A unique form of trauma and grief

Coming to terms fully with the loss of my sibling (whom I strongly believe was a brother) and staring the reality of it in the face has only come about recently. As my followers may have read in another post, I have known for a long time about my mother's abortion. But my grief was delayed and I feel somewhat angry with myself for this. Even though I have experienced delayed grief over other losses in the past, never did it take almost 20 years to be able to shed more than just a tear or two occasionally over a death. So in addition to feeling sadness and depression, there are also feelings of guilt and shame, not just for continuing to exist while his existence was shattered, but for being void of any true feeling about his death for so long.

I have spoken to caring, well-meaning people about what I've felt over the past few weeks. I told them how it started with bitterness and anger towards those who I believed to be sell-outs to the pro-life cause (I feel bad for feeling those things as well, since I know my anger isn't truly directed at them) and ended with an honest evaluation of myself that led me to the conclusion that I was hurting, without even knowing it, over this injustice that happened 15 years prior to my birth. I was hurting and I'd kept that truth from myself for a long time, choosing to focus on other hurts that actually happened to me directly and have lived to see myself. 

I've gotten quite a variety of responses to the news of my new-found grief. One response was, in not so many words, "I understand your grief. It's okay to mourn. But the abortion was meant to happen due to circumstances at the time. The baby is in heaven. So don't worry and just be thankful that you were born." Others understood that the abortion that took place was wrong and should never have happened, understood my sadness, but I noticed hesitation in talking about the situation and eagerness to change the subject so that I would focus on other problems I have that are fixable. True, I have many problems that need to be addressed. I don't deny that. I know these people are trying to love me and look out for me and I appreciate their care and concern for me as a whole. But right now, my ability to focus on everything other than the abortion is damaged. It is there 24/7, whatever I do, wherever I go. It's not quite as easy to escape as some might think. Then of course, there was the relieving "you're not alone" response from someone who is also a post-abortive sibling. I felt the strong urge last night to reach out to her because I knew she would understand the most. 

This is truly one of those unique predicaments to be in where someone has to be caught in the same trap to be able to really relate. It is different from a parent's post-abortive grief, because it was not your own child that was aborted. For siblings, we may not have even been alive when the abortion happened. But we experience the tragedy of it in our own unique way. It is a specific brand of trauma. One might ask how this is trauma. "You weren't even born when it happened, so how did it traumatize you?". Think back to September 11, 2001. If you are American, you know what happened on that day. If you were alive and at an age of understanding at the time (in other words, if you are about 18 years or older) you probably remember. I'm not sure about people in other parts of the United States, but specifically those of us in and around the Tri-State area, we were traumatized by those terrorist attacks. Not all of us had family or friends who were in those towers, but just the thought of something like that happening so close to home was terrifying. For a while afterward, we would actually feel discomfort whenever we saw airplanes flying over our heads. We didn't want to be in crowded areas. We were scared.

No, there were no images of my mom's abortion. There was no live television broadcasts showing it happening. Thousands of people did not die when it took place (although I'm sure other babies were being aborted in other rooms of the facility my mom was taken to at the time). But I have seen pictures of aborted babies. I have seen videos of what happens during an abortion. After all, I've been in the pro-life movement for close to 4 years now. I know what an unborn baby looks like at 13 weeks (that was how far along my mom was when the abortion took place). There IS a person there. They have arms and legs, they have a heartbeat and brain waves. And according to this ultrasound picture, they also have the ability to cover their eyes in response to light at this period of gestation.

Yes, to imagine a tiny family member, who is obviously human, being torn to pieces and suctioned away like trash is traumatizing. I remember years ago having a dream about babies falling out of windows to their deaths and seeing them bleeding on the ground in pieces. This dream occurred way before I ever got involved in the pro-life movement. Could that dream have been symbolic of an event that affected my own life, even though I was yet to be born when it happened? This matter isn't a joke. This isn't an attempt to attract attention. This is real. And this is unlike any other trauma I've experienced in my life. So this is something quite new and scary to me. I'm sad, I'm angry, I'm terrified, I'm confused, I'm ashamed, and I'm alone... or at least it feels that way.