This essay seeks to answer the question of why so many abortions are requested in France when contraceptive methods are readily available by arguing that in such cases, the pregnancy is a response to a woman's unconscious desires while the abortion signifies a return to conscious control. The woman's early relationship to her mother is viewed as a factor in the later playing out of unconscious desires. Little girls, by virtue of their similarity to their mothers, can never be sexual objects in the same way that little boys are. Because infant girls are cared for by adult women who are loving, but not desiring, they are less likely to be satisfied in their early feeding, and this insatisfaction is transferred into adult insatiability in terms of all that comes to her from the man, including sperm. Women must wait until their sex lives begin to receive what men have from the moment of birth; a gift from outside themselves, colored by desire. This feeling of completion is however not accompanied by a desire to mother the child. In other cases the pregnancy may be desired as a proof of femininity or of a feeling of equality with other women that may have been poorly established if the identification with the mother functioned badly. The infant represents something more than himself: perhaps the identity of the woman. The multiplicity of factors involved create difficult consultations for the woman and for the doctor, because, in fact, the woman seeking an abortion views the infant as imaginary, not real. A woman who presents herself more often for abortion than for obstetric care is dominated by neurotic unconscious desires. The psychologist can aid the woman in overcoming postabortal depression by helping her achieve a more profound understanding of her unconscious desires.