You Aren't Alone, Here

We predict this "paper", soon to be published in something called Social Science & Medicine, will probably get some press from someone in the liberal media.

The spread of ‘Post Abortion Syndrome’ as social diagnosis

This paper examines the content of Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS) claims, the social actors involved and how this social diagnosis bypassed professional dissent and diffused into public policy in the United States. Previous works on the spread of PAS focus on almost exclusively on anti-abortion think tanks and policymakers. Missing from these analyses, however, is an emphasis on the grassroots-level actions undertaken by evangelical crisis pregnancy center (CPC) activists in introducing and circulating PAS claims. The CPC movement introduced PAS claims and provided the fodder for anti-abortion think tanks to construct evidence of pro-life claims. Despite dissent from health professionals and academic researchers, CPC PAS claims successfully diffused into federal and state abortion policy. I draw upon Brown et al.’s social diagnosis framework and Armstrong's five-stage model of diagnosis development to frame this account.

Social Science & Medicine, Volume 102, Issue null, Pages 18-25
Kimberly Kelly

"Actors?" "Claims?" We "bypassed professional dissent?" Whenever a mental health "professional" dismisses anyone for having post-abortion stress, that "professional" deserves to be bypassed.

Really, this is rather amazingly wishful-thinking on Ms. Kelly's part. The "CPC movement introduced PAS claims"? May we suggest she tell that to the 50,000 to 60,000 Rachel's Vineyard retreatants, women and men, ourselves included, over the past 19+ years? None of whom probably ever set foot in a CPC before they had their abortions, which kind of explains how we ended up going through with our abortions. And R.V. is just one of the many post-abortive recovery services and groups worldwide, most of whom aren't even affiliated with a CPC (see our sidebar at right under RESOURCES FOR HEALING for links to them all). Yes, as Ms. Kelly indicates, those pesky, awful CPCs just somehow planted that strange idea, remotely, inexplicably, into 60,000+ of our heads, to be utterly torn up inside over our abortions.

Perhaps Ms. Kelly also is too young to remember that in 1987, "the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III-R), listed abortion as a life event which can produce Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)" in an edition that stood for a full 7 years, then bowed to pressure and removed it in 1994. Co-blogger Annie has that book. It's right there, in black and white.

Ms., or should I say, Assistant Sociology Professor/Director of Gender Studies (at Mississippi State University) Kelly has also authored similar opinion papers with titles like "Post Abortion Syndrome as Anti-Abortion Strategy." (Yes, of course! That's what we did. We had abortions, so we could fabricate this "claim" that we have a syndrome, so we could advance the "anti-abortion strategy." How brilliant Prof. Kelly is to have figured this out!)

So we know what she believes. She believes it's OK to denigrate and dismiss those of us who genuinely regret our abortions.

Truth is, though Prof. Kelly is not alone in her delusion and her dismissal of us, we at this blog know far too many people over the last decade-plus, ourselves included, who are also not alone, in our collective grief. So for those coming here, seeking answers, perhaps solace, just know that the Prof. Kelly's of the world don't mean diddly-squat, and they don't run the world.