Mira Dana, a psychotherapist at the Women’s Therapy Centre in London, who has spent 20 years working with post-abortive women, says:
“There are three general reactions women display after an abortion and on coming home from the hospital.
(1) Euphoria…an expression of the feeling of relief and freedom at having solved a problem, having got rid of a burden, and having executed a decisive action. They will feel strong and powerful and in control of their lives. They will feel the need to laugh and have a good time… [and] keep excessively busy…
Feelings of loss, anger [and] guilt are of no relevance for them at this period… These emotions are bound to come later, sometimes even months or years later, sometimes in a disguised form, apparently with no connection to having had an abortion…
(2) Detachment – Some women will experience a sense of “shock”…numbness inside. They will go on doing ordinary activities they are used to doing, but with a sense of detachment, distance…unreality.
This detachment is an attempt to avoid experiencing the painful feelings connected to the termination… She may feel an inner emptiness…
(3) Depression – Some women get into a state of depression which could be described as a general sense of hopelessness and diffused (unfocused) feeling of blackness…feeling bad about yourself and your life and your environment, but without actually knowing what it is – a state of no specific emotion but this “darkness”… Feelings of worthlessness…and that nothing is of much importance…
Fear of Sexuality… Many women need time after an abortion before they feel relaxed and able to have sexual relationships again because they fear another abortion…
Ambivalence – not only about having a baby. There are many issues in a woman’s life about which she may be equally confused but which get “hooked” on the one issue of having a baby…
Envy – Often women feel envious of other women who have babies after the termination… Some women will refrain from visiting their friends who have newborn babies as they feel it is too painful to be with them.”
Miriam Claire The Abortion Dilemma: Personal Views on a Public Issue (Xlibris Corporation, 2013) 15 – 16
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