Mid Cities Pregnancy Center

Mid Cities Pregnancy Center
Suite 220, 8251 Bedford Euless Rd, North Richland Hills, TX 76180
Phone: Metro (817) 577-4387
Local: (817) 427-4377

[Services offered]

[Hurting from a past abortion]

[Take a Post-Abortion Stress Test]

[Directions]

[Hours/How to Contact us]

Hurting From a Past Abortion?
If you are hurting from a past abortion, then you may be suffering from Post Abortion Syndrome. PAS is a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder commonly experienced by women who have had one or more abortions. It is an event out of the ordinary that results in stress, trauma, and long-lasting effects until the event is resolved. Through the process of denial, a woman has blocked the natural grieving process of the death of her child and often has denied her responsibility in the abortion. She is unable to grieve or to name the loss.

Symptoms

(These are only a few of the common ones. There are many others not listed and will vary in degree according to the woman ... mild, moderate, strong.)

Physical:
- Eating disorders
- Sexual problems
- Cervical pain
Emotional:
- Guilt/Shame
- Emotionally shut down
- Sadness
- Untrusting
- Sense of loss
- Controlling
- Depression
- Uncontrolled weeping
- Fear of exposure
- Dreams, flashbacks
- Self-hatred
- Low self-esteem
- Anger, rage
Behavior:
- Self-destructive
- Insensitive/wall around her
- Self-victimization
- Promiscuity
- Repeat abortions
- Substance abuse
- Overwhelming desire for another child
Relationships:
- Difficulty with intimate relationships
- Overprotective of children
- Harder to bond with children

Post-Abortion Stress Test

Please add up those emotional and behavioral reactions experienced in relation to your abortion:

Disappointment	Hurt
Depression	Hopelessness
Helplessness	Low self-worth
Grief/loss	Regret/sorrow
Fear of discovery	Fear of God's punishment
Distrust of men	Distrust of doctors
Anger/rage	Self-hatred
Guilt	Fear of never being a mother
Fear of having a deformed child	Feeling "crazy"
Feelings of being victimized	Fears about sex

Feeling uncomfortable with:
Infants/Children	Pregnant women
Subsequent pregnancies	Anniversary dates (abortion)

Behaviors:
Crying	Nightmares
Trouble sleeping	Trouble concentrating
Hallucinations	Flashbacks of the events
Thinking about the aborted child	Weight gain/loss
Feeling presence of aborted child	Breaking up with the father of the child
Inability to tell others how I feel about the abortion
Unable to enjoy sex	Avoiding sex
Having multiple sexual partners	Homosexual tendencies
Desire to make sure of fertility	Longing for a baby
Fear of harming my other children	Increased substance abuse

Add up the Total of those checked:

If you have checked as many as 0-5, you may have a mild form of Post-Abortion Stress.

If you have checked as many as 6-15, you may have a moderate form of Post-Abortion Stress.

If you have checked as many as 16 or more, you probably are suffering from severe Post-Abortion Stress.

One of our counselors would gladly help you to work through this condition in a 6-8 week program called PACE.

Back to the top

Denial is a defense mechanism preventing the surfacing of anxiety, thus protecting the PAS woman from experiencing the trauma of abortion death. Denial varies in degrees of severity, and takes different forms:

No conscious awareness of the pain or loss. ("I've never had an abortion.")
An attempt to erase all memory of the abortion.
Acknowledges the abortion, yet produces the inability to feel the emotional pain or to mourn. ("I had an abortion, and I'm doing fine.")

How Can We Help?

PAS does not go away without help. We offer an eight-week program designed to allow you to work through the problem areas your abortion has created and to enable you to put your abortion behind you and go on with your life.

It involves a commitment by you for two hours a week with a person trained to help you deal with post-abortion trauma in a strictly confidential and caring atmosphere. Support group sessions are also available. There is no charge; we are volunteering our time to help you.

Mid Cities Pregnancy Center
Phone: Metro (817) 577-4387
Local: (817) 427-4377

[Services offered] [Hurting from a past abortion] [Take a Post-Abortion Stress Test] [Directions] [Hours/How to Contact us]