Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Podium Presentation
Debunking the Post-Abortion Syndrome Myth
Casandra Perchalski
Faculty Mentor: Holly Stovall
Women’s Studies
Would you be surprised to find out that not all women regret having an abortion, and
that some women actually regret having to carry their unplanned pregnancies to term?
Abortion is a procedure that thirty percent of the female population will choose, and for
some it will be a complex social and personal issue, but for others it will be no problem
at all (Rocca, Kimport and Gould). With teen pregnancy being the number one cause of
poverty in the United States, women are not suffering the ill effects from an abortion as
what was originally documented, and more are relieved to have terminated an
unplanned pregnancy than to have been forced into carrying an unplanned pregnancy
to term (Wind). In January 2008 Dr. Diana Green began a study, called the Turnaway
Study, this study follows a set of women, for five years, who were denied abortions
based on gestational limits, and who were able to have abortions. What Dr. Green has
found is that the women who were denied abortions regretted having to carry the
unplanned pregnancy to term, versus the women who had feelings of relief after being
able to terminate their unplanned pregnancies (Green). In fact the research proves that
nine out of ten women in both groups felt both relived with some regret. The difference
is that women who terminated their pregnancies felt a greater sense of relief than the
women who were forced to carry their unplanned pregnancies to term (Green).