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Post-abortion distress: Women’s Resource Center offers support locally
summitdaily.com ^ | 01.18.09 | LISA SOUBA

Posted on 01/20/2009 6:17:24 PM PST by Coleus

Intense feelings of guilt, shame, and anger are reported by many women who have had abortions. Psychologists generally agree that about 10 percent of the 1 million women who have abortions each year experience severe emotional trauma following the procedure. There is no consensus, however, about how many women experience less severe symptoms, collectively known as post-abortion syndrome or post-abortion emotional distress.

A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry indicated that 50 percent of women who have abortions experience post-abortion emotional distress. Another study conducted by Dr. Phillip G. Ney and reported in The Psychological Aspects of Abortion found feelings of anxiety in 43 percent of surveyed women, depression in 32 percent and feelings of guilt in 26 percent. Some psychologists deny that post-abortion distress exists, arguing that women go through periods of depression regardless of whether they have had an abortion.

Psychologists on both sides of the abortion debate have found that a woman’s feelings about an abortion resurface years later when the woman enters therapy.  Pro-choice therapists Candace DePuy, Ph.D., and Dana Dovitch, Ph.D. wrote “The Healing Choice: Your Guide to Emotional Recovery After an Abortion” after encountering women who were still dealing with abortions that had occurred years earlier.  “The idea for this book arose out of our clinical relationships with female clients whose lives had been touched by abortion,” wrote DePuy and Dovitch. “As mental health professionals, we were concerned to find how few had discussed the life-changing decision they had made. When they began to share their stories, nearly all were surprised by the depth of emotion they still felt.”

Symptoms of post-abortion distress are most prevalent in women who felt that having an abortion compromised their beliefs or desires to keep the child. A report conducted by a group of psychologists headed by Dr. C.M. Friedman and published in a book, “Every Woman,” identified certain situations in which a woman was likely to experience post-abortion syndrome: if the woman was coerced into having an abortion; when the abortion was performed to save the life of the mother or because the child was handicapped; or when the woman wanted the baby, believed the fetus was her baby and viewed herself as a mother; and if the woman who had an abortion believed that she did not have a choice.

Teenage women are especially likely to experience post-abortion distress. One study found that one out of every three teenagers who aborted showed signs of emotional aftermath. Another study reports that less than one-fourth of teens who aborted were able to cope with the aftermath of their abortion in an undestructive manner. “Because of their limited experience, their greater dependence on others, and their youthful idealism, teenage woman are extremely vulnerable to coercion, deceit, and compromised decision-making” writes David Reardon in “Aborted Women: Silent No More.”

The data and analysis regarding post-abortion emotional distress remains sparse, yet more and more people are beginning to recognize that the agony of abortion does not end when a woman leaves the abortion clinic, which is why Women’s Resource Center of the Rockies is offering a post-abortion support group. The purpose of the group is to meet the emotional needs of women who have had abortions so they can start to heal from their past. Please call WRC to register (970) 262-9274, space is limited. For more information go online at www.wrcoftherockies.org/.

(Information provided by Kerri-Ann Kiniorski, Communications Vice President for Feminists for Life)


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: postabortivewomen; psychiatry; women

1 posted on 01/20/2009 6:17:25 PM PST by Coleus
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To: Coleus

Some bury it, I’ve never seen it work.


2 posted on 01/20/2009 6:20:03 PM PST by allmost
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To: Coleus

The Pregnancy Resource Centers do work — over 90 percent of the pregnant women who visit them birth and keep or offer their babies for adoption.


3 posted on 01/20/2009 6:30:33 PM PST by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: allmost; Coleus
Rachel's Vineyard Ministries




4 posted on 01/20/2009 6:32:37 PM PST by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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