The collection of studies contained in this volume was born out of the widely shared awareness that having an abortion leaves remnants of a profound suffering, and which in not a few cases leads to real psychological damage. the problem of post-abortion trauma today is of both a scientific and human relevance and we can no longer ignore it on account of the enormous spread of abortion in many countries of the world.
We see that in the current state of things, the debate regarding the existence and characteristics of post-abortion trauma often appears to be conditioned by an ethical approach present in various cultures, an approach that can vary between considering abortion to be essentially a means of birth control (by now the most common) and condemning it as a severely grave violation of the sacredness of unborn human life. in many of the studies conducted up until our current day – the collection, analysis and interpretation of data – the results are strongly influenced by the position assumed prior to any undertaken research. According to some individuals, easy access to abortion is a kind of modern success and otherwise abortion is seen above all as the deprivation of the future life of a being not yet born. In the latter case it is easier to recognize, in addition to the harm done to the baby, the damage inflicted upon the woman which continues to unfold after the fact.