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“Post-Abortion Syndrome” is a political tool

Jill

And not a medical condition, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins. That doesn’t stop ABC from illustrating their story with a photo of a woman with her head in her hands next to a picture of an ultrasound.

That isn’t to say that no women ever experience depression after abortion, or that women who experienced mixed or complex emotions post-abortion are abnormal. What’s objectionable is the paternalistic use of the feelings of some women to limit reproductive choice generally — especially when there’s no medical evidence to back up the contention that threats to our mental health mean that we need to be protected from making our own decisions.

For women who want to talk about their abortion experiences with non-judgmental counselors who are open to all cultural, social and religious beliefs, check out Exhale.

16 thoughts on “Post-Abortion Syndrome” is a political tool

  1. I think it’s somewhat dangerous to go down the path of requiring research to validate one’s experience. As you write, there are women who do experience depression, remorse, even regret after having an abortion, and addressing that as though it is simply a political tool can invalidate these women’s very real and honest experiences. As Jennifer Baumgardner writes in Abortion & Life, these women’s experiences have been consistently ignored, denied, and downplayed by the abortion rights movement (most likely because it makes grey areas that we’d rather were black and white), which allows for the anti-abortion movement to co-opt these experiences and set the discourse surrounding them. Research or no research, it certainly does the feminist movement no good to address this issue as simply a political tool. If I were being more cynical, I’d say that everything is a potential political tool; it just depends on who’s willing to pick up that tool and wield it to their advantage. As it stands, the anti-abortion movement is wielding this one, and doing a pretty good job of it. Admitting that having an abortion makes some women deeply sad isn’t the same as saying it shouldn’t be an available option. It just makes the conversation about abortion more complicated. The link to Exhale was a fantastic idea, btw. They’re a wonderful resource. Other great resources include Emerge/Pro-Choice Resources, Abortion Conversation Project, and Backline

  2. I agree that there to be “political space” for women to be deeply saddened by abortion, but I see it as a political tool fundamentally, and can’t nor want to depoliticize it. I understand however that it’s not a political issue for many, if not the majority of women. I’m just at odds with that, as I am generally with gender issues of equality and equity.

  3. I’m pro-abortion (not pro-choice, I advocate for MORE abortions), and my favorites comeback to the supposed “post abortion syndrome” is, “Well, what about post-partum depression?” We KNOW that’s real, we’ve seen women kill themselves and their children. Arguably, the mental health risks of undergoing pregnancy are equal or worse than those who have an abortion.

  4. FeministReview, the problem is that anti-choicers are using the idea of a depression-abortion link as a political strategy, and we do need to respond to that. Sure, some women who have abortions feel depressed. Others feel relieved, while still others feel neutral. Some feel a combination of those and other emotions. The point is that the ‘abortion causes depression/mental illness’ argument is specious in statistical terms. Pointing out that some emotions felt by some women are being politicised by anti-choicers doesn’t require dismissing anyone who does respond to XYZ event with XYZ emotion.

  6. I experienced depression after an ultrasound. My son (thought daughter) looked like a bowl of porridge. He never did allow us to get a good pre-birth picture of him.

  7. I’d be willing to bet that at least some women who experience depression after having an abortion do so because they’ve been told by anti-choicers that what they did was shameful.

  8. I think it’s somewhat dangerous to go down the path of requiring research to validate one’s experience. As you write, there are women who do experience depression, remorse, even regret after having an abortion, and addressing that as though it is simply a political tool can invalidate these women’s very real and honest experiences.

    And yet again, just because some women experience depression after abortion doesn’t mean there’s a post-abortion syndrome. Just like I’ve never heard of a post-car crash syndrome or, hell!, even a post-breakup syndrome. Because no one has felt the political need to invent them yet. Though just wait now for the post-breakup syndrome, where “pro-family” conservatives tell us all about how it’s better to stay in unhappy relationships. They’ve been doing so without a name for some time.

    Further, the point of “post-abortion syndrome” isn’t to open up the doors for women to talk about their experiences or to obtain treatment, like with naming postpartum depression (which has been proven by science), but to discourage women from having them with false information like “abortion causes suicidal thoughts.” When was the last time someone used postpartum depression to encourage women to abort a pregnancy they wanted? I hope never.

  9. FeministReview, as others have said, this is about the truth of a cause-and-effect syndrome, not about invalidating others’ experiences. As Cara pointed out, many of us have gone through experiences where we’ve been depressed or sad or had very complicated feelings, and it’s silly to say that those feelings were “invalidated” just because post-graduating-college-and-not-having-a-job syndrome isn’t recognized in the DM5. We can recognize that women have complex emotions after abortion and we can recognize that for some women, those emotions include sadness and depression. We can do that while simultaneously pointing out that there isn’t a cause-and-effect post-abortion syndrome.

  10. Presuming that there is such a thing as Post-Abortion Syndrome…so what? How does that effect the legality of abortion? Even if this syndrome existed, it would simply be another factor for a woman to consider in making a choice, it would have no bearing on her legal right to make that choice.

  11. Even if this syndrome existed, it would simply be another factor for a woman to consider in making a choice, it would have no bearing on her legal right to make that choice.

    Except that Supreme Court Justices and lawmakers are in fact using it as a way to restrict abortion. You’re absolutely right that if it did exist, it shouldn’t have any bearing on the legality of abortion. I couldn’t agree with you more there. But the fact is that even though it doesn’t exist, it is having an effect on abortion’s legality all over the U.S.

  12. I am certainly not stating that we should pathologize women who feel sad after having an abortion by concocting a “post-abortion syndrome.” What I do think is that it needn’t be a pathology in order to be taken seriously, and that pro-life activists are taking it seriously, whereas pro-choice advocates have been quite silent on this issue. This, in turn, gives the pro-life movement the power to determine the discourse around the issue, which is just what they’ve been doing. Once the discourse is set, even that which is resistant to that discourse will work to reinforce it. What Stlthy and Cara wrote only proves that it is the pro-life movement that is setting the discourse here.

    You’re right, Jill, we can recognize complex emotions. We just haven’t been doing so. Perhaps the issue I take with the initial post is that this viewpoint wasn’t made as clear as I would have liked it to be. It came across to me as dismissive of women who are sad about having had an abortion. Such is the nature of this medium of communication. So thank you for this clarification.

  13. I think we should take women seriously when they suffer depression after an abortion — just like I think all depression should be taken seriously. We don’t do enough in this country to address mental-health needs, and people with depression, whether it’s post-abortion, post-partum, or post-nothing in particular, are usually told either to pop pills or just plain cheer up.

    But that doesn’t mean those women should be treated as some kind of a monolith, grouped into a syndrome, and used as a political tool. It’s actually common for heart-transplant patients to suffer depression after their surgery, and no one goes around saying, “O noes! Post-heart-transplant syndrome! We need to outlaw heart transplants, because some people get depressed after they have them!”

    I think it actually does more harm than good to pathologize women who suffer depression after abortion. Depression is an illness that has to be treated based on individual circumstances, not by announcing “PAS! If she hadn’t had the abortion, she’d be tap-dancing right now!”

  15. I could be wrong here, but if I remember correctly, don’t they consider those who go through depression after a misscarriage to be going through post-partum depression? Or something similar? If that’s the case (and again, I could be wrong), why not just call this post-partum depression?

  16. I think that the groups Jill and I mentioned are taking a good first step in terms of providing aftercare services for women who have had an abortion. I think Jennifer Baumgardner is doing a great job (via her new book as well as other pieces she has written) of being critical of the past/present strategies of pro-choice organizing, although in a way that shows her strong support of the movement. SisterSong is doing a great job of tackling the complexities of honoring all women’s experiences with abortion and advocating for a shift in the pro-choice discourse of reproductive rights toward reproductive justice. I think this more nuanced perspective must be extended into what we (feminists and pro-choice advocates) say and do, and that the critique of right wing tools like a “post-abortion syndrome” must address the partial truth in what they are saying. I also think that there are ways to build alliances among pro-choice and pro-life groups through avenues like comprehensive sex education and improving the adoption system (e.g., welcoming gay parents instead of banning them from adopting children). In short, there is no one magical solution, but these are good starting places to developing the multiple methods of addressing this issue.

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