To understand how women can be affected by abortion....and the effects of after-abortion trauma, one must first understand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Victims of PTSD are said to have "experienced, witnessed, or were confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others, and the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror."

Events that typically trigger PTSD include: war, rape, witnessing a murder, being a victim of a violent crime, or surviving the devastations of an earthquake or hurricane. For the woman, or man, who has had an abortion, it is the act of taking the life of her own unborn child.

While abortion is perceived by our society as being an acceptable option to giving birth, most women, at some deep level of their being, realize that abortion is an act against nature, and must "shut down" any maternal instincts they may have in order to carry through with an abortion. After the abortion is over, many women are unable to reconcile the fact that they were responsible for the death of their child, and struggle for years with unresolved feelings of guilt and grief.

These women usually struggle with their grief in isolation, and rarely feel free to discuss their abortion experiences with others for fear that they will be condemned or abandoned by those close to them. While many women around the world are suffering from PAS, most believe that they are alone in their pain - that their negative experience with abortion is unusual or unique - thus compounding their feelings of loneliness and isolation.

When a woman does seek help, or attempts to talk to her friends and family about her experience, she is often met with resistance and a lack of understanding. Counselors, abortion providers, doctors and peers may all tell the woman that she needs to put her experience behind her, or get on with her life.

However well meaning their advice may be, a woman struggling with negative feelings after an abortion will find that her feelings will not disappear no matter how hard she tries to forget them. Rather, they often lead to a dysfunctional life style. The woman will simply go on with her life never knowing how to overcome the negative, self-destructive behaviors that become a way of life for victims of PTSD.

1. 62% Higher Risk of Death from All Causes, 2.5 Times Higher Risk of Suicide
   Compared to women who give birth, women who abort have an elevated risk of death from all causes, which persists for at least eight years. Higher risk of death from suicide and accidents were most prominent. Projected on the national population, this effect may contribute to 2,000 - 5,000 more deaths among women each year.
   Southern Medical Journal, 2002
   
   
2. 3.5 Times Higher Death Rates from Suicide, Accidents, Homicides (Suicide 6 Times Higher)
   Researchers examining deaths among the entire population of women in Finland found that those who had abortions had a 3.5 times higher death rate from suicide, accidents, or homicides in the following year. Suicide rates among aborting women were six times higher compared to women who gave birth and two times higher compared to women who miscarried.
   European Journal of Public Health, 2005
   
   
3. Abortion Deaths Underreported on Death Certificates
   A study of medical records in Finland found that 94 % of maternal deaths associated with abortion are not identifiable from death certificates alone. The researchers found that linking death certificates to medical records showed that the death rate associated with abortion is three times higher than that associated with childbirth.
   Paediatric Perinatal Epidemiology, 2004
   
   
4. 65% Suffered Trauma, 31% Had Health Complications
   In this study comparing American and Russian women who had experienced abortion, 65% of American women studied experienced multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which they attributed to their abortions. Slightly over 14% reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of abortion induced PTSD, and 84% said they did not receive adequate counseling.4 31% had health complications afterward.
   Medical Science Monitor, 2004
   
   
5. 64% Involve Coercion, 84% Not Fully Informed
   In the above study comparing American and Russian women who had experienced abortion, 64% of American women reported that they felt pressured by others to abort.5 84% said they did not receive adequate counseling.
   Medical Science Monitor, 2004
   
   
6. Higher Rates of Depression, Substance Abuse, Suicidal Behavior After Abortion
   In a New Zealand study, women who had abortions subsequently experienced higher rates of substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and suicidal behavior than women who had not had abortions, even after controlling for pre-existing conditions. Approximately 42% of women with a history of abortion had experienced major depression in the last four years (nearly double the rate of women who had not been pregnant and 35% higher than those who carried to term.
   Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2006