| No, it's not true. Post-traumatic stress disorder is recognized as a legitimate psychological diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association. So-called "post-abortion syndrome" is not.
In fact, severe emotional disturbance after childbirth, sometimes referred to as postpartum psychosis, occurs somewhat more frequently than severe emotional disturbance after abortion. Interestingly, research has shown that rates of post-partum psychosis decrease in societies that legalize abortion.
Studies suggest that while severe emotional disturbance following abortion is very rare, it is more likely for women who have
- delays in getting abortion
- medical or genetic reasons to abort a wanted pregnancy
- severe pre-existing or concurrent psychiatric illness
- conflict over abortion
That's why women get to carefully review their options before having an abortion.
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, anti-choice organizations continue to spread the false idea that it is common for abortion to have severe, emotionally negative effects. The fact is that anti-abortion groups have invented this so-called post-abortion syndrome to further their efforts to make abortion illegal and unsafe. The anti-choice studies that claim to prove its existence are very flawed. For example, the authors of the studies only interview women who claim to have emotional problems after abortion. They do not interview women who feel relief, which is the most common emotional response of women who have an abortion in the first-trimester — nearly 90 percent of all abortions happen during the first trimester of pregnancy.
| 
