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Men and ‘post abortion syndrome’: claims versus evidence

Abstract Purpose: Recent studies have focused on the pseudo-psychological condition ‘post abortion syndrome’ and women, particularly the content and veracity of these claims in the USA. What such claims say about men and the accuracy of these claims remains unclear, and we seek to remedy this. Methods: The study proceeded in two parts. First, we identified primary documents from anti-abortion activists in the USA making claims about men and post abortion syndrome and analysed them for assertions about the effects of abortion upon men. Second, we searched Google Scholar using the terms ‘men’ and ‘abortion’ to identify 41 peer reviewed articles that included (1) thorough descriptions of sampling, data collection, and analysis, (2) acknowledgement of the limitations, and (3) findings/discussion that do not extrapolate beyond the scope of the data. Results: We compared U.S. activists’ claims with scholarly findings. Activists claims rely on gender essentialism, arguing men should stop women from aborting to prevent psychological disorders and disruption of traditional family and sexual norms. In contrast, scientific studies find a range of minor psychological responses but not responses akin to post abortion syndrome to be common. Conclusion: Similar to findings about women and abortion, we do not find support for anti-abortion activists’ claims or the existence of post abortion syndrome among men.