A study carried out by the Royal Academy of Obstetrics claims that 59%, or 7 of every 10 women, who abort have high risk for developing serious and permanent psychiatric problems.
The psychiatric disorders that result from abortion are known as post-abortion syndrome, a type of post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the symptoms associated with the affliction include anxiety, aggressive behavior, nightmares, suicidal thoughts or actions, bulimia, anorexia, alcohol and drug abuse, and divorce.
Symptoms may not appear for years after an abortion due the repression that many women suffer as a defense mechanism. Juan Cardona Pescador, a psychiatrist who specializes in post-abortion syndrome, says that “after the trauma of abortion, affection, love and willpower all begin to deteriorate, and everything else begins to follow: successive failures in relationships, depression and other negative consequences.”
Concerning spousal relationships, Doctor Emily Milling found that 70% of the 400 couples in her study separated within one year after the abortion.
Suicide also becomes much more common among women who have aborted. The Finnish researchers Spekhard and Vaughan have confirmed that the rate of suicide the year after an abortion was three times higher than the average women in general and seven times higher than the average for women who have carried their babies to term.
International abortion organizations have recognized the existence of psychiatric disorders associated with abortion. Planned Parenthood International did such in their Triennial Plan for the period of 1990-1993, in which it said: “A series of studies and polls by those opposed to abortion has shown that the incidence of post-abortion trauma can affect up to 91% of cases. Recent reports by the Alan Guttmacher Institute which have not been published indicate the extent of the problem may have been correctly calculated in those studies.
