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Abortion Complications consist of problems, physical and psychological, women have after having an abortion.

There is a variety of different kinds of abortion complications present after an abortion occurs. Major complications consist of the following:

• Death
• breast cancer
• cervical, ovarian, and liver cancer
• uterine perforation
• cervical lacerations
• placenta previa
• complications of labor
• handicapped newborns in later pregnancies
• ectopic pregnancy
• pelvic inflammatory disease

Psychological Complications

Some women do not display any signs of psychological complications, while others do. Studies show that women who do have psychological disorders after an abortion go through psychological complications in a certain chronological order. The first thing a woman will feel after having an induced abortion is a temporary feeling of relief, which is followed by an emotional paralysis also known as post-abortion numbness.

Emotional paralysis is what psychiatrists call Post Abortion Syndrome or PAS, which is a form of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). PTSD is a traumatic and nerve-racking event a person goes through where they are taken beyond their ability to cope with their problems in a normal manner. Women come to a point after having an abortion where they are out of touch with their feelings.

Studies found that after the first few weeks after an abortion that between forty and sixty percent of women questioned reported negative reactions to their abortions developing Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS). Within eight weeks after their abortions, 55% of the women questioned expressed guilt, 44% complained of nervous disorders, 36&% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% were prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor.

A study was done with teenage abortion patients where half of them suffered a worsening psychosocial functioning with seven months after their abortion. Any time an aborted woman was under seventeen years of age, she had the greatest immediate impact of psychological problems, which in this study found worsening psychosocial functioning. The many symptoms of these teenage abortion patients included the following psychosocial disorders: self-reproach, depression, social regression, withdrawal, obsession with need to become pregnant again, and in some cases, hasty marriages.

Studies suggested that thirty-three percent of women who had abortions developed an overwhelming longing to become pregnant again to make up for the lost baby. The eighteen percent of women in the study who got pregnant a second time within one year of their last aborted by to “make up” for it had the same pressures to have an abortion again feeling “forced” into another abortion and in the end Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS) starts all over again.

Available data indicates that on an average there is a five to ten year period of denial during which a woman who was traumatized by her abortion will hold back her feelings and not talk about them but rather keep them bottled up. Studies show that woman who may appear to be satisfied with their abortion experience, are reported to go through an emotional crisis decades later after their youngest child leaves home or with the onset of menopause.

Over one hundred major psychological reactions are reported by women who have had an abortion. The most frequently reported through counseling and studies include the wide variety of the following: depression, loss of self-esteem, self-destructive behavior, sleep disorders, memory loss, sexual dysfunction, chronic problems with relationships, dramatic personality changes, panic attacks, guilt and remorse, difficulty grieving, increased tendency toward violence, chronic crying, difficulty concentrating, flashbacks, loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities and people, and difficulty bonding with later children.

Complications of Labor

Studies have shown that women who have had one or more previous induced abortions are 1.89, 2.66, or 2.03 times more likely to have a subsequent pre-term delivery when they are compared to a group of women who will carry in term. Premature delivery was increased due to prior induced abortions as well as delayed delivery. Women who had one or more induced abortions are 1.89, 2.66, or 2.23 times more likely to have a post-term delivery, which is over forty-two weeks.

Handicapped newborns in later Pregnancies

Some women have handicapped newborns in later pregnancies while some do not after having an abortion. Although there is a risk of having handicapped newborns in later pregnancies after having an induced abortion. Abortion has effects of cervical and uterine damage, which causes the risk of premature delivery in future births of children after an aborted baby. There may be complications of labor and abnormal development of the placenta in later pregnancies as well. The leading cause of handicaps among newborns is due to these reproductive complications.

The main reasons for lower birth weights are due to premature births. A study was done in New York State which was composed of 40,000 women half of who had a previous abortion and half who had a live birth. The scientifc control group was the mothers who previously had a live birth and the study group was the mothers who had an abortion. The difference found that premature births were 1.8 times more likely to happen with women with previous abortion, 1.5 times more likely with low birth weight, 1.85 times more likely to have spontaneous fetal deaths, and 1.4 times more likely to have a newborn death.

Studies were done to find the increase in premature births after the legalization of abortion. After one legal abortion, premature birth did increase by fourteen percent. Premature births increased by eighteen percent after two abortions and twenty-four percent after three. Women who had a premature death of a child without having previous abortions were found to have a premature birth rate of 5 percent while aborted women have a rate of fourteen percent.

Death

Some women have deaths after having an abortion while others do not. Abortion complications also include a risk of the death of a mother. According to the record based study of deaths following pregnancy and abortion in a 1970s government funded study in Finland, women who abort are approximately four times more likely to die in the following year than women who carry their pregnancies to term. Women who carry the baby to term are only half as likely to die as women who were pregnant. Another study found that compared to women who carried to term, women who aborted are in the year prior to their deaths were sixty percent more likely to die from natural causes, seven times more likely to die of suicide, four times more likely to die of injuries related to accidents, and fourteen times more likely to die from homicide. The higher rate of deaths according to researchers are most likely due to related to accidents and homicide linked to higher rates of suicidal or risk-taking behavior.