Do-it-yourself death

Special Issue | RU-486 will bring psychological horror to pregnant women's homes | Susan Olasky

Most everyone knows that the coming to America of RU-486 later this year will change the abortion industry. What’s being missed is that RU-486 will change dramatically abortion’s psychological effect on women.

Vicki Thorn, executive director of the National Office of Post Abortion Reconciliation and Healing, a clearinghouse for post-abortion research and information, says that a woman’s home, where the abortion will take place about half the time, is likely to become an aversive place to her, just as many women avoid passing by abortion clinics after their abortions.

Women who go out of their way to avoid traveling past a particular abortion clinic will find it difficult to avoid their own homes. And the fact that RU-486 is self-administered will make matters worse, Ms. Thorn says. “We’re going to have women having acute reactions,” she believes, because of the compounded feelings of guilt that will come from having been the direct hand behind the abortion.