These two anecdotes came to me courtesy of distinctly non-religious people and the women featured are their friends, not mine:

One: A woman, now married, was once a doctor who did some abortions. No more. But now she’d like to conceive and can’t and says she thinks God is punishing her.

Two: A woman, single, gets pregnant and has an abortion. She later gets married and has a son, all is well. He is killed in an accident in his teens. She thinks that God is punishing her.

A couple of thoughts come to me. First off, there are repercussions from abortion that are not easily measured. It would have to be some kind of specially-designed, longitudinal study that could get at the guilt and pain two decades later, arising the result of the death of a son, for example.

Secondly, I do not buy into the God as Great Punisher model, and I do not do so with some justification. God in the Christian conception does not run “on one strike and you’re out!” and is rather a God of love and forgiveness, even when egregious mistakes are made. Plus, these random comments show that religious or non, God is in the picture, for many folks. And those in the abortion-related business, ought to be prepared to address meta-physical questions, and correct misconceptions, too.

But the main point is that I am amazed at the manner in which abortion haunts these women.  These are some of the things I hear on the street in my life, day to day. They just come up, when we give the opportunity.