The Psychological Effects Of Abortion

Abortion is never an easy decision, but women have been making the choice for thousands of years. It has become a large dilemma since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court passed a law making the procedure legal, and an even larger controversial issue. The controversy is divided into “Pro-Choice” and Pro-Life” views. Pro-Choice supporters believe that the woman should have to choice whether to abort or not. Pro-Life supporters believe that it should be illegal to abort and preformed. However, there are many ways for this procedure to be performed. Abortion still remains today a controversial issue, by who should determine if it is the right thing to terminate a pregnancy or not and by how the procedure should be preformed.

Are you familiar with the name Dr. Karen Ashford, probably not? She is a factious character that would have been if she was allowed to be born. She was never given a chance at life because she was aborted at only 16 weeks in uteri. She was forced to be aborted by her would be grandmother of her 13 year old mother. The young mother was not given an opportunity to voice her opinion about the outcome of her pregnancy. The decision that the young girls’ mother chose for her affected her life in many different ways. After the abortion, the young girl felt guilty, withdrawn, and she was self-destructive.

Abortion really today has been a very controversial issue in today’s society. An interesting claim within it is that abortion can be done safely through the use of medical abortion and although medical abortions can be safe and trustworthy as experts might say, there still are risks that women will have to face and eventually take after abortion. Major types of risks can be pelvic infections, blood clots in the uterus or maybe a torn cervix. These are just few out of many health problems caused from abortion.

It is no secret by this point that I am of course a pro-life person. I take this stance because of many reasons. I was born and raised Catholic and as a Catholic, we oppose all forms of abortion procedures whose direct purpose is to destroy an embryo or fetus, since it holds that human life must be protected and respected from the moment of conception. There are two types of Catholics, practicing and non-practicing, in which the practicing Catholics are obviously pro-life and

Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).

The only terms used by the scientific community to refer to psychological pain of abortion are those associated with anxiety, depression or some corollaries of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Indeed, testing protocols and treatment of PTSD can be used only if the symptoms provide clear manifestations in a period close to the event. However, the manifestation of suffering of abortion is often part time, or even cannot come to the surface at the approach of its own death. Encysted psychological suffering will then wait for an event occur and strong for the person to make the connection between past events and the suffering of abortion. Some testimonials even mention the period immediately following

Abortion, for the vast majority of people is not a subject that is easy to talk about. According to the World Health Organization, out of the 211 million pregnancies, 46 million end up in abortion and 18 million of those abortions are done in what WHO considers unsafe conditions (World Health Report, 2007). Unsafe conditions are defined by WHO as, “ abortions performed by people lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards, or both” (World Health Report, 2007). The maternal death rate for women who have unsafe abortions is 350 out of 100,000, and there are other complications that are not fatal but can lead to disease or disability (World Health Report, 2007).

Abortion is a debatable question that has been argued over a long period of time. The controversy of abortion has caused or may cause deaths and several violent conflicts between, should abortion be legal or illegal. Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures performed worldwide also known as elective termination of pregnancy (History,2016). Abortion is the destruction of the fetus or unborn child while the child is still in the mother’s womb. This procedure can be done almost anyone from the mother herself to back alley, most common, abortion clinics. More than 40% of all women will end a pregnancy by abortion and remains common in the US. But the questions is should abortion be legal or illegal?

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.

Statement of Problem: Abortion is defined as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Today, especially here in the United States of America, there is a growing issue and debate around the idea of abortion. There is a stigma against abortion because of the possibility of negative religious, political, medical, emotional, and mental consequences it may cause. Each year, worldwide there is an estimated 42 billion abortions that take place. This number does not include abortions that are not performed by professionals. The big issue alongside with abortion itself, is the affects it has on the mental health of females who undergo the procedure.

According to CBS News, there are 12 abortions per 1,000 women in Western Europe, 15 per 1,000 women in Southern Africa, and 17 per 1,000 women in Oceania. In North America, there are 19 abortions per 1,000 women, and 43 abortions per 1,000 women in Eastern Europe. Even though, the number of abortion around the globe is tremendous, very few people stop to think about the consequences of these in the mother. The long-term effects of having an abortion can harm the mother in some many ways and cause irreversible effects. Damage to the mother can be either physical, psychological or both.

Abortion is a deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. There are series of legal, moral and ethical issues which may arise about abortion. Most arguments about abortion are often focused on political insinuations and the legal aspect of such actions. Some frequently asked questions’ regarding the issue is if the practice should be outlawed and regarded as murder or should women have the right to practice it. For example, prior to becoming pregnant, some women feel that they would be able to choose the abortion option without trouble. However, even with reasons why having an abortion would be the best option, some women feel that this decision would not be right for them. On the other hand, some women have a strong belief that abortion is unethical prior to becoming pregnant.

Abortion is a highly-debated topic of whether it is ethical for a woman to decide to have one. Abortion is any of various surgical methods for deliberately terminating a pregnancy. When we speak of abortion today, we mean induced abortion performed by trained doctors, not including miscarriage (MacKinnon & Fiala, 2015). Some current methods of abortion are morning-after pill, mifepristone, uterine or vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage, saline solution, prostaglandin drugs, hysterotomy, and partial birth abortion. Abortion involves questions about rights, happiness, and well-being, as well as the status and value of human life. The people who think it is ethical to have an abortion stand on the Pro-choice side and the people who think it is unethical stand on the Pro-life side. The liberal view of abortion supports abortions and the conservative view opposes abortion. There are many legal, religious, and medical conflicts that are included in the debate over abortion. The arguments made from both sides help us better understand whether a woman should have an abortion.

Abortion was created to aid in certain situations in which a woman could not or did not want to give birth to a child and to care for the child. Abortion is a method in which the baby still in the mother’s womb or the living embryo/fetus is killed. Abortions will be performed for many reasons if it is an unwanted pregnancy for social and/or financial reasons or if there are medical circumstances with the child and/or the mother. A woman may be unable to carry the child or there may be congenital defects and the child would not be able to live afterbirth. The child may have genetic irregularities, such as Down syndrome. The parents may feel that they would be incapable of caring for the child and often the parents may feel that to have

Many women that choose to have an abortion do not realize that it is a dangerous surgery with serious side effects. These side effects are both physical and psychological. Having an abortion is unnatural and interrupts this function of the human body. “The women’s body naturally resists the abortion, causing physical and emotional problems” (“Who does Abortion Affect?”). Almost all of the women who had abortions feel that they have made the wrong decision. The women are not informed about the side effects of abortion. Many women that had abortions said their doctors gave “little or no information about the potential health risks