APA report: Abortion is not a threat to women's mental health

[ccharles000]

This just in from the American Psychological Association: "'Post-abortion syndrome,' post-smashmortion schmyndrome."

The focus of the abortion battle is shifting from "what goes on inside a woman's womb" to "what goes on inside her head"
According to the latest draft of its new report -- a comprehensive analysis of published English-language, peer-reviewed studies on the topic since 1989 -- abortion does not in and of itself pose a threat to women's mental health.

Specifically: "The most methodologically sound research indicates that among women who have a single, legal, first-trimester abortion of an unplanned pregnancy for nontherapeutic reasons, the relative risks of mental health problems are no greater than the risks among women who deliver an unplanned pregnancy." ("Nontherapeutic" as in elective; see Page 11 of the draft.) And: The prevalence of mental health problems observed among those women "was consistent with normative rates of comparable mental health problems in the general population of women in the United States." (Note: The report draft was the most up-to-date version available at press time. APA associate executive director of communications Kim Mills told Broadsheet that the APA's governing body is expected to vote to accept a final draft later Wednesday morning.)

Yes, the report acknowledges, some women may experience grief and sadness, even "clinically significant ... depression and anxiety" following an abortion. Of course some do. But, it notes, "following an" does not equal "caused by." No smoking-gun study found more than correlation or persuasively separated abortion's emotional aftermath, such as it may be, from other co-occurring risk factors including poverty, exposure to violence and history of substance use. What does seem to predispose women to some degree of emotional fallout? Termination (for medical reasons, say) of a wanted pregnancy, pressure from others to end the pregnancy, and the perceived need to keep a termination secret because, ahem, of the stigma associated with abortion.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2008/08/13/apa_abortion_report/index.html

[fasttense]

1. I had an abortion about 35 years ago. It was the smartest thing I ever did.

I was a teen and just starting my life. If I had carried that fetus to term, I would have been stuck in a small town with no money, and no opportunity. Since then, I've met a man who is the love of my life (we've been married 25 years). I've had two healthy, capable, smart children. I've traveled the world and have a good retirement plan. None of this would have been possible, if I had carried that fetus to term.

I was sad that it had to be done, but was glad it was perfectly legal. I didn't have the added burden of having to hunt down a back alley abortionist and risk my life and health.

A woman can not control her life, if she can not control when and if she has children. This is what the religiously insane want for American women. To be slaves to our biology again.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. Compare with the psychological effects of an unwanted (or even a wanted) baby...

NT

[ccharles000]

3. I agree

[Lorien]

5. No kidding

My mom had me before Roe V. Wade. Lack of choice meant that she and my father were pressured into marriage (which soon ended in divorce), she spent much of her life being really unhappy and reminding me that I was an unwanted mistake. It was unhealthy for her AND me. I don't believe that any child should be brought into the world if it's unwanted.

[Cerridwen]

4. APA prooves water is wet and catches up with what women have known for

millenia.

The only danger to a woman's mental health after she has an abortion is the societal, "religious" based propaganda catapult that tries to guilt women into thinking they've done something bad, which she then, sometimes "buys" into.

Even Ms. Roe became a "born again" and went all "repentant."