Post Abortion Trauma

To understand Post Abortion Syndrome, one must first understand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - a syndrome most often associated with the Vietnam veterans who returned from their tour of duty with deep psychological scars. Victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 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.

This event could be any number of things, including rape, witnessing a murder, being a victim of an attempted rape or murder, or surviving the devastation of an earthquake or hurricane. For the woman who has had an abortion, it is the act of taking the life of her 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. Although there are many women in the United States suffering from PAS, most of them 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" - "move on" - "get on with her life." This may be due to their own pain, and their own struggle with their part in the abortion decision, or in a need to perpetuate the myth of "safe, legal abortions" because their financial well-being depends upon it.

Left unresolved, these feelings will not disappear. Rather, they will lead to a dysfunctional lifestyle that will be maintained by the use of defense mechanisms, and the woman will go on with her life never fully comprehending how the abortion has affected her, or knowing how to overcome the negative, self-destructive behaviors that become a way of life for victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Each woman, because of her unique history and social circumstances, will react differently to her abortion experience.  Silent Voices has developed a program that walks women through several stages of Healing & Recovery - all based on Biblical truths - and the women who attend our groups are RADICALLY set free to be all they can be!

If you - or someone you know - has had an abortion, and would like to talk to someone about the program we offer, please call our office!  We LOVE partnering with God in the healing process - we're here to serve the wounded women of San Diego County.  Call us at:  619-422-0757, or email us at