LifeChoice Pregnancy Care Center

After Abortion

If you have ever had an abortion, you might feel very much alone with the memories of your decision. We want you to know you are not alone. We are here to talk with you about what you may be feeling regarding your abortion. Please call us at 307-632-6323 or 1-800-395-HELP. You can also contact us by email.
Medical professionals have explored in depth the feelings many women - and men - feel after an abortion decision. They identified a condition called "post-abortion syndrome" or "post-abortion stress" (or PAS). PAS is defined as an ongoing inability to:

• Process the painful thoughts and emotions - especially guilt, anger, and grief - which arise from one or more unplanned pregnancies and subsequent abortions.
• Identify (much less grieve) the loss that has been experienced.
• Come to peace with God, herself, and others involved in the pregnancy and abortion decision.

Symptoms of Post-Abortion Stress

• Guilt - results from violating one's own sense of right and wrong
• Anxiety - headaches, dizziness, pounding heart, abdominal cramps, muscle tightness, difficulty sleeping, etc.
• Avoidance behaviors - of anything remindful of pregnancy and/or children
• Psychological "numbing" - the unconscious vow to never let anything hurt this badly again can hamper the ability to enter fully into an emotional, initimate relationship
• Depression - sad moods, sudden and uncontrollable crying episodes, deterioration of self-concept, sleep and appetite disturbances, reduced motivation, loss of normal sources of pleasure, thoughts of suicide
• Re-experiencing events related to the abortion - persisten thoughts and flashback memories or nightmares involving themes of lost or dismembered babies
• Preoccupation with becoming pregnant again - representing an unconscious hope that a new pregnancy will replace the baby that was aborted
• Anxiety over fertility and childbearing issues - being convinced that God will punish by withholding future pregnancies
• Interruption or disruption of the bonding with present and/or future children - underbonding or overbonding with other children, whether born before or after a woman has an abortion
• Self-abuse/self-destructive behavior - eating disorders, alcohol and/or substance abuse, cigarette smoking, abusive relationships, promiscuity, failure to take care of one's self mentally
• Anniversary reactions - persistent thoughts and flashback memories or nightmares involving the abortion procedure or lost babies
• Brief psychotic disorder - a psychotic break with reality lasting for a short period of time within two weeks of the abortion

Are you experiencing any of these?

If you are, please know we are here to help and have client advocates who have also experienced an abortion. We offer free post-abortion stress counseling, one-on-one or in a group setting. Please call. There is no need for you to suffer silently. Reach out to someone who understands.

Please call us at 307-632-6323 or contact us by email.

All references taken from "Healing After Abortion," Focus on the Family LK015, 1. 2002.