Beyond Regret Video & Resource Guide
Resource Reviews
Beyond Regret Video & Resource Guide
Paraclete Press
1-800-451-5006 or www.paracletepress.com. $69.95 / video and resource guide. ISBN: 1-55725-301-3.
Many women and men are suffering emotionally from their involvement in terminating a pregnancy, and they are not sure where they can turn for help in a society that is deeply divided over the issue of abortion. A new video from Paraclete Press, “Beyond Regret: Entering into Healing and Wholeness After an Abortion,” offers a safe way to begin to find help and emotional healing after an abortion.
Featuring post-abortive women and men as well as counselors who specialize in postabortion assistance, “Beyond Regret” covers topics such as acknowledging the emotional pain, accepting responsibility for the choice to have an abortion, forgiving yourself and others, and grieving the loss of the aborted child.
The video features Sydna Masse, president of Ramah International postabortion ministry and author of Her Choice to Heal: Finding Spiritual and Emotional Peace After Abortion; and Stephen Arterburn, host of the daily national radio program New Life Live and founder of New Life Clinics, which provide Christian counseling throughout the United States and Canada.
With honesty and gentleness, this video encourages postabortive women and men of all ages and backgrounds to seek hope, help, and healing. Accompanying the video is a support guide that lists practical steps to take for healing, suggests thoughts about which to journal, and lists numerous resources and organizations related to postabortion healing.
Grieving Reproductive Loss: The Healing Process Kathleen Gray and Anne Lassance
Baywood Publishing Company, PO Box 337, Amityville, NY 11701. 1-800-638-7919 or www.baywood.com. $45.95 plus $5.50 s/h. Hardcover, 232 pp. ISBN: 0-89503-227-9.
One in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage; one in 80 ends in stillbirth. As many as one in six couples experience problems with infertility. More than one million elective abortions are performed in the U.S. each year, and more than 100,000 in Canada.
Bereaved parents suffer not only reproductive loss and the tragic death of a child, but also the loss of parts of themselves, the loss of a future life with that child, and the loss of hopes and dreams. The grief associated with these losses is often ignored, minimized, or denied. Yet individuals who have suffered these losses can experience profound grief and emotional pain. Their grief needs to be acknowledged by themselves and others.
Written by Kathleen Gray and Anne Lassance of the Centre for Reproductive Loss in Toronto, Canada, Grieving Reproductive Loss acknowledges the devastating impact these losses can have. Written in “plain language,” the book attempts to bring about a greater understanding of the grief associated with reproductive loss.
The authors developed the “Healing Process Model” to help bring about constructive, healthy grieving and healing of a person’s body, mind, and spirit. The guidelines of the Healing Process Model can be used for recognizing, acknowledging, and intervening in reproductive loss by the bereaved parents themselves, their friends and family, and their health care providers — whether or not they have been trained in grief care.
Originally published in The Post-Abortion Review 12(2) April-June 2004. Copyright 2004 Elliot Institute.
