Dreaming about
an abortion

Abortion is one of the most personal decisions a person can face, so dreaming about an abortion often brings up strong feelings, whether or not you've ever been pregnant. Most of the time the dream isn't about a pregnancy at all. It's about something in your life that had only just started (a plan, a job, a relationship, an idea) and that has been stopped, or that you're thinking of stopping.

Your own story changes the reading. After a real abortion or a miscarriage, the dream is part of living with what happened, while the same dream in someone who has never been pregnant is more likely to be about work or love. How you felt in it, whether relieved, sad, guilty or calm, is the detail to hold on to.

What dreaming about an abortion means

In dreams a pregnancy often stands for something new growing in your life, and ending one usually means that new thing is being cut short. That plays out in a few ways.

A plan that has stopped

When a business doesn't launch, a move falls through or a relationship ends before it really started, the dream can show that loss as the end of a pregnancy. It's often sadder than you've let yourself feel during the day, which is why it surfaces at night.

A choice that's yours to make

Many abortion dreams arrive while you're weighing a hard decision of any kind, especially one where other people have opinions and you still have to decide. Whether you went through with it in the dream, or turned back at the door, may show you which way you're leaning.

Letting a beginning go

A newborn in a dream often stands for something starting over in your life, so ending a pregnancy can mean closing a beginning, giving up a plan or a version of yourself to make room for something else. That can bring grief and relief at the same time, and the dream often holds both.

Dreaming of an abortion when you're not pregnant

Most people who search for this dream have never been pregnant, or aren't now, and they're often puzzled by it. It nearly always points away from your body and toward something you've started, so ask what you've recently given up on, or are about to, and whether that was really your choice. If you're trying to get pregnant, the dream may also be about the fear of it not working out, which is a different thing from not wanting it.

Dreaming about having an abortion while pregnant

For someone who is pregnant and wants the baby, this dream can be frightening. It usually belongs with the anxious dreams many people have during pregnancy, about the birth, about the changes coming or about not being ready, and it isn't a hidden wish. If you're pregnant and undecided, it may simply be your mind going over the choice in front of you.

Dreaming about an abortion you had in the past

Dreams follow what's on your mind,^[1] and a decision this big can return years later, often around an anniversary, a new pregnancy or contact with someone from that time. Mixed feelings in the dream are normal and say nothing about whether the choice was right. If the dreams keep leaving you upset, a counselor who works with pregnancy and loss can help.

Dreaming about someone else having an abortion

When a partner, a friend or a stranger has the abortion, the dream is often about a decision someone else made that affects you, and how little say you had in it. With a partner, it may be about whether you feel included in the big choices you make together. And if someone close to you really is going through it, the dream may be your worry for them.

Dreaming about an abortion according to Jung and Freud

Abortion isn't a subject either of them took up, so nothing below reads a real decision. It's their ideas applied to the image, and it stays with feelings.

Jung: the child as what hasn't happened yet

In Jung's work the child is the image of what's still ahead: potential, a fresh start.^[2] A dream that ends a pregnancy can then be about a possibility being cut short, whether that's a project, a move or a version of your life you'd pictured. It explains why the loss can feel heavy even when the thing lost was never a person, and why relief and grief can sit together in the same dream.

Freud: the day's leftovers

Freud called the scraps of the previous day that a dream is built from "day residue".^[3] With a subject this charged, the scrap is often close at hand, such as a friend's pregnancy announcement, a news story about abortion law, a clinic you walked past, a form you filled in. Finding it tells you what the dream was reacting to, before it added a plot. It carries no hidden wish, and it doesn't make the dream a verdict on anyone.

Questions to ask about your abortion dream

Your history matters more in this dream than any symbol does, so these questions start there.

• Have you been pregnant, or lost a pregnancy, and how are you living with that now?
• What have you started lately that has stopped, or that you'd like to stop?
• Who in the dream had an opinion about the decision?
• Did you feel relief, sadness or both?

Before giving any reading, Oniri asks about your own situation and the feelings in the dream, since the same images can mean grief for one person and a cancelled plan for another.