Check out this:
A formal proposal has been made[citation needed] to include PAS [in the DSM-IV-TR or ICD-10 list of psychiatric conditions] as a subset of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) wherein the stressor causing the trauma is either the abortion, the abortion decision, or the circumstances surrounding the decision to abort.I am still digging to find out about this "formal proposal". Will blog it if I find it...
Let's just say I have a sort of friend in high places with clout who's working behind the scenes to petition the APA to reinstate abortion as a cause of the symptoms of PTSD, just as it was listed from 1987 through 1994 in DSM-III-R. Let's just say there are medical experts with him on this. Let's just say that, if abortion had been still in there, and thus receiving attention from the APA's docs that it should have been, certain personal tragedies would never have occurred.
I know the prochoice folks are changing their semantics: changing the phrases "pro-choice" and "for Reproductive Rights" to "for Reproductive Justice." This will fool some, but not all. I think too many changes have occurred and will keep occurring (the Roe effect is real, for one).
More importantly, more and more of us come out about our regret each year and find help. By the thousands. 25,000 alone on Rachel's Vineyard Retreats from 1990 through 2005, 350 Retreats worldwide in '05, and the number of retreats was tripling every two years for the past four.
Soon, the number of women like Emily and me and many of our readers will reach critical mass. Maybe it will later, but it will.
And then the world won't be able to ignore it. Those 15 UK docs are a prime example. The APA can't ignore the increasing numbers of women who are victims of abortion/PTSD and doctors who speak out, as the women, the families and physicians mass together to make the APA once again officially recognize that, in the case of abortion harming women, sh** does happen.
The APA probably won't change their tune until these folks outnumber the abortion rights advocates, but when they do, the tide will turn.