POST ABORTION STRESS OR SYNDROME

Researchers suggest that women can report abortion-related distress similar to classic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and that these symptoms may be present many years after the abortion. Most trauma victims encounter feelings of horror or terror at the time of the traumatic episode, but many women are in complete denial that they have experienced an abortion and indeed that it was traumatic. This denial can be seen as a major contributing factor to the development of post traumatic stress.(1)

In 1987, the American Psychiatric Association stated in its then newly revised manual of diagnostic criteria, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III-R (DSM-III-R), that abortion is a type of ‘psychosocial stressor’ (an event outside the range of usual human experience) of the type capable of causing ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’. It doesn't matter what the pattern of symptoms is labelled or if you choose to consider post-abortion stress as a PTSD or not, the important thing to be aware of and acknowledge when dealing with post-aborted women is that the symptoms and experiences are real. Following is the pattern of symptoms generally recognised as Post Abortion Stress/Syndrome (PAS):
 

  1. Re-experiencing the trauma

    • nightmares, flashbacks, recurrent dreams (of the abortion, the baby or death)

    • anniversary reactions (on date of abortion or expected date of delivery)

    • distress at exposure to events that resemble some aspects of the abortion (pelvic examination, sexual intercourse, childbirth, sound of vacuum cleaner)

  2. Avoidance or denial type behaviours

    • avoiding thoughts or feelings about the abortion

    • avoiding situations or activities that cause thoughts of the abortion (medical examinations/procedures, exposure to babies or pregnant women, conversations about pregnancy or abortion....)

    • memory blocks or inability to recall aspects of the abortion

    • emotional numbing, withdrawal from others

  3. Increased arousal

    • sleep disturbances e.g. insomnia

    • irritability or outbursts of anger

    • difficulty concentrating

    • hypervigilance e.g. being watchful, on the alert, suspicious

    • exaggerated startle response - on edge, jumpy, overreactive

  4. Associated symptoms

    • depression, frequent crying, anxiety

    • grief (sometimes intense), sadness, sense of loss

    • guilt, inability to forgive oneself

    • self-destructive behaviours, including drug/alcohol abuse, promiscuity, eating disorders, suicidal impulses(2)

  5. Anxiety over fertility and child-bearing issues
    A small percentage of women experience fertility problems. Some have difficulties with subsequent pregnancies or birth. Numbers of women however, experience a higher than usual anxiety over fertility and child bearing issues. Fear of damage to their reproductive systems or a fear of punishment is often cited.

  6. Subsequent children
    Some women experience undue concerns over parenting subsequent children, tending towards overprotectiveness, through a similar fear of something happening to these children. There is some evidence to suggest that siblings, current or future can be affected by an abortion in the family. There may be some emotional impact on children who have lost a sibling to abortion. In essence, on some level these siblings of aborted children feel themselves to be “abortion survivors”. Some exhibit the same symptomotology as those who lose a born sibling to cancer or accidental death…(3)

  7. Subsequent relationship problems
    Relationship problems following an abortion are not uncommon. Those who had an abortion to please their partner often find their relationship ends within a few years, as broken trust, guilt and resentment, often underscore the existing weaknesses in the relationship, causing problems which precipitate a relationship breakdown. Others who continue in their relationships describe issues of increasing tension, resentment, arguments, problems with sex and intimacy.

Depression

Depression is worth a special mention as it is recognised as one of the most frequent recognisable abortion sequelae, particularly where it originated around the time of, or following, the event. Shame, secrecy and thought suppression regarding an abortion are all associated with greater post-abortion depression, anxiety, and hostility.(4)

Depression may be associated with impacted or pathological grief (loss of the baby, loss or a role, loss of a dream). Depression may be the result of unexpressed anger, changes in primary relationships or personal circumstances or deeper unresolved issues. Interestingly, the frequency and degree of severe depression associated with abortion is far higher than with miscarriage, even though the loss in each case is comparable.(5) Whether this is due to the fact miscarriage is generally regarded as an unfortunate accident and abortion the result of “choice” attached to it is not fully understood.

Some studies also show that the incidence of suicide is higher for abortion than miscarriage, and data suggests that abortion is more likely than pregnancy and childbirth to drive an unstable woman to suicide.(6)

 It is common for the vast majority of women who have had an abortion to contemplate, attempt, and for many of them to actually commit suicide. This relationship to suicide is totally aside from all of the other consequences, both psychological and physical, due to abortion, legal or not.

       Many women are known to have committed suicide 20 or more years after having an abortion as a direct consequence of abortion. This generally is accomplished only after years of suicidal thoughts and many failed attempts. Rarely if ever are these suicides recorded as being a direct result of one or more abortions which took place years in the past. Psychiatrists, social workers, and others often deal with women who have a history of abortion but do not realize that abortion is the substantive cause of the problems being presented.

       America is experiencing an increasing amount of violence by children. How much of this violence and crime can be associated to boys being reared by mothers who have had one or more abortions in their history?

       How bad can a woman be and still be found acceptable in the eyes of someone who is sympathetic to them? For many years one woman who had paid for seven abortions would only admit to three of them. Until the year before she committed suicide she had never accepted responsibility for, or acknowledged that she had procured four additional abortions.

       How many of your brothers and sisters (siblings) have been murdered by abortion? Home is supposed to be a place of shelter and protection, or is it?


REFERENCES:
 

1. 

Post-traumatic stress disorders in women following abortion: Some considerations and implications for marital/couple therapy , D. Bagarozzi, Internat. Journal of Family and Marriage 1:51-68, 1993
The Long TermPsychosocial Effects of Abortion, C. Barnard, Institute of Pregnancy Loss, Stratham, New Hampshire, 1990. Also refer Hanley et al. 1992.

2. 

The Mourning After by Terry Selby, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1990

3. 

The Wounded Generation, Victoria M. Thorn, Post Abortion Review, Vol 5, No.1, Winter 1997

4. 

Clinical Depression After Unintended Pregnancy Linked to Abortion, www.afterabortion.org/

5. 

Aborted Women. Silent No More, David Reardon, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1987,

6. 

The Abortion Suicide Connection, Post Abortion Review, Vol 1, No.2, 1993
Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, M. Gissler, E Menninkin, and J Lönnqvist, British Medical Journal