BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, a story on the emotional aftermath of abortion. Many women who had abortions feel it was the correct and responsible decision. For others, it was an act they now deeply regret. For both groups there is more and more counseling and support, as Mary Alice Williams reports.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Into this cup I pour my grief over abuse suffered; shame caused by abortion.

MARY ALICE WILLIAMS: Some suffer remorse for their decision.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I pour confusion, guilt, self-condemnation.

WILLIAMS: Others suffer recrimination for making a decision they believe was right.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: We know better than anyone else what we can and cannot handle.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: Sometimes abortion is the most morally responsible and loving choice we can make. Amen.

WILLIAMS: Both are finding acceptance in expanding, albeit opposing, networks of post-abortion support groups.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: It was a solution to a problem. I felt nothing until the moment-a defining moment.

WILLIAMS: This is Rachel's Vineyard, begun as an outreach of the Catholic Church and now supported predominantly by anti-abortion groups of many denominations. In 12 years it has grown to 450 retreats a year in 45 states.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: It hit me that it was not a solution. It was murder.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: For the first time yesterday I saw my abortions as the death of people and the image of them looking down on me from heaven. I never really thought that they went to heaven. I don't know what I thought. That they just disappeared.

Dr.THERESA KARMINSKI BURKE (Psychologist and Creator, Rachel's Vineyard): It's a loss that hasn't been dealt with.

WILLIAMS: Rachel's Vineyard creator Theresa Karminski Burke tells them their addictions or disorders or depression have at their root the trauma of abortion.

Dr. KARMINSKI BURKE: She pays a heavy price. You know, some people can ignore it. Some people can run from it. Some people can numb it through drugs and alcohol. But on some level, just as a human being, we pay a price when we engage in destruction of life.

WILLIAMS: She has a name for this trauma: post-abortion syndrome. And she tells priests about it.

Dr. KARMINSKI BURKE (Lecturing priests and lay people): Aggressive behaviors; sometimes irritability; outbursts of anger or rage. These are all symptoms of trauma.

WILLIAMS: Longitudinal studies by the American Psychological Association have found no evidence that such a syndrome exists. The Reverend Rebecca Turner, executive director of the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, objects to the term.

Reverend REBECCA TURNER (Executive Director, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice): It's a name given by those who are totally opposed to abortion and want others to believe that all women suffer this extreme emotional trauma after an abortion. Now certainly there are women who experience stress related to an abortion. But to say that there's a particular syndrome that women are always going to go through after they have an abortion is completely fictitious.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #7: I had an abortion, and I know it was a good decision. I've never regretted it.

WILLIAMS: Reverend Turner points to research that shows the majority of women feel relief after abortion.

Rev. TURNER: I think it's harmful if women are being encouraged to feel guilty. If the way they viewed the abortion at one time was a tremendous sense of relief, and then years later someone else gets to them and says, "Oh no! You've murdered your child. This is a horrible thing you did. And now you've got to repent and you've got to do something, you know, to pay for that crime." I think that's a horrible manipulation of women's feelings.

Dr. KARMINSKI BURKE: They have denied for many years that post-abortion trauma is a reality. They have consistently debunked research that comes out showing that women are traumatized and have symptoms of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. They'll create their own research with many flaws.