Women can experience abortion as a deep wound—tangled up with powerful feelings of abandonment, anger, powerlessness, shame, and loss. And since an abortion is often a carefully guarded secret, these painful feelings are usually deeply buried, eventually causing other problems like eating disorders, relationship difficulties, reenactments (i.e., repeat abortions), substance abuse, chronic or acute depression, suicidal thoughts and behavior, and parenting difficulties. Women who have suffered the loss of a child through abortion often feel condemned to a life of regret and self-reproach. And, if they consider themselves spiritual, they might also feel alienated from God. While some women understand that God can forgive them, they can struggle to forgive themselves.