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Repercussions of Mental Health After Terminating Pregnancy Essay example

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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 …show more content…

This is not the case. According to one of the most recent studies done on this correlation, done by a reproductive expert from Johns Hopkins University, stated that only seven in every thousand women sought treatment for mental health issues after their abortions. This study was done with close to 400,000 women, as opposed to most of the studies done in the United States with a much smaller group of women. Also, we must take into account the state of the woman’s mental health before the pregnancy and abortion. The same study done by Johns Hopkins also states that the women involved in the study came from a demographic that was more likely to have mental health issues anyway, due to low incomes and a high rate of unplanned pregnancies. Obviously, if a woman has psychological issues to begin with, she will most likely have them post-abortion as well. On the other side of the coin, anti-abortionists argue that anything as stressful as terminating a pregnancy could possibly lead to depression, guilt, and even suicide, which is certainly true. But if the large majority remains unaffected and not seeking treatment, who is to say that women who terminate their pregnancy are at a higher risk for these issues? Another of the widely important subissues I chose to research was whether or not “post-abortion syndrome” is a relevant medical term that affects a large amount of women. The term “post-abortion syndrome” is not recognized by

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