5 psychological consequences of abortion

Do you know the psychological consequences of abortion? Do you want to know what scientific research says about it? Keep reading!

Every woman is marked after having an abortion. It is not a pleasant experience, regardless of whether it is an induced abortion or a natural abortion.

Not only are there physical and emotional consequences that will significantly affect the woman, but they will also significantly influence her mind. The psychological consequences of abortion can lead from depression to self-destructive behaviors. An abortion is a significant and painful loss. The later it occurs, the psychological consequences will be even more serious, if possible.

“Up to 15 percent of confirmed pregnancies end in abortion before the end of the first trimester. To these, we would have to add a very high percentage that is not quantified because they are confused with very abundant rules.”

-Angel Ruiz-

Women who have undergone an induced abortion say that it is much more painful and they suffer more than if they had a natural abortion.. This has its reasons. In a natural abortion the surprise factor is important. You don’t expect it and maybe you stay in shock without being able to believe how this could have happened.

But what happens when you have to perform (for whatever reason) an induced abortion? You know what they are doing to you and you have to force a birth, but the child that will come out is not going to cry. The situation is very different. Perhaps we can even dare to affirm that Suffering from an induced abortion can enhance the psychological consequences caused by an abortion.. Do you want to know what they are?

1. Guilt

Even though abortion is totally justified, Even if it is a natural abortion, the woman who suffers it may think that it was her fault. Thoughts of “maybe I should have been more careful” or “I haven’t worried about my baby” may run through your mind, even if they are not justified.

What to say if an abortion is induced? Even if it is because the health of the baby and the mother are in danger, The feeling of guilt will emerge when you least expect it.. You had to take care of your baby and, for whatever reason, it has not been able to move forward.

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2. Feeling of loss after abortion

Surely it has happened to you when faced with the death of a family member or the abandonment of a loved one that you are left with a feeling of loss that truly saddens you. It is something difficult to overcome, especially when it happens due to an abortion. Knowing that she has lost the baby and that she will not get it back is something that will make a woman feel empty.

The feeling of emptiness can last as long as the person needs to overcome this great loss. Maybe I’ll never get over it. Perhaps that feeling of loss will haunt her all her life.

“No one ever told me that I would live with this decision for the rest of my life… Several years have passed, but my grief continues”

-Anonymous-

3. Loss of trust

When a woman suffers an abortion she loses self-confidence to be able to have another child. It is true that she will need some time, but she will think that she will not be able to see it through to the end. This suggests a lack of self-esteem that will cause phrases such as “you are useless”, “you are worthless”, “you are not capable of supporting a child in the womb”, etc. to appear in her mind.

It is natural for you to feel insecure when you have just gone through an abortion. That’s why, You will need time to eliminate the guilt you feel and regain confidence in yourself.

4. Intense interest in babies

After an abortion, a woman can acquire a great interest in her babies.. But it is an excessive interest that can even lead to developing the idea of acquiring a baby doll to treat it as if it were real.

This happens a lot in psychological pregnancies or other disorders in which we express the need to take care of someone or feel like mothers with something that is not real. This excessive interest can lead to extreme and uncomfortable situations that may require professional help. to be able to lead a normal life again, because babies become an obsession.

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5. Decreased sexual appetite

It is the result of feelings of guilt and loss of confidence.. This causes the fear of becoming pregnant again and that this pregnancy will be frustrated, causing a withdrawal from all sexual contact.

This is why Many couples break up after an abortion, because intimacy ends. It is something normal and that we must understand. Fear, trauma, is a reaction to the entire painful process of abortion.

“I felt my little girl move from here to there for an hour and a half. I had a difficult labor for over 12 hours and gave birth to my daughter myself. “She was beautiful, she was five and a half months old…, but she was dead.”

-Anonymous-

Fear of death, frustration, anger, rage, The feeling of mourning and nightmares are other symptoms that can haunt the woman who has suffered an abortion..

No one knows what it really is until they experience it firsthand. The situation can become unsustainable and cause many problems that are difficult to solve. The important thing is to know how to detect them and seek help. Even though it’s hard, even though it still hurts, have hope that one day you’ll get over it..

What does the research tell us?

One study compared 41,000 women who had had an induced abortion with a similar number who had not had an abortion and found 5 times more hospitalizations for psychiatric problems among women who had had an abortion. This short-term study was conducted 3 months after the abortions and did not address long-term effects or problems among women who were not admitted to the hospital after the abortion.

One investigation found a significantly increased risk of psychiatric admissions among low-income women who had undergone induced abortions.

There have also been numerous reports of significant problems among women who have had an abortion. For example, a study from Finland showed a 6 times higher incidence of suicide among women who had an induced abortion than among women with normal pregnancies.

The pros and cons of abortion attribute positive and negative psychological consequences to abortion. The pros are based on studies indicating that emotional responses to induced abortion are largely positive. They also point out that emotional problems derived from abortion are rare and less frequent than those after childbirth. Likewise, various studies have found that abortion is a relatively benign procedure in terms of emotional effect, except when there are emotional problems prior to the abortion or when a desired pregnancy is terminated (Adler et al., 1990; Russo and Denious, 2001).

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In fact, abortion is often seen as a positive coping mechanism that provides relief as an emotional reaction for most women, particularly when performed during the first trimester of pregnancy.

On the other hand, abortion opponents emphasize the negative psychological consequences of abortion. From their point of view, abortion can cause psychological problems such as smoking, drug abuse, eating disorder, depression, suicide attempt, guilt, regret, nightmares and decreased self-esteem.

The controversy surrounding the consequences of induced abortion

As we have just seen, in scientific and academic literature there are contradictory conceptions about how women cope after voluntary termination of pregnancy.

On the one hand, there are the investigations that They affirm that abortion necessarily implies the appearance of negative feelingssuch as: guilt, deep depression, post-abortion syndrome, among other emotional damages.

While, on the other, there are the specialists who argue that women who have decided to abort show relief, lower levels of anxiety and less regretcompared to those women who decided to continue with the unwanted pregnancy.

However, not all the literature found is located at the extreme of these poles. Dr. Marta B. Rondón, in her work entitled Research results on the emotional and psychological consequences of induced abortionbrings together a large part of the research that has been carried out on abortion and analyzes it.

Rondón concludes that The negative or positive coping of women who have had an abortion depends on many factors, which have not been considered by most studies. These include: women’s psychiatric history, support from society, legalization, religious beliefs, etc.