After my first abortion, I felt like my life had spun completely out of control. With each abortion, I was crushed. I couldn’t believe that things could possibly get any worse. Eventually, I felt like I didn’t deserve to ever become a mother, wife, or anything.
Relief, regret, reenactment – the cycle of repeat abortions generally begins after the first abortion. Reenactment is a characteristic indicator of trauma, where the woman acts out a past event [abortion] with the intent of better understanding what happened and mastering it – ‘a different outcome next time’. The self-defeating behaviour fractures a woman’s self-confidence, self-image, and self-control. Women trapped in the cycle of repeat abortions often report feeling compelled to become pregnant. Health professionals would improve their patients mental, physical, and emotional well-being by using available medical literature to help bring the meaning of her repeated abortions into her awareness.1
Each time I thought – I’m keeping this one… Then I started saying it out loud… No one listened – not the doctor not anyone. I have 11 babies who think I didn’t want them.
(Shayla, 41, Editor)
Higher number of pregnancy losses, particularly abortions, correlated with poor health.2
A study of the Danish Central Psychiatric Register of all women admitted over 2.5 years found that psychiatric admissions increased with self-reported number of past abortions:
- No abortion 1.90%
- One abortion 3.4%
- Two abortions 4.0%
- Three abortions 6.0%
No increase was observed as the number of live births increased.3
A study of metropolitan-area teenagers who had abortions found:
- 27% were pregnant again within 1 year.
- 75% were pregnant again within 2 years.4
A study of chemical abortions found 25% of women who had RU-4486 abortions became pregnant within a year.5
- Burke, T., & Reardon, D. C. (2002). Forbidden grief: The unspoken pain of abortion. 144. ↩︎
- Ney, P. G., Fung, T., Wickett, A. R., & Beaman-Dodd, C. (1994). The effects of pregnancy loss on women’s health. Social science & medicine, 38(9), 1193-1200.
↩︎ - Somers, R. L. (1979). RISK OF ADMISSION TO PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTIONS AMONG DANISH WOMEN WHO EXPERIENCE INDUCED ABORTION: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON NATIONAL RECORD LINKAGE. University of California, Los Angeles.
↩︎ - Koenig, M. A., & Zelnik, M. (1982). Repeat pregnancies among metropolitan-area teenagers: 1971-1979. Family Planning Perspectives, 14(6), 341-344.
↩︎ - Chen, M. J., & Creinin, M. D. (2015). Mifepristone with buccal misoprostol for medical abortion: a systematic review. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 126(1), 12-21. ↩︎
