The Ugly Truth of Post-Abortion Syndrome: Testimony from Real Women Who Aborted Their Babies

In 2007, the New York Times stated that scientific evidence “strongly shows that abortion does not increase the risk of depression, drug abuse or any other psychological problem.” This confident assertion—already dubious when it was made—is being overwhelmed by reams of evidence suggesting the contrary: that abortion leaves a discernible wake of sorrow, suffering, and devastation.

Along with the disturbing statistics, however, is the compelling testimony of real women who have aborted their children and of what happened to their lives as a result. Though abortion does often provide a short-term solution to real problems pregnant women face, thus granting some immediate relief, the myth that women come out of abortion psychologically unscathed now seems unsustainable.

Jewels Green was a former abortion clinic worker who had an abortion in 1989, after nine and a half weeks gestation. After aborting, Green continued her job but started seeing her “lost child in every jar of aborted baby parts.” She started having nightmares “so gruesome and terrifying” that she requested an appointment with the clinic director and ended up quitting her job. Her sorrow is expressed in a language only a mother could understand: “Happy Nobirthday, Unbaby. I miss you every day. Love & tears, Mom.”

The founder of the pro-life group And Then There Were None is a woman named Abby Johnson, who had two abortions. One day in the car, her daughter asked out of the blue whether someday she would be able to see her siblings in Heaven. According to Johnson, “I asked her what she meant… honestly, hoping that she was not talking about my own two abortions. She said that she knew I had two abortions and she wanted to know if she would ever get to meet those babies because she said, ‘In my heart, I miss them.’”