Abortion, a woman’s choice, isn’t a hard procedure to obtain. In general, should you have some money, all that’s required to get an abortion in North America is setting a scheduled appointment. What many women don’t realize when they’re causeing this to be choice – and of particular concern to people that have bipolar disorder – is the potential of intense, negative psychological consequences following abortion.

In the 1970s, in Vancouver, Canada, women considering abortion had to first get the permission of their family doctor, a gynecologist, and a psychiatrist. Some women found that it had been the psychiatrist who nixed the task, telling them they just weren’t capable of handling the trauma and that it could impact them for the others of their lives.

Since then, things have considered the opposite extreme. Now that abortion has become both legal and mainstream, it’s commonly considered nothing more than a straightforward procedure.

A female at the abortion clinic will most likely not be told of the possibility of severe negative psychological aftereffects. Nearly all women considering an abortion won’t be informed of the documented risk factors of abortion, both physical and psychological. Unfortunately, these hidden risk factors could be a lot more severely damaging to a female already suffering bipolar disorder.

The possible negative psychological impact of abortion goes on several names: Post Abortion Syndrome , Post Abortion Stress Disorder, Post Abortion Stress Syndrome, Post Abortion Stress, and Post Abortion Trauma. It’s categorized as a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Clinically the recognized diagnosis is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with abortion as the stressor.

While ladies in post-abortion counseling have reported over 100 negative symptoms, the ones most concerning to women with bipolar disorder will be the tendency to engage in self-destructive acts. In a study of 100 women who suffered PAS, findings reported feelings of self-hatred as most common, followed by substance abuse, and then alcohol. Some women reported becoming dependent on drugs or alcohol following abortion. 60 percent of the women reported suicidal ideation, and 28 percent attempted suicide – 1 / 2 of which attempted suicide twice or more.

Generally the first symptom of PAS is denial. If so when this wears off, there could be grief, accompanied by depression, anxiety, irritability, and low frustration tolerance resulting in the possibility of explosions of anger and also violence. There can be a lack of emotional connection, withdrawal in relationships, and sexual promiscuity.

Those acquainted with bipolar disorder will recognize these possible aftereffects as potentially serious complications in this illness. The woman with bipolar disorder has already been at risk for most, if not all of these psychological problems before she has an abortion. Having an abortion may in fact be what pushes her on the edge, and drives her to end her life in suicide.

Those who pressure the girl with bipolar facing an unplanned pregnancy into abortion could be well-meaning, but are uninformed about the danger of what they’re trying to convince her to do. They may think she actually is ruining her life and the life of the child by going through with the pregnancy, and consider abortion to be a simple and easy solution. Unfortunately, as the studies show, it’s not quite so simple. Abortion may in fact become the factor that ruins the life of the woman predisposed to mental illness.

Even those who refute the existence of Post Abortion Stress/Trauma will admit that usually the women most negatively impacted by abortion are those who have lower self-esteem in the first place, those who underwent the abortion in circumstances of extreme pressure or abandonment, and those who had a mental illness before abortion.

Basically, even those that argue against the chance for a negative traumatic impact following abortion are saying that women who aren’t stable in the first place may experience this same negative psychological effect. Pregnancy Termination brings us back again to the abandoned logic of the 70s, when psychiatrists had to OK abortions.