This Project Rachel program is intended to reach out to women experiencing grief from the loss of a child by abortion, and to offer them reconciliation and healing. It is based on the Catholic Church’s 26 years of experience counseling women who have come to our Project Rachel programs, suffering because of their abortions.
The Project Rachel messages do not speak about, or for, those women who have experienced only relief or satisfaction after abortion. But they can and do reflect — in their own words — women who have suffered because of their abortions.
This outreach is not about the debate in the medical literature regarding whether or not abortion has predictable, adverse psychological consequences for women. At the same time, it would be naive to believe that the visibility of Project Rachel’s messages will not cause some discussion about abortion’s psychological effects. So, it seems necessary to say a few words about the scientific research in this area.