Women's reflections upon their past abortions: An exploration of how and why emotional reactions change over time

Abstract

Goodwin, P., and Ogden, J. (2007 analyse the transcripts of ten interviews with women who had had an abortion between one and nine years previously. The results showed that although a few women reported a linear pattern of change in their emotions, many also described different patterns including persistent upset that remained ongoing many years after the event, negative reappraisal some time after the event and a positive appraisal at the time of the event with no subsequent negative emotions. The results also provide some insights into this variability. Those who described how they had never been upset or experienced a linear recovery also tended to conceptualise the foetus as less human, reported having had more social support and described either a belief that abortions are supported by society or an ability to defend against a belief that society is judgemental. In contrast patterns of emotional change involving persistent upset or negative appraisal were entwined with a more human view of the foetus, a lack of social support and a belief that society is either overly judgemental or negates the impact that an abortion can have on a woman. To conclude, women's responses to their abortion do not always follow the suggested reactions of grief but are varied and located within both the personal and social context.

The transition to nonparenthood: A critical feminist autoethnographic approach to understanding the abortion experience

“…The quality of a woman's post-abortion interpersonal support seems to determine how well she functions emotionally (Goodwin & Ogden, 2007). However, like women in other abortion studies, the amount of interpersonal support I had available to me was limited because I could not share this experience with just anyone (Edelman, 1996;McIntyre et al, 2001;Trybulski, 2006).…”

Abortion among young women and subsequent life outcomes

“…An increase in feelings of dissatisfaction has been reported [3] from 10.8% at 1 month to 16.3% at 2 years postabortion. One of the few qualitative studies to examine this issue identified several patterns of reaction over 9 years after the event [11 ]with some describing the predicted pattern of reaction beginning with distress followed by relief while others reported no distress at any point. These two groups shared the common characteristics of conceptualising the foetus as less human, reported more social support and a view that society supported their abortion decision.…”

“…While it is expected that most reactions are likely to present in the first year or so after the abortion, there is some evidence that these can be delayed into the future, possibly as appraisal of events changes over time [11].…”

“…The one issue that is important is to acknowledge the emotion that the person is experiencing and not to minimise her sadness and sense of loss by comments that the correct decision was made or that the pregnancy was in the early stages. While well-meaning, this approach [11] may exacerbate the distress.…”

Long term follow‐up of emotional experiences after termination of pregnancy: women’s views at menopause

“…Whilst there are studies that focus on aspects of decision-making and experience of mode of termination and short-term consequences, there are few which focus on longer-term experiences and none in relation to menopausal experiences. One study has explored women's reflections upon TOP over time (Goodwin & Ogden, 2007). Some women reported no subsequent negative emotions whilst others revealed 'persistent upset'.…”