Emotion And Abortion

The practice of abortions throughout the United States are safe. Abortions have become safer since the procedure was reluctantly legalized in the United States-by the Supreme Court-in 1973. According to The American Medical Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs the number of deaths associated with abortion drastically dropped from roughly four out of every one hundred thousand women in 1973 to .6 per every one hundred thousand women in 1997 (Abortion is Safe). These statistics show that procedure in how an abortion is performed has become safer since legalization. Legalization of abortion permitted the procedure to be performed in a sterile setting- such as a hospital operating room. The medical risk associated with an abortion procedure is highly overestimated. An abortion performed exactly as medically advised carries half the risk of a tonsillectomy (Abortion is Safe). (A tonsillectomy is a simple procedure that is performed on many children in their childhood.) On the other hand, anti-abortion advocates point to emotional problems that could harm the pregnant woman after an abortion. These advocates attempt to show there is a link to mental disorders in post abortion women. A New Zealand study looked to verify this claim. The analysis showed that there was a credible link between depression, suicide attempts and substance abuse in post abortion women (Cords). Researchers also aimed to connect having an abortion with post-traumatic stress disorder

I use emotional appeals during discussions with family members to persuade them to see things the way that I do fairly often. I used an emotional appeal when I was having a discussion about abortion with my husband. We were talking about this topic because an article was released about a woman’s right to have an abortion. I do not believe in abortion and I think that adoption is the better option, but that it what I would choose if I were in that situation. We were having this heated discussion because he didn’t see why I thought abortion wasn’t the right choice and why people should choose to put their children up for adoption instead. It was that moment that I told him the story about how I found a document that my mother had written

Abortion can cause periods of depression in which the pain can encysted. Some women become aggressive or nervous, or even hyperactive. Anxiety can find an answer food such as bulimia or, conversely, anorexia. For others, psychosomatic reactions will take over with stomach aches, absence of periods, headaches, the loss of self-esteem ("I'm bad, I'm unworthy, painful for others"), the fear of not being pregnant again or anxiety of existential insecurity are consequences commonly observed. Some episodes of a woman’s life can relive the acutely suffering felt at the time of abortion: the date in which the child had been born, or the anniversary date of the abortion, the desire to make present the dead child, are conducive to outbreaks of suffering intensely lived as, for example, anxiety or depressive

In the overarching state of humanity, few topics are as important to the long term societal standpoint as abortion. Even more important and contested is the controversial subject of whether or not a woman will endure long term psychological effects or disorders after said abortion. This subject has been highly debated, with valid points made by both sides. It is important that we all look into these repercussions, especially since approximately 33% of women will undergo an abortion by the time they reach forty-five years old. This often challenged subject has many aspects. The main ideas that I researched where whether or not having an abortion leads to a higher risk for mental health issues, whether or not “post-abortion syndrome” is a

Nearly 81% of women who receive abortions experience subsequent mental health problems according to a recently published study by The Royal College of Psychiatrists. The study demonstrates that the aftermath of an abortion can result in higher rates of anxiety, depression, various forms of substance abuse, and suicidal behavior. As a result of the study, it shows that women who have an abortion face almost double the risk of mental health problems as women who have their baby. This outcome is due to the fact that most women who are terminating pregnancies “may feel a greater sense of loss, anxiety and distress due to lack of support”, as summarized in the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit reproductive health organization. In fact, a five-year study shows that 25% of

After a woman has an abortion, the chances are three to four times higher of the mother having a miscarriage because of damage to the uterus. There is a higher chance of the mother dying from having an abortion than there is from her dying from natural childbirth. Even though after an abortion the mother feels relief that the ordeal is over, feelings of “numbness” soon set in on their emotions. It’s not any different from what soldiers feel after being in the midst of war. It has been found in a study of 500 aborted women, 50 percent of them were dealing with negative feelings and 10 percent had “serious psychiatric complications.”

Sharon Salzberg once said, “As we look around, it's very clear that in this world people do outrageous things to one another all of the time. It's not that these qualities or actions make us bad people, but they bring tremendous suffering if we don't know how to work with them”. The wake of devastation abortion leaves behind could not be described better. It is argued that it is the woman’s body; therefore it is the woman’s choice. What many do not know, however, is that abortion not only affects the mother, but the father, and of course the child. Guilt, anger, anxiety, depression, broken relationships, “numbing”, and even suicide; all of these are symptoms of Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS). PAS is the emotional/psychological damage women may experience after having an abortion. According to Dangers of Legal Abortion by Ann Saltenberger, women who have had abortions are nine times more likely to attempt suicide than women in the general population. Men, or the father, portray a range of emotions after their partner’s abortion. These include grief, guilt,

Talking about abortion brings out an emotional response in many women. This is because having an abortion takes a massive emotional toll on some women. As Nanyjo Mann said, three weeks after having an abortion, “I became preoccupied with the thoughts of death. I fantasized about how I would die. My baby struggled for two hours” (Reardon, 1987, p. xviii). In the forward of the book “Aborted Women, Silent No More” Nanyjo, a women telling

It is difficult to think about all the different emotions a mother must feel after losing her baby; no matter how it happens. The abortion may have been something the mother wanted or she may have been pressured into it by others around her. No matter what the reason is, it is hard for a mother to lose something that was a part of her for nine months. She feels many different emotions due to the major hormone changes she goes through. These emotions can range from average feelings to feelings that are dangerous to the point where the mother needs professional help. According to the American pregnancy association (2007), abortion causes many side effects such as; regret, anger, guilt, shame, loneliness or isolation, impaired self confidence, insomnia or nightmares, relationship issues, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, depressions and anxiety (para. 3). Many mothers go through a regret period, which is

Scientists exploring post-abortions responses report stand out positive feelings: This feeling is justifiable, some ladies feel the pressure to just get over with it." Temporary sentiments of help are every now and again taken after by a period, therapists recognize this as passionate "loss of motion," or post-fetus removal "deadness." Like shell-stunned officers, these prematurely ended ladies can't express or even feel their own particular feelings. Their emphasis is essentially on having survived the trial, and they are in any event incidentally distant with their sentiments. Ponders inside of the initial couple of weeks after the fetus removal have found that somewhere around 40 and 60 percent of ladies addressed report negative responses.

Various studies have been conducted to show the psychological effects following an abortion. According to the results some women experience depression and anxiety. These psychological effects reflect on several factors. Abortion may relieve stress by ending an unwanted pregnancy, but the event itself may simultaneously be experienced as a stressor causing anxiety grief, guilt, despair and anger. These factors could lead to depression, as feelings of powerless, anger and self-condemnation are emotions that underlie depression. Controversies exist whether abortion is linked with mental health or not. Future research requires a better understanding of the conditions that lead to unwanted pregnancy and abortion with the ultimate goal of improving women’s lives and well being.

There are religious and emotional objections to abortion as well as the possibility of negative medical and mental consequences. Many are in favor of making abortion illegal because, they feel it is immoral. Others believe that government should not have a say so in such a personal matter. Are there any other factors that could possibly change the way people view abortion? The matter of abortions negatively affecting the women who have the procedure done is one that the world has been dealing with for some time now. Researchers have decided to explore the idea that women who have had an abortion could possibly be at a higher risk for developing and even intensifying mental health issues. Researchers use various measures to determine if or how having an abortion effects woman. Measures include factors such as women who request an abortion but have not yet gone through with it, women who have gone through with the procedure, and women who have lost a child due to abortions or other ways. The following literature explains these

The issue of emotional power and/or control in this case study goes back to the history of the long fight with abortion. When reading this case, the young woman is basically making a decision for her unborn child as well as herself. The woman is controlling a baby who doesn’t even have a chance to speak upon this situation. I’m trying to wrap my mind around this situation in deciding if this is an abortion case? Yes, the mother has her rights, but in the state she lives in is aborting a child because of your own religious beliefs of not accepting blood transfusions legal? Questions wander my mind about how would the baby’s father feel? If he is a Jovine Witness, yet decides for the blood transfusion and surgery, would that have saved the lived

Studies by pro-choice researchers also conclude that women often have difficulty coping in life after an abortion. One study found that “17% of women felt guilt after the procedure… 56% of women experienced a sense of guilt about having had an abortion and 26% said they mostly regret the abortion.” (Dube 24). Sometimes, women have abortions and then carry such guilt with them that when they do want to become pregnant, they are not capable to because of the psychological stress associated with guilt. “In cases of selective abortion, there is grief for a wanted child, questions about the characteristics of the baby – not usually seen by the parents – worries about future pregnancies, ambivalence about abortion itself, and guilt – terrible guilt” is what Susan Borg and Judith Lasker had written in When Pregnancy Fails (Borg 50).

Being a mother is one of the best gifts from a life. A mother gives her children unconditional love without expecting anything in return. Being a mother means more than having given birth to a child. It is an invisible connection between mother and child; it is a blessing, a relationship that never ends and the love that never dies. However, for some women, motherhood might be challenging in ways they did not expect, forcing them to choose between having an abortion and keeping the child. The debate over abortion is an ardent and polarizing issue as there are those who believe that all humans including those unborn should have a right to life, and on the other side of the spectrum are those who believe it should a woman's right to choose whether she wants an abortion or not. This topic relates to Gwendolyn Brooks's poem, "The Mother", where the author describes the painful thoughts, heartbreak, and awful feelings that a woman experiences after having an abortion. Brooks lays out a helpful framework for understanding the difficult situation of facing unplanned pregnancy. In "The Mother", a woman recollects her inner conflicts as she laments over the guilt of having had an abortion and the future she never gave her would be child. Brooks's poem provides insight into the research which reveals how abortion affects women morally, psychologically, and religiously.