Right to Life Post 26 October 2014
The death of a woman by suicide is terrible tragedy for herself, her family and friends and for the whole community. Professional counsellors have always known that having an abortion increases the risk of a woman committing suicide. Suicide like an abortion, is a cry for help, from a woman who is depressed and lonely, who is crying out for support and encouragement to chose life. Many women after an abortion cry out in despair, “I have killed my baby”. The burden of the loss of her child brings grief, remorse and despair and finally death by suicide. We should weep for our women whose pain is unbearable, hopefully they are now reunited with their baby.
The Chief Coroner, Neil MacLean, reports that there were 541 suicides in New Zealand in 2013,. Of these 153 were women, which is the highest number ever recorded in.New Zealand, 75 of these women were between 20 and 24 years of age, the second highest rate in the OECD. New Zealand has the third highest rate for all female suicides in the OECD.Suicide is a major public mental health problem, aggravated by the murder of the unborn. Abortion and suicide are both part of a culture of death.
The Abortion Supervisory Committee recognises that there is a link between abortion and suicide. The Standards of Practice for the Provision of Counselling produced by the Counselling Advisory Committee in 1998 require that counsellors are capable of assessing suicide risk in the women they are counselling.
Women have a right to be fully informed, Right to life asks, why then are women considering an abortion not told by Family Planning that having an abortion increases the risk of suicide and that choosing life for their baby decreases the risk of suicide?
This article is from the Elliot Institute’s