Induced abortion and psychotherapy

The modern women's emancipation movement, concerned with the right of women for self-determination in the question of abortion, embraces the assumption, borne out by most recent epidemiological studies, that abortion does not produce psychological damage in most women. However, an induced abortion is a stressing experience and may for some few susceptible women, even be a traumatic one. The psychotherapist who is overly influenced by statistics and the socio-political climate and/or his own insufficiently resolved inner conflicts, may unconsciously ignore or minimize the importance of an abortion experience for a specific patient in his care. As the case illustrations show, the focusing and through elaboration of this experience may determine the final successful outcome of treatment, especially in brief psychotherapies.