Post-abortion distress

Special Issue | Even pro-choicers are seeing the pain is more than physical | Susan Olasky

Karen was 15 when she became pregnant. Her parents urged her to have an abortion--they didn't want to raise another child, they said. And since she was already in her 11th week, there was no time to wait. Her mother took her to the clinic and the thing was done. Crisis over.

Five years after her abortion, Karen's relationship with the baby's father, which she had nurtured as a way to justify the abortion, was over. She slipped into depression. "That's when I started doing drugs and got heavily involved in one-night stands. I became worthless. I sought avenues to try to cover up how I was feeling and the worthlessness that I felt. I sought out really toxic relationships--like each relationship got even worse and worse. I kept putting myself into circumstances where I think I wanted to be killed, but not having enough courage to do it myself.... I think deep down I really wanted to get rid of the feeling I was having and I didn't know what to do with it."