If you have been involved in an abortion, it has likely overwhelmed your life in many ways. Today you may be experiencing confusion, regret, guilt, grief, anxiety, and despair. These are common feelings, not only for the woman who undergoes the abortion, but for the father of the unborn child, siblings, grandparents, friends, and medical personnel.
For members of the Catholic faith, the pain of abortion is intensified by the sense of alienation from both God and Church. What you need to know and believe is that your Church understands and cares. Healing and reconciliation are rooted in the overpowering love of Jesus Christ and reflected in the heart of the church’s ministry. As Church, we reach out to you with compassion, concern, and sacramental forgiveness.
We understand and would like to help.
Project Rachel is a sensitive, confidential, private post-abortion reconciliation program offering a renewed sense of hope and forgiveness. We recognize and do not try to trivialize the trauma of abortion. We understand the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of abortion, and believe that God’s forgiveness and unconditional love is a significant part of the healing process. People in Project Rachel want to be the instrument to enable you to experience the mercy of Christ and want to be at peace with yourself and with God.
*Non-Catholics can be referred to clergy of their own faith tradition.
All inquiries are held in complete confidence. Professional counseling is available on a sliding fee scale.
What people say:
After 26 years it’s heartening to find an avenue for my mourning.
-A 50 year-old woman.
I’ve never forgotten the terrible feeling I had after I assisted a friend financially so that she could secure an abortion. I borrowed the money from a friend, so I involved yet another person in this act that I now profoundly regret.
-a 42 year old professional woman
My initial feelings of relief with accompanying loss were followed by denial regarding my three abortions. After sixteen years the guilt I felt from the abortions began to overwhelm me. Through reconciliation and post-abortion counseling I can feel God’s forgiveness, forgive myself, and have peace of mid.
-a 41 year-old mother
The death of your children is very difficult to cope with in any case, but abortion is a death that goes unrecognized by society. There’s no funeral, no gathering of friends and family, no chance to say goodbye. I can just remember just wanting someone to know, wanting someone-anybody-to acknowledge my loss, wanting someone to tell me it’s ok to grieve.
-a 34 year-old man