UCLA Psychiatrist: Profession Must Acknowledge Abortion Hurts Women 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 20, 2006
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) — A UCLA psychiatrist says more should be done to help women who suffer from mental health problems following an abortion. While not acknowledging the full range of problems women suffer, she said the mental health profession needs to acknowledge that large numbers of women have serious post-abortion issues.
Dr. Miriam Grossman sat down with Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review for an interview about her latest book, Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student.
Grossman says the wrote the book in part to "highlight the existence of an invisible group: women (and men) with emotional scars from an abortion."
She also criticized leading groups of health care professionals for denying that large numbers of women experience problems following an abortion.
"They are out there in numbers; many must seek support from networks outside our mental-health system," she said. "This is because although individual practitioners may be sensitive to the trauma of abortion, the mental-health establishment denies it exists."
As a psychiatrist, Grossman criticized "the refusal of my profession to formally acknowledge and reach out to those who suffer with severe emotional disorders following an abortion."
"And mind you, these are professionals who are normally eager to identify and assist victims of all sorts of other traumas — be it child abuse, sexual harassment, or natural disasters," she told National Review.
Grossman said she didn’t necessarily dispute erroneous claims from the abortion industry, such as Planned Parenthood estimates that just one percent of women suffer problematic mental health issues following an abortion. That’s despite research showing as many as 40 percent of women have negative post-abortion mental health experiences.
"But if only one percent of the one million-plus girls and women getting abortions each year suffer severe emotional consequences, that’s still tens of thousands of people," Grossman said.
"I myself was unaware, prior to researching my book, of how horrifying an abortion might be under some circumstances, and how there may be long-lasting consequences," she concluded.
