Vicki Thorn Educates about the Hidden Effects of Abortion

Vicki Thorn, founder of the post-abortion outreach Project Rachel, has an extremely informative talk entitled, “Abortion: A Hidden Loss.” And she certainly proves her point  that every abortion is a loss not only to the mother and the father of the aborted child and their extended family, but also to society.

Vicki, who also founded the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing, spoke Tuesday at Chicago’s Resurrection Hospital to an audience of caregivers, chaplains, mental health professionals, and pro-lifers looking to learn more about the hidden effects of abortion. The event was co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago Respect Life Office.

Vicki explained why women have abortions, and addressed the desperate need for post-abortive women—and men—to be helped through the grieving process.

Microchimerism and the Siblings of Aborted Children

But most especially she stressed the little known biology and science of abortion. She answers the question of why both mother and father of an aborted child are haunted by the absence of that child, how even other children born after an abortion are affected by the loss of one of their siblings.

This is because, even though they may know nothing of the abortion, the presence of the aborted child’s cells left in the mother’s body are also transmitted to her other children (a process called microchimerism). These surviving children may become acutely aware that one of their siblings is missing. This can affect them for their whole life.

The pregnant mother herself who aborts her child continues to carry the aborted child’s cells in her own body, and sooner or later begins to grieve at the loss of this child.

Even the father, preparing for his role as a caregiver to the child, suffers from the loss, sometimes suffering a grief even more severe than the mother’s.

Vicki’s presentation provided the audience with four gripping and engrossing hours, without a minute of boredom.

She writes a column for Headline Bistro. If you haven’t had the chance to hear her speak in person, reading her column is the next best thing.