abortion trauma syndrome

A term first used in the early 1980s by Vincent Rue, a psychologist and trauma specialist for what he considered a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. The term was later used by pro-life advocates for the adverse emotional reactions that allegedly follow an abortion. It is not officially recognised as a condition a sui generis

abortion trauma syndrome

Psychology '…a medical syndrome that does not exist.' ABS is a 'nonentity' presumed to have been created by 'pro-life'–anti-abortion activists, and alleged to occur in women who have undergone abortion, who allegedly suffer deleterious physical and emotional consequences after abortion. See Abortion.
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(133) See Lisa Rubin & Nancy Felipe Russo, Abortion and Mental Health: What Therapists Need To Know, 27 Women & Therapy 69, 73 (2004) ("Antiabortion advocates allege that 'postabortion syndrome' is a type of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), though no scientific basis exists for applying a PTSD framework to understand women's emotional responses to a voluntarily obtained legal abortion."); Nada Stotland, The Myth of Abortion Trauma Syndrome: Update, 2007,42 Psychiatric news 28,28 (2007):
Acuna and the abortion right: constraints on informed consent litigation
(3) Major B, Appelbaum M, Beckman k et al., "Abortion and mental health: Evaluating the evidence," American Psychologist 2009; 64(9):863-90; Robinson GE, Stotland NL, Russo NF et al., "Is there an 'abortion trauma syndrome'?
Wanting abortion to be more accessible rather than more rare or less needed
142, 142 (2001) ("When history of abuse, partner characteristics, and background variables were controlled, abortion was not related to poorer mental health."); Nada Stotland, The Myth of Abortion Trauma Syndrome: Update, 2007.
The right's reasons: constitutional conflict and the spread of woman-protective antiabortion argument
Stotland, the incoming president of the American Psychiatric Association, did not go quite as far as she did in a letter to the editor to the New York Times where she wrote that "anti-abortion activists have even made up a mental disease: 'abortion trauma syndrome.'" (Did Stotland make up a mental disease?
Science Takes Back Seat to Personal Attacks on PBS Program
The myth of the abortion trauma syndrome. Journal of the American Medical Association, 268, 2078-2079.
Factors associated with post-abortion adjustment problems: implications for triage

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