Post-Abortion Counseling and Anxiety Levels of Unmarried Adolescents Having Therapeutic Abortions

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a post-abortion counseling program. It was hypothesized that unmarried adolescents who received counseling following a therapeutic abortion would exhibit significantly fewer negative affects than those who received no counseling. The affects measured were anxiety, depression, hostility, and guilt. Twenty clients were randomly selected for this study. Prior to the abortion, the twenty clients were-tested for negative responses to the unwanted pregnancy. Ten clients received post-abortion counseling twice following the abortion and were tested at each visit for negative affective responses to the abortion. The other ten clients received no post-abortion counseling but were tested for negative affective responses twice following the abortion. Tools used to collect data for this study were the MAACL, an attitude scale measuring guilt, and an abortion attitude questionnaire. The statistical findings from the data indicate that there was significant negative affective responses to the unwanted pregnancy among both the experimental and the control groups. After the therapeutic abortion, these negative affects were significantly reduced at the .05 level, with a reduction of anxiety by 45%, depression by 40%, hostility by 20%, and guilt by 10%. In evaluating the effectiveness of the counseling in reducing negative affects, there was no significant statistical difference between the two groups except for the affect of depression. This was significantly increased, at the .05 level of significance, in the experimental group following the post-abortion counseling. Possible explanations for this may be the use of denial immediately following the abortion, and also the grief reaction to the fetal loss. Nursing intervention may have helped these adolescents look at their true feelings in a more realistic manner, Within the context of this study, it cannot be concluded that a post-abortion counseling program for two weeks post-abortion significantly reduces negative affective responses to an abortion. The result do suggest that further research in this area is needed.