In the Pro-choice movement, abortion is said to be a right, but I have noticed ( as many others have) is that it is beginning to be more and more portrayed as “empowering”. It is a very disturbing evolution of an already terrible situation. Abortion is not just bad because it takes another human life; it comes with side effects. One in particular that I will be talking about is the mental health of the post abortive mother.
Many people on the pro-choice side will either deny that abortion causes mental health issues or tell you that society caused this by shaming women who had abortions . However, this doesn’t make complete sense because abortion is more supported than not.(1) It has become accepted and supported in society so to assume that society is responsible is illogical.
Planned Parenthood addressed these accusations that abortion has an negative impact on women's mental health. The research they showed says
“• Unwanted pregnancy increases a woman’s risk of
problems with her mental health.”
A problem that I have with this claim is that they don’t go into what they mean by “unwanted”. Does the mother that we are speaking of never want children or just doesn’t want a child at the moment? If they do want children eventually than that child, in a way, is wanted.If it is for a woman who never wants to have children, then this statement might have some truth to it.They also do not say if these unwanted pregnancies are carried to term, which is very important since most unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.
“• A woman with an unwanted pregnancy is as likely
to have mental health problems from abortion as
she is from giving birth.”
This statement is contradictory to what Planned Parenthood has said about the abortion and the mental health link. As I showed you in the previous statement, they said that unwanted pregnancies increased mental health risk. Here they say that abortion is as likely to increase mental health risks as an unwanted pregnancy . Planned Parenthood also stated For more than “30 years, substantive research studies have shown that legally induced abortion
does not pose mental health problems for women.”(2) It seems that Planned Parenthood has backed themselves into a corner.
• A woman with a history of mental health problems
before abortion is more likely to have mental health
problems after abortion.
• Circumstances, conditions, behaviors, and other
factors associated with mental health problems are
similar for women following abortion and women
following childbirth.
• Pressure from a partner to terminate a pregnancy,
negative attitudes about abortion, and negative
attitudes about a woman’s experience of abortion
may increase a woman’s risk of mental health
problems after abortion (2)
The last three points make sense and can all be said the same for pregnancies carried to term. But I notice that they are comparing abortion to childbirth frequently. In my opinion, this is another tactic to make abortion look noble and empowering; even though there should be nothing empowering about taking an innocent human life.
There are some issues with the literature about the mental health link. A review called “Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009” reviewed this literature and found that abortion does in fact have negative mental health effects.” “After the application of methodologically based selection criteria and extraction rules to minimise bias, the sample comprised 22 studies, 36 measures of effect and 877 181 participants (163 831 experienced an abortion)”. (3) When this method was applied they found that women who had undergone abortions had an increased risk of mental health issues by 81%. This review explain some issues and why the other the conclusions of other literature regarding the mental health link to abortion were problematic. The review explained that “First, only a handful of studies have actually included unintended pregnancy carried to term as a control group”, the review states. In many studies, it is also not clarified what exactly “unintended” means. There is no in between ground with intended pregnancies and unintended ones, which there ought be because it’s not black a white."Second, many recently published studies with extensive controls for third variables were not reflected in the three recent reviews, with no explanation given as to why large segments of the peer-reviewed literature were missing", the review states. In my opinion, it seems that research regarding this topic is being purposefully twisted so that we can not tell whether or not abortion is linked to mental illness.Certain studies have been ignored in these reviews. For example a study labeled “Resolution of Unwanted Pregnancy During Adolescence Through Abortion Versus Childbirth: Individual and Family Predictors and Psychological Consequences” states that “After controlling for these variables, adolescents who aborted an unwanted pregnancy were more inclined than adolescents who delivered to seek psychological counseling and they reported more frequent problems sleeping and more frequent marijuana use.”(4) Another study labeled “Long-term physical and psychological health consequences of induced abortion: review of the evidence.” stated that “Moreover, induced abortion increased the risks for both a subsequent preterm delivery and mood disorders substantial enough to provoke attempts of self-harm.” (5) These two were just a few who were not reviewed in previous reviews.
“Third, in all three literature reviews the choice of studies lacked sufficient methodologically based selection criteria.”
“The fourth troubling issue is the fact that quantification of effects was not attempted by any of the three research teams.” the review said (3)
The review concluded the results by saying
"These results indicate that the level of increased risk associated with abortion varies from 34% to 230% depending on the nature of the outcome."
(5) Long-term physical and psychological health consequences of induced abortion: review of the evidence. - PubMed - NCBI
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