Denver Catholic

32 JULY 2022 | DENVER CATHOLIC I f evil is the distortion of the good, then it would seem that abortion and all the trauma that comes with it is one of the preeminent evils of the modern age. Fifty years ago, when the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade and thus legalized the right of a mother to terminate a pregnancy, nobody could have imagined what such a "right" would have morphed into in 2022 — save, of course, for Blessed Pope Paul VI, who essentially prophesied it in his papal encyclical Humanae Vitae. This act of abortion, which is touted as something to be proud of and even to "shout" nowadays, has left indelible scars on the many women who have undergone one. Try as we might, none of us will leave this life unscathed from the scars of trauma, and these scars are only deepened and widened on the women who have suf- fered from the evil of abortion. Many women have undergone the procedure for what they might innocently per- ceive to be the greater good, but no one can take a life and get away cleanly — despite what the world might tell us. Thankfully, by the grace of God, there is hope and healing to be found for any and all women who have had an abortion, as well as for fathers and other family members who have been affected by that trauma. It takes a tre- mendous amount of work and courage to face the trauma left by abortion, but Dr. Bob Schuchts attests that it is not out of reach for any woman, and that it is possible to find a transcendent peace. Dr. Schuchts is the author of several books and the founder of the St. John Paul II Healing Center based in Tallahassee, Fla., whose mission is simple: to help those who have expe- rienced trauma, of any degree, to find the healing that only Christ can bring. In a conversation with the Denver Catholic, Dr. Schuchts lent his unique expertise and insight into the ways in which the wounds of abortion man- ifest themselves in the women who have had them, but more importantly, the ways in which Jesus wants to heal those wounds — and he does. Q & A Dr. Bob Schuchts on healing after an abortion What kinds of struggles and trauma have you witnessed when working with women who have had abortions? It's a tremendous amount of trauma. But most women don't come initially because of the abortion. They come for other reasons. And it takes, at least what my experi- ence has been, quite a bit of trust and healing in other areas of their life before they even venture into the trauma of the abortion. A lot of times, for the women that I've met with who have had abortions, it's not in their conscious awareness when they begin the healing process. It doesn't matter whether they're radically pro-choice or radically pro-life, if they've had an abortion, their initial denial of trauma is sim- ilar. They may take their ideological perspective as a buffer against the pain and the shame of what they've experienced. So, on one hand, for somebody who's radically pro-choice and has had an abortion, it's almost BY AARON LAMBERT Managing Editor of the Denver Catholic

• Cover