Yesterday, we had a wonderful discussion about the American Psychological Association's recent assertion that
"having an abortion in the first trimester and bringing a baby to full term has the same psychological effect on the woman."We had a number of women who have had abortions and children calling in with stories about the misery they have endured because of abortions, and the stories they are telling would-be abortion victims today.
In the course of the discussion, Theresa Burke's Rachel's Vineyard came up. She and this group are helping post abortion women with coping, and she will be on our show today at 10:10 to tell her story and take questions.
3 comments:
It strikes me that the fuss about the APA report is really not about the report itself but is just a reason to raise the pro-choice vs pro-life debate. The opinion of the APA study seems to state that statistically they have found little difference in mental health risks to women who have had first trimester abortions of an unplanned pregnancy vs women who have delivered in an unplanned pregnancy.
The report does not argue that there are mental health risks short and long term associated with abortions (as well as from the women who choose to deliver).
What the injustice being done in this debate is that it is being used for fuel for one side (pro-life vs pro-choice) and ignoring the fact that either choice can result in mental health problems. From the simple fact that mental health issues of postpartum disorders as well as anguish about having or keeping a potentially unwanted child are often ignored just because the person chose to go ahead with delivery. The pressures are on both sides of this issue and the outcome for the mother can be the same.
I personally fall on the side of believing that abortion is wrong and not a choice that I would make, but as I said here the real issue is being masked by people who want to use it to prove their point.
The mental health issue I believe can be a real issue for either choice and that is what should be of concern.
I applaud ANY group that tries to help women on either side of this momentous decision in their lives. I would like to see equal time spent with groups that seek to aid the women who have chosen to carry out their pregnancies and find themselves faced will mental health issues as well. These women I believe can more easily fall through the cracks of getting help as society expects that once the decision to have the child takes place that everything is always as it should be and that is not the case at all.
If anyone wants to really read the report, here is the full .PDF version
http://www.apa.org/releases/abortion-report.pdf
I listened to the show today and heard a woman who makes her living holding grief counseling sessions for women who have had an abortion.
Applied therapy for cathartic release is sometimes necessary, sometimes life-saving. But the flipside is that the situations become themselves traumtized to the level where the embodied reaction is considered the "normal" response: the new cultural setpoint is to be somehow "damaged goods" for having gone through something instead of living through it and moving on.
I know women who had an abortion and were fine with their decision. I know women who lost babies in miscarriages who went through a period of grieving and then were OK with what happened.
And I know women who continue to suffer years after the event as if the event defined their lives.
And I can say the same thing about a whole litany of life events, each of which may/or may not by traumatizing.
A big part of Life is about learning how to say goodbye to the things we know and love.
What I particularly remember is when abortions were illegal in PA. I saw young women driving across state lines to find people of unknown medical pedigree who worked in possibly highly unsanitary backrooms with the risk of infection and loss of future fertility. It didn't stop the women from seeking to end the pregnancy which was happening at a time in their lives when they simply could not be effective mothers and did not want to go through pregnancy.
Say what you will about abortion-----it is practiced worldwide and in my opinion needs to always be available should a woman want to exercise her reproductive right to bear or not bear a child.
Anytime society tries to ban something that actually has utility in society it only goes underground and makes criminals of everyone involved.
Look at what happened when they tried to outlaw alcohol, (and it is tough to find a substance and the behavior associated with its abuse that has caused more harm to people than alcohol, so it is tough to morally defend.)
Its use continued. Its manufacture and transport continued. People were jailed. People were constantly at risk for their involvement------but it never went away, and only made people's lives more traumatic as a result of being "illegal."
And then they reversed the decision to ban it, and declared it a 'controlled substance.'
They're trying to do the same thing again to abortion.
And the results are going to be the same if they succeed. It will only move to the back alleys and people will be even more traumatized as a result.
In my opinion people who advocate for the repeal of abortion rights for women are control freaks ignorant of the rights of others, and ignorant to the patterns of history which will repeat again and again until the lesson is learned.
I must say as someone who chose to abort unplanned pregnancies and also deliver unplanned pregnancies; delivering the unplanned pregnancies was definitely the better choice. If only I could turn back time. Life went on regardless and my goals although delayed were met. The sadness and anguish of giving up another persons life as opposed to delaying your own desires are much worse to deal with. No matter what I accomplish, I will always feel like something/someone is missing in my life. That was the choice I made and now I have to live with the consequences. For those who seem okay with their decision to abort... I thought I was doing fine as well, but eventually I came to realize that I was in denial and had to deal with suppressed pain. Mourning this loss (which some consider a blob) perpetuates the same feeling of emptiness you get when you lose a loved one you came to know and love. I made the choice to create human life; therefore, I should have owned up to my responsiblity and not buried the truth.
Post a Comment