Pro-Choice Post-Abortion Counseling Programs

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This Listing of Groups and Resources Is Provided 
for Research Purposes Only and 
Does NOT Imply Any Kind of Endorsement or Recommendation

Significance of Post-Abortion Programs Sponsored by Pro-Choice Advocates

While most pro-abortion groups deny that there are significant emotional risks associated with abortion, that view is undermined by the fact that even pro-choice advocates have discovered a need to address powerful negative reactions to abortion among themselves and their friends and in their communities.

Some pro-abortion advocates, seek to deny on one hand and affirm on the other. For example, Brenda Major was the lead author of the APA position paper denying significant emotional effects associated with abortion, but she is also on the advisory board of Exhale, a pro-choice group that offer post-abortion counseling for women struggling with grief, guilt, substance abuse and other mental health problems following their abortions.

For other information about pro-choice advocates who are addressing the abortion mental health issue with denial or dismissive comments, see Nada L. Stotland

Groups and Resources with a Pro-Choice Slant

  • Exhale
  • Peace After Abortion
  • Being at peace with choices
  • Healthy coping after an abortion from the Abortion Conversation Project.
  • Project Voice] oral history project
  • Inner Healing After Abortion
  • Imagine Counseling
  • Terra Wise does pro-choice post-abortion work in Santa Barbara, California.
  • Emerge: Sharing Our Voices, Supporting Our Choices]

Books on Post-Abortion Healing With a Pro-Choice Slant

Choice Processing and Resolution Therapy Trudy M. Johnson, 2013 - written for therapists

C.P.R.: Choice Processing and Resolution Trudy M. Johnson, 2009

The Healing Choice: Your Guide to Emotional Recovery after an Abortion Candace De Puy, Ph.D., M.S.W. and Dana Dovitch, PH.D., M.F.C.C., Simon & Schuster, 1997

Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women’s Words Eve Kushner, Harrington Park Press, 1997

Peace after Abortion Ava Torre-Bueno, Pimpernel Press, 1997

Articles Related to Post-Abortion Healing from a Pro-Choice Perspective

"Pro-choice activists have come to embrace the idea that many women who've had abortions can benefit from non-ideological counseling. So why are the groups that provide such counseling having so much trouble raising money?"
"Since 2002, Exhale has served 15,000 women on its hotline, and while Emerge is a local group that has reached only a few dozen people, pro-choice groups across the country are using it as a model for new post-abortion counseling services, Madsen says."
An excellent article from a pro-choice perspective asking counselors to recognize disenfranchised grief issues following abortion and to provide necessary services regardless of political beliefs.

Efficacy of Post-Abortion Treatment

SD Layer, C Roberts, K Wild, J Walters. Postabortion Grief: Evaluating the Possible Efficacy of a Spiritual Group Intervention. Research on Social Work Practice, Vol. 14, No. 5, 344-350 (2004) Objective: Although not every woman is negatively affected by an abortion, researchers have identified a subgroup of women susceptible to grief and trauma. The primary providers for postabortion grief (PAG) groups are community faith-based agencies. Principle features of PAG are shame and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Method: This study measured the efficacy of a spiritually based grief group intervention for women grieving an abortion. Thirty-five women completed the Impact of Event Scale-Revised(IES-R) and the Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) pre- and postintervention along with posttest open-ended questions. Results: Postintervention measures indicated significant decrease in shame (p < .000) and PTSD symptoms (p < .002). More than 80% reported their religious beliefs and the spiritual intervention played a strong to very strong role in the group. Conclusion: Social workers need to screen for PAG with a postabortive woman and when appropriate refer her to agencies offering such groups.

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