CURRENTLY there appears to be some feeling in the behavioral science community that liberalization of laws will make psychiatry irrelevant in the abortion question. Hopefully this communication will demonstrate that we will continue to need the clinical insights we have gained in the last decade. Rationalization of abortion laws can mean that psychiatry will be able to contribute appropriately; that is, on the same consultative basis as for any other medical problem. Although legal aspects of abortion and questions such as frequency of suicide, general indications and outcome have received much attention in the literature, little attention has been given to the clinical process and the specific symptoms suffered by patients. No attention has been given to problems encountered by clinicians dealing with such patients in initial evaluative interviews. These aspects will form the substance of this paper.

Clearly the involvement of the