PAS is defined as a category of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, either acute or delayed. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder only became a listing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders in 1981 in response to combat-related disorders of Vietnam veterans. If a physician sees a patient in the aftermath of an abortion and diagnoses Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with abortion as the source of the stress, it would not be questioned.
In PAS, symptoms appear within six months of trauma with the acute form and are usually resolved within six months. With the delayed onset type of PAS, the onset is much later and the symptoms last longer. PAS symptoms include at least four categories:
1. Re-experiencing trauma: nightmares, flashback episodes, anniversary reactions, extreme distress at exposure to events that resemble some aspect of the abortion (e. g. pelvic examination, sexual intercourse, exposure to infants, childbirth, or the sound of the vacuum cleaner);
2. Avoidance/denial: avoiding thoughts or feelings about the abortion, avoiding situations and activities that cause thoughts about the abortion (e.g., medical examinations, sexual intercourse, exposure to infants, or conversations about abortion and childbirth); also emotional numbing and estrangement from others, including the inability to have loving feelings towards children, mate, parents, and friends;
3. Increased arousal: includes sleep disorders, irritability or outbursts of anger;
4. Associated symptoms: depression, anxiety, guilt, and self-destructive behavior, including drug/alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and suicidal urges.
According to Dr. Steven Edmundson, a psychiatrist in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, not all women who have had abortions are subject to PAS. “Some may work through the aftermath of abortion with the aid of a support group, their church, family, and friends. But I believe the only person who would not be affected by an abortion would be someone with severe character disorder. Such an individual can form no real attachment to other human beings and therefore has no feeling for how their actions affect others.”
In my scope of nursing practice, I see every parent’s nightmare in regard to teenage pregnancy and abortion. Numerous studies have also been done citing the even greater psychological effects on adolescents who have had abortions. It is well recognized that the cognitive style of the adolescent is to focus on the present and that adolescents interact in a more narcissistic, self-serving way in order to satisfy their desires for the love object or to increase their feelings of pleasure and power. Younger women do not use contraceptives regularly because emotionally immature women are prone to magical thinking, i.e. “it will never happen to me.”
Thirteen- and fourteen-year-old adolescents have little experience with autonomy and are poorly equipped to cope with ambivalence and to solve complex problems such as whether to have an abortion. Furthermore, when teenage women are struggling with their sexual identity, pregnancy may serve to validate their sexuality, even though they may not wish to actually become mothers.
Adolescents use sexuality as a means for acting out their anger towards parents or as a means of escape from their life situations. Therefore, post-abortion adolescents fixate at their level of emotional maturity prior to the abortion; this continued adolescent level of maturity persists in those adult women who have had abortions in adolescence and these immature coping mechanisms typical of adolescents become permanent defenses. My conclusion from the studies I’ve reviewed is that there are psycho-pathological differences resulting from the abortion experience, and significant personality trait differences between women who abort in adolescence and those who abort as adults.
In my work, I frequently see many struggle with their feelings about the birth of their live, healthy “wanted” baby versus the baby that “might have been,” but for abortion. Fortunately, aborted women who are experiencing symptoms of Post Abortion Stress Syndrome can find help and healing through many caring organizations, such as Birthright, Project Rachel, Problem Pregnancy Help Centers, Right To Life Services, and Catholic Charities. Many of these organizations are listed in the yellow pages under “Abortion Alternatives.”
It is important to note that friends, family members, and caregivers can also benefit from contacting these services, to assist the woman in their life who may be suffering in this way. Hope and healing are always a reality of our faith in Jesus Christ, Who seeks to save us through His heroic sacrifice of Himself for our sakes.
(This article is reprinted with permission from Canticle Magazine.)
