Post Abortion Syndrome
When an abortion occurs, the woman is not allowed to mourn the death of her child. She is encouraged to treat the experience as insignificant. She finds, instead of comfort and support, tremendous pain. This pain has been called Post-Abortion Syndrome.
"Post-Abortion Syndrome displays the hallmark of repressed mourning, guilt, pain, and impacted grief. However, once recognized and defined, PAS can be healed and a woman's grief and suffering can be worked through and relief from her pain secured." - Dr. Vincent Rue, Ph.D.
Symptoms of Post-Abortion Syndrome may include: denial, anger, guilt, depression, child abuse, inability to forgive self and others, recurring nightmares, eating disorders, drug and alcohol dependencies, and suicidal tendencies.
David Reardon writes: At one clinic...when a woman voiced her concern that abortion might be killing, the counselor said, "don't think of it as killing. Think of it as taking blood out of your uterus to get your periods going again." ...The desire to "protect" women from the biological facts and moral issues of abortion is all part of the paternalism of abortion providers, which automatically presumes available information and alternatives so they can decide for themselves, counselors screen the information given so as to "guide" their clients to the "best" solution. ...Once counselors decide what is "best" on behalf of their clients, it is an easy matter to influence their final decisions toward the predetermined outcome. Counseling in such cases downplays or even denies the availability of support resources and instead concentrates on the "tremendous burdens" involved is raising a child. Such counseling sessions encourage the women to believe that abortion is not only the "safe and easy" solution, but it is in fact "the only practical thing to do." Explaining how she handles such cases abortion counselor Betty Orr says, "I ask them who is going to take care of the baby while they're in school. Where are they going to get money for clothes?" Faced with such questions of antagonism rather than offers of confirmation and support, frightened and vulnerable young women are easily convinced that abortion is their only choice-even when it is contrary to their real desires. -Aborted Women: Silent No More (1987)
•Before her abortion while three months pregnant, Julie Engel recalls asking an abortion counselor, "What does a three-month-old fetus look like?" 'Just a clump of cells,' she answered matter-of-factly." Years later she saw some pictures of fetal development. "When I saw that a three-month-old 'clump of cells' had fingers and toes and was a tiny, perfectly formed baby, I became really hysterical. I'd been lied to and misled...." -Rockmore, Are You Sorry You Had an Abortion?
•I didn't receive any formal counseling at the clinic. They simply described the suction abortion procedure and said it would only take a few minutes. Those few minutes scarred me for the rest of my life. If only someone had been there to give me the facts about the child inside of me. If only someone had been there to point out alternatives that would help me and accept the responsibility instead of escaping it at the expense of my baby's life. I could have been spared the haunting grief and guilt. -Sandra D. Walton, Silver Spring, MD
•When I was 16, I was shuffled through an assembly line abortion. I was number 13 of 17 who went through the morning session at one abortion clinic. ...I'm not sure the tears will ever stop. ...If I had known then that it would be difficult to sleep at night and that every time I saw a child about the same age as the one I got rid of, my insides would flinch, or that I would feel I had to have another child to "justify" my actions as a teenager, I hope...I would have made another decision. -Teresa Wibbelsman Fangman, Congressional Record, Feb. 19, 1987
The physical, emotional and spiritual damage to aborted women is becoming more visible.