Abortion May Increase the Risk of Emotional Problems

Some women experience strong negative emotions after abortion. Any interruption to the natural process of pregnancy upsets the body's systems and scars the mind and emotions of the mother.

Initially women may feel relief and that they have survived the procedure and the pregnancy has ended. However, the sudden disruption of a complicated hormonal cycle often leaves the mother feeling deflated, empty and aimless.

Many women can be affected by abortion at different times of their lives and to different degrees.

Some women who suffer depression and other debilitating conditions are unable to link their problems with their previous abortion until many years have passed.

The following symptoms are an indication that a woman is suffering from unrecognised and unresolved grief. This psychological response is known as Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS).

Several factors that increase the risk of Post-Abortion Stress include: the woman's age, the abortion circumstances, the stage of pregnancy at which the abortion occurs, and the woman's ethics and moral beliefs.

• Personality disorders - ranging from depression and general unhappiness to an obvious neurosis.
• Recognisable personality changes.
• Conscious or subconscious guilt
• Withdrawal
• Despair
• Helplessness
• Lowered self esteem
• Frustration and inner turmoil
• Loss in confidence in decision making capability
• A sense of feeling unfulfilled
• Thwarted maternal instincts
• Hatred for those connected with the abortion
• desire to end relationships
• Loss of sexual interest
• Feeling of dehumanisation
• Feeling of having been cheated or exploited
• Sense of insecurity
• Suicidal thoughts and urges

Psycho-Physical Effects

• Nervousness
• Constant swallowing
• Tiredness
• Crying
• Insomnia
• Loss of appetite
• Eating disorders
• Weight loss
• Decreased work capacity
• Frigidity
• Seizures/tremors

___________________________

"If only I had the courage to give it a chance. But I didn't take time to think it through - I just panicked and it was as if I awoke from a nightmare to find my baby gone. Nothing left but shame and guilt, and a kind of overpowering remorse that can only be felt by someone who had everything, and then threw it all away"
___________________________

Anonymous caller to abortion trauma counselling line

Subconscious Psychological Effects

• Grief and Mourning
• Regret/remorse
• Anger/Rage
• Hostility
• Nightmares
• Pre-occupation with death
• Pre-occupation with "would be" date
• Intense interest in babies
• Internal frustration taken out on children born before the abortion
• Over-protectiveness towards those children born following abortions
• Fear of sterility or miscarriages
• Fear of never becoming a mother
• Suicidal thoughts

___________________________

"I liked myself prior to the abortion, but shame and guilt set in, I mean when you get to hold your own daughter and see what you have done. She was not a "foetus", she was not a "product of conception" or a tissue adhering to the uterine wall", she was my daughter!.
___________________________

 caller to abortion trauma counselling line