
These statistics gain meaning when compared to events we know. Consider 31,000,000 abortions compared to the number of Americans killed in war. During World War II, 407,316 Americans lost their lives; in the Vietnam War, 58,655 died.
War and abortion can be compared in another significant way. Long after the battle, soldiers may discover they are trapped in a personal battle to survive once again, suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorders. Likewise, as many as twenty years or more after an abortion, many women face Post-Abortion Syndrome.
Thankfully, today there is help for women who seek healing from an abortion. Pathway to Peace is a Phoenix ministry that offers women a safe place to talk. Surrounded by other women who have experienced abortion, they are finally able to talk about the secrets and pain they have worked so hard to ignore and hide.
Sharron Hummel, one of the founders of Pathway to Peace, is no stranger to a ministry for women of post-abortion. For ten years, Sharron directed a local crisis pregnancy center (CPC) and its post-abortion program.
She knows how hard it is for women to seek help after an abortion. Sharron explains, “It’s a painful issue for a lot of people. It’s very painful….There’s a lot of shame for one thing. I think the biggest thing is the shame of it. They don’t want to expose themselves.”
While society teaches that abortion is “just another surgery,” Sharron points out that many women don’t know the biology of the fetus. She recalls what a client Ann told her, “I didn’t know the truth about abortion. I think if somebody had showed me an ultrasound, I would have never,…I know I would have never done that.”
When a woman eventually comes to believe that an abortion removes a life from the womb, her emotional pain can become overwhelming. That’s where Pathway to Peace can help.
Pathway to Peace is a ten-week Bible study that serves as a recovery program for post-abortive women. Sharron and other trained facilitators provide a safe, confidential atmosphere where women and men can meet. Together they work through the series of Bible study lessons that focus not only on the abortion, but on how Christ ministers healing to hurting people.
Robin Matteson, a co-founder of Pathway to Peace, explains. “We walk through this path that these women are walking through because we’ve walked there, too.” Robin also had an abortion as a high school teen. “There is so much involved,” she says. “It’s more than any other issue, I believe, that I’ve ever dealt with with people. I think because it goes to the very core of a woman’s creative purpose. No matter how you feel about pro-life or any other issue, only a woman can conceive a child. That’s a part of what makes her unique and special.”
Pathway to Peace uses this God-given uniqueness to help post-abortive women find peace. Sharron encourages women to see the church as the first step in healing. “If the church will start talking about it, encouraging these women to seek God’s forgiveness, that there is healing, that you don’t have to continue to live in your shame and your guilt…if the church will start talking about it, it will free women.”
The Bible study lessons at Pathway to Peace lead women through a grief process toward peace. “The first thing that we do is discover where they need healing,” Robin describes. “The Bible study is designed to let God reveal to them what needs to happen. So they look through their own experience and discover where it is that they need to be healed.”
Women are encouraged to extensively read and study the Bible, guided by the lessons and group encouragement. Robin continues, “There’s a huge amount of actual Bible study in this. We walk through grief issues: denial, anger, forgiveness, and finally, acceptance. Forgiving yourself is the final step, that total acceptance and accepting that you’re forgiven by God and have forgiven yourself.”
Sharron’s eyes are bright as she describes the effect of the lessons on post-abortive women. “Right before your eyes. It is totally amazing because you will see changes within the second and third week. They’ll start wearing brighter colors, they’ll start fixing their hair better, they’ll start wearing makeup. You just see a transformation taking place before your eyes, and you can’t explain it. It’s totally a God thing.”
Women in Pathway to Peace groups conclude their last session in a special evening, Celebration Night–a night to honor the work that God has done in their life. Sharron’s smile is a clear sign that women feel God’s love and reach peace. “My desire, our desire, is to reach the women in the church and see the Lord set them free. And that goal has become a reality.”
_____________________________
UPDATE 2013: Pathway to Peace refers anyone interested in post-abortion issues to:
CPC, Greater Phoenix
PACE Program – Post Abortion Recovery, Susan Little, PACE Coordinator
http://cpcphoenix.org/
phone: 602-508-3340