Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Help After Abortion
Subway ad campaign offers compassion and healing

By CLAUDIA McDONNELL

An ad campaign in the New York City subways this month offers hope
to women who are suffering from a problem that's often hidden or
suppressed, with painful consequences: sadness and distress following
an abortion.
The ads point the way to peace of mind, and it all begins confidentially, with a visit to a Web site.
"Abortion Changes You" is the name of the campaign. It is aimed
not only at women but also at men who have been affected by abortion.
It is nondenominational and is not connected to any church or religious
group; it's an outreach to people of all faiths or of none. Private
donors have underwritten the cost. The ads went up March 1 and will
remain through March 28. This is the second time the ads have appeared in the subways;
a previous campaign took place in the fall of 2008. This time, however,
the outreach is more extensive; the number of subway cars with the ads
has doubled to 2,000.
The campaign conveys an additional message, besides the one
that appears in print: If the pain of abortion has gone deep, like a
subway train descending into a dark tunnel, there is a way out of
despair. Those who suffer can find hope, help and healing. The ads carry the words "Abortion changes you," with a photo
of a woman or man and a simple statement: "I thought life would be the
way it was before," or "My child would have been 6 this year" or "We
made the decision together but I've never felt so alone."
Below that statement is the campaign's Web address:
abortionchangesyou.com. The site offers a compassionate message,
suggestions on how to begin healing and resources for further help.
The campaign is being sponsored by the archdiocesan Family
Life/Respect Life Office. The office is directed by the Sisters of
Life, whose apostolate includes postabortion ministry. The sisters have
a program, Entering Canaan, which offers days of prayer and healing for
women and for men.
Theresa Bonopartis helped the Sisters of Life to develop
Entering Canaan. She is the director of Lumina, a postabortion ministry
sponsored by Good Counsel Homes, and she has worked for 20 years with
women suffering from negative thoughts and emotions including grief,
remorse, anger, shame and guilt. Last weekend Lumina presented its
first program for siblings of aborted children.
Discussing the Abortion Changes You campaign in an interview,
Ms. Bonopartis said, "Personally, I love the ads," and added that the
campaign "is probably more effective than we'll ever know," simply
because it might encourage women to seek help on their own—whether or
not they approach a particular program.
Ms. Bonopartis herself had an abortion, and she said that women
with postabortion stress "are walking around feeling isolated and
alone." Even family members usually don't talk to them about what they
are experiencing, she said.
"The ads let them know they're not alone," she said. "They legitimize what they're going through."

read the rest here:http://www.cny.org/archive/ld/ld15031110.htm