| Topic: |
Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"and/or www.mantra.com/jai Dr. Jai Maharaj" |
| Date: |
24 Feb 2006 04:57:13 AM |
| Object: |
STUDIES SHOW ABORTION'S NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON MOTHERS |
Studies Show Abortion's Negative Effects on Mothers
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1584019/posts
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: STUDIES SHOW ABORTION'S NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON MOTHERS |
25 Feb 2006 02:42:27 AM |
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Coerced abortions. Pressured into abortions, forced into abortions they
do not really want. Yes, I'm sure that would have a negative effect on
a woman. But the vast majority of the abortions that were the woman's
choice and where she was supported in that choice have had either a
mild or neutral effect (no difference or only minor psychological
effects) or in some cases even a positive effect (usually relief) on a
woman. I don't need to read the links to know that.
The key word when it comes to "negative effects of abortion on women"
is that funny word that pops up every now and again, that word is
"coerced".
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| User: "Craig Chilton -- IMPEACH Perfidious Bush... NOW!!" |
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| Title: Re: STUDIES SHOW ABORTION'S NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON MOTHERS |
26 Feb 2006 09:25:57 AM |
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On 25 Feb 2006 00:42:27 -0800,
<rhinestoneau@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
[ ... ]
Coerced abortions. Pressured into abortions, forced into
abortions they do not really want. Yes, I'm sure that would
have a negative effect on a woman. But the vast majority of
the abortions that were the woman's choice and where she
was supported in that choice have had either a mild or neutral
effect (no difference or only minor psychological effects) or in
some cases even a positive effect (usually relief) on a
woman. I don't need to read the links to know that.
The key word when it comes to "negative effects of abortion
on women" is that funny word that pops up every now and
again, that word is "coerced".
"THE MYTH OF POST-ABORTION TRAUMA"
by Henry P David PhD
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Induced abortion is one of the oldest forms of fertility
regulation. Perhaps no other elective procedure has evoked
as much public debate, generated such emotional and moral
controversy or received greater sustained attention from the
media. As has long been recognised, there is no psycholog-
ically painless way of coping with an unwanted pregnancy.
While an abortion may elicit feelings of regret, guilt or loss, an
alternative solution, such as a forced marriage, giving a baby
up for adoption or adding an unwanted child to an already
strained partner relationship, is also likely to be accompanied
by psychological problems for the woman, the child and
society.
Of all the complications of abortion, psychological responses
are the most difficult to assess and evaluate -- far more so than
mortality and morbidity statistics. Assuming that psychiatric or
psychological morbidity is a real and measurable phenomenon,
the explanation for the wide range of opinions expressed in the
literature may well lie in the inadequacy of much of the published
work. Included in the scientific deficiencies are an overemphasis
on clinical case histories that ignore the large majority of women
who terminate unwanted pregnancies and never seek post-
operative mental health consultation; the absence of standard-
ized follow-up procedures; failure to reach consensus on
diagnostic psychological criteria; or disagreement on psycholog-
ical variables related to the sociocultural context within which
the abortion decision occurs. Differing political, moral, ethical
and religious perspectives impinge on how abortion is perceived
by diverse observers.
Post-abortion trauma was initially described by Rue1 as a
variant of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Subsequently it
has been asserted that in 1987 the American Psychiatric
Association acknowledged in its newly revised manual of
diagnostic criteria, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders III-R (DSM-III-R) that abortion is a type of
'psychosocial stressor.' However, the American Psychiatric
Association never published a statement suggesting this.
Neither the1987 nor the 1994 revision of the APA Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual (DSM III-R and IV) mention abortion in
relation to post-traumatic stress disorder. Indeed, the only
mention of abortion in DSM IV is spontaneous abortion.
As defined by the APA, PTSD is a disabling condition
'following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving
direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or
threatened death or serious injury'. Likely stressors cited by
APA as examples of PTSD include military combat, violent
personal assault, terrorist attack, and being held hostage. It
is quite a stretch to claim abortion as a stressor likely to induce
PTSD.
Usdin2, one of the major developers of the concept of
post-traumaticstress disorder noted that one of the criteria for
PTSD is experiencing 'an event that is outside the range of
usual human experience and that would be markedly
distressing to almost anyone.' Considering that more than
30 million women in the USA and four million women in the
UK have experienced abortion since its legalisation it can
hardly be said that the abortion experience is outside the
range of usual human experience. There has been no
reported increase in public or private mental health services
for women attributing their current psychological problems
to abortion.
The rationale for post-abortion syndrome (PAS) was
developed by A C Speckhard in 1985 in an unpublished
thesis based on interviews with 30 women recruited for her
doctoral dissertation in sociology at the University of
Minnesota. The women had been recruited because they
deemed their abortion experience to have been 'highly
stressful'. The time between the retrospective account and
the most recent abortion varied from one to 25 years. Both
legal and clandestine abortions were included. 46 per cent
of the sample had second trimester abortions and four per
cent experienced third trimester terminations, both known to
be more psychologically stressful than first trimester proced-
ures. Whereas over 90 per cent of all women having
abortions in 1990 had them in the first trimester, only 50 per
cent of Speckhard's sample reported first trimester abortions.
More than nine out of 10 (92 per cent) of the women
recalled feelings of anger, hostility or rage toward individuals
(including partner, medical professionals and significant others)
who were perceived as having been coercive in the abortion
decision-making process. Moreover, 96 per cent of the
subjects 'regarded abortion as the taking of a life or as murder,
' an observation very likely to heighten feelings of guilt and
perceptions of stress. Speckhard later cautioned readers that
'the generalisability of the results is severely limited by the size
of the sample and the sampling methodology,' adding that 'the
results presented do not necessarily apply to all women who
have abortions, or even to that proportion of women who are
highly stressed following abortion.' It was indeed an atypical
sample.
Recognising the political, ethical and moral issues intertwined
with abortion and in response to questions raised in the United
States Congress about the medical and mental health effects of
abortion, the American Psychological Association, in 1989,
convened an expert panel to examine psychological factors.
The panel's mission was not to assess values but to consider
the best available evidence on psychological responses to
abortion. It focused on studies with the most rigorous research
designs, reporting findings on the psychological status of women
who had legal abortions under non-restrictive circumstances, that
is, on request in the first trimester and not solely on grounds of
physical or mental health.
The panel found that psychological distress is generally greatest
before the abortion when the woman has to decide how to resolve
an unwanted pregnancy. Responses after abortion reflect the
range of psychological experience and the resources a woman has
for coping with negative life events. While there may be temporary
sensations of regret, sadness or guilt the weight of the evidence
indicates that legal abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in the first
trimester does not pose a severe psychological hazard for the vast
majority of women. Indeed, most women report experiencing a
feeling of reliefpof anxiety lifted.
A longer-term study3 found that the wellbeing of 773 women,
interviewed annually in a national sample of 5,295 women, was
unrelated to their abortion experience eight years earlier. Women
who had had an abortion had a statistically significant higher global
self-esteem rating than women who had never had an abortion.
This difference was even greater when comparing aborting women
with those delivering unwanted pregnancies (who had the lowest
self-esteem). Women who had experienced repeat abortions did
not differ in self-esteem from women who had never had an
abortion. In all, the evidence confirmed earlier findings that factors
other than the abortion experience itself determine post abortion
emotional status, particularly how a woman perceives her preg-
nancy and how she believes it to be perceived in her immediate
social environment. Some women continually reconstruct and
reinterpret past events in the light of subsequent experience and
can be pressured into feeling guilt and shame long afterwards.
Denmark offers unique opportunities for research in reproduc-
tive health because it has a uniform national population registra-
tion system that provides access to national abortion, birth and
admission to psychiatric hospital registers. Linkage among these
registers makes it possible to compare the risks of psychiatric
hospital admission following abortion and childbirth. However,
because there may be a bias against hospitalising a new mother,
particularly if she is nursing, the relative psychological risk of
abortion compared with childbirth may be exaggerated by using
hospital admission as an operational indicator of psychiatric
illness.
Controlling for previous psychiatric history, first time psychiatric
hospital admissions were tracked three months post-abortion
and postpartum and for all other women experiencing no fertility
event under age 50 residing in Denmark. Data were obtained
on 27,234 women terminating pregnancy, 71,378 women
carrying to term and the total population of 1,169,819 women
15-49 years old.4
Among women who were married or living in a stable partner
relationship, the post-pregnancy risk of admission to a psychiatric
hospital was about the same for abortions or deliveries: approx-
imately 1.3 per 1,000 abortions and 1.2 per 1,000 deliveries.
While the difference between rates for abortions and deliveries
was not statistically significant, the rate for the total population
of women was considerably lower (0.7 per 1,000). Among a
smaller group of separated, divorced or widowed women, those
who had terminated pregnancies showed a substantially higher
psychiatric admission rate (6.4 per 1,000) than did separated,
divorced or widowed women carrying to term (1.7 per 1,000).
Women who are divorced, separated or widowed may be
relatively more likely to be terminating pregnancies that were
originally intended, placing them at higher risk for negative
post-abortion psychological reactions. However, in the
aggregate, there appeared to be little risk to psychological
well-being after either abortion or delivery in Denmark.
In a longer term (up to 11 years) prospective cohort study5
of 13,261women, organised jointly by the Royal Colleges of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and of General Practitioners
in the United Kingdom, there were four comparison groups:
6,151 women who did not request abortion, 6,410 who
obtained an abortion, 379 whose request for abortion was
denied, and 371 who requested an abortion and then
changed their minds.
Among the study's key findings were that (a) among
women with equivalent past psychiatric histories there were
no significant differences between the comparison groups in
overall rates of psychiatric illness; (b) women with a previous
history of psychosis were more likely to experience a psychotic
episode during the period of the study than those who had no
such history and that termination of pregnancy did not appear
to increase the risk; (c) women with a past history of non-
psychotic disorder or no history of psychiatric disorder who
had a termination were significantly less likely to have a
psychotic episode than those who did not request a termin-
ation; and (d) in women with no previous history of psychosis
the risk of psychosis after termination appeared to be lower
than after childbirth.
The authors note that many women were lost to follow-up
during the study and that at the end just 2,122 (34.4 per cent)
of the termination group and 3,000 (42.4 per cent) of those
who did not request a termination were still under observation
but that comparisons between the groups were still valid.
Severe psychological reactions after abortion are infrequent.
Psychoses are very uncommon, being reported in only 0.3 to 1.2
per 1,000 legal abortions. Individual case studies and anecdotal
reports of severe stress or psychopathology following abortion
abound in some of the literature but there is no clear evidence of
causal linkage to abortion. While such responses can be emotion-
ally overwhelming for the woman concerned and for her family,
the number of such cases is very small, and has been characteri
zed by former US Surgeon General C Everett Koop as 'minuscule
from a public health perspective'. Women identified in the
research literature as being at some risk for negative psycholog-
ical reactionspand in potential need of special counsellingpare
those who terminate a very much wanted pregnancy for medical
reasons; lack support from partners or parents for their decision;
were coerced into making a decision they subsequently regretted;
are conflicted about deeply held religious values; are uncertain of
their coping abilities beforehand; blame themselves for the
pregnancy; delay into the second trimester or had a previous
psychiatric episode.
For the vast majority of women, an abortion will be followed by a
mixture of emotions, with a predominance of positive feelings. This
holds immediately after abortion and for some time afterward. Little
is known about very long term effects beyond 10 years. However,
the positive picture reported up to eight years after abortion makes
it unlikely that more negative responses will emerge later. Severe
negative reactions are rare. The time of greatest stress is likely to
be before the abortion decision is made. In all, evidence from the
research literature suggests that, in the aggregate, legal abortion
of an unwanted pregnancy in the first trimester does not pose a
psychological hazard for most women. They tend to cope success-
fully and go on with their lives. There is, as yet, no credible
evidence for the existence of post-abortion syndrome.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 -- Rue VM. Abortion and family relations, Testimony presented
before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, US Senate Judiciary
Committee, US Senate, 97th Congress, Washington DC 1981.
2 -- Usdin G. Psychiatry, letters, February 1990.
3 -- Russo NF, Zierk KL. Abortion, childbearing and women's
well-being, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice
1992, 23: 269-280.
4 -- David HP. Post-abortion and postpartum psychiatric
hospitalisation in R Porter and M O'Connor (eds) Abortion: Medical
progress and social implications Ciba Symposium No 45 London,
Pitman 1985,150-161.
5 -- Gilchrist AC, Hannaford PC, Frank P, Kay CR. Termination of
pregnancy and psychiatric morbidity, British Journal of Psychiatry
1995, 167: 243-248.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepared for presentation at the international conference on abortion,
Abortion Matters, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 27-29 March 1996.
An expanded, fully referenced version of this paper is available from
Birth Control Trust.
-- Craig Chilton <xanadu222_@mchsi.com>
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| User: "Ray Fischer" |
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| Title: Re: STUDIES SHOW ABORTION'S NON-NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON MOTHERS |
26 Feb 2006 12:58:23 PM |
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Dr. Jai Maharaj <usenet@mantra.com88d and/or www.mantra.com/jai> wrote:
Studies Show Abortion's Negative Effects on Mothers
========================================================================
WASHINGTON -- Social scientists have known for years that the
availability of legal abortion is not associated with long-term
psychological distress in women who use it. An eight-year longitudinal
study involving nearly 5,300 young women published in 1992 found that
the best predictor of well-being in women over the course of the study
was their well-being at the start of the study, not their income
level, job status, level of education or martial status or -- quite
specifically -- whether they had had an abortion. Now a new follow-up
study, published in the current edition of the American Psychological
Association's (APA) journal Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice finds that the same conclusion still applies regardless of
religious or racial differences.
The study, by psychologists Nancy Felipe Russo, Ph.D., of Arizona
State University and Amy J. Dabul, Ph.D., of Phoenix College, is
further analysis of data gathered from a national sample of 5,295
women aged 14 to 24 (in 1979) who were interviewed annually from 1979
to 1987. The women's well-being was assessed using a reliable and
valid measure of self-esteem in 1980 and again in 1987. This time, in
addition to looking at variables such as income, employment and
education, the researchers looked at race and religious beliefs and
practices to see if they had any effect on women's well-being after
having had an abortion.
They found that, overall, White women and Black women did not differ
statistically on measures of self-esteem. Approximately the same
proportion of Black women and White women reported having had an
abortion (14.6% and 14.9% respectively), but Black women had more
abortions than White women and Black women who had abortions were more
likely than White women to be mothers (86% vs 57%). Nonetheless,
having had an abortion (or more than one) had no relation with
self-esteem in either group: "For both Black women and White women,
prior self-esteem was the biggest predictor of subsequent
self-esteem," the authors note. The same held true when they compared
Black and White women who reported a religious affiliation and high or
low church attendance with those who were not religious.
Since the type of religion to which women who had an abortion belonged
also did not make a difference in their post-abortion well-being, the
researchers focused specifically on Catholic versus non-Catholic
women, given that the Catholic Church "has a consistent antiabortion
position that is vigorously promoted."
Their findings in this analysis were more complex: non- Catholic women
who had high church attendance and one abortion had the highest
self-esteem; non-Catholic women who had low church attendance and
repeat abortions had the lowest self-esteem. But at the same time,
high-church-attendance non-Catholic women with one abortion had
significantly higher self-esteem than did low-church- attendance
Catholic women with no abortions. "Although highly religious Catholic
women were slightly more likely to exhibit postabortion psychological
distress than other women," the researchers say, "this fact is
explained by lower pre-existing well-being."
Given these findings, the researchers ask: "Do highly distressed women
who have had an abortion exist?" And, they answer: "Yes. But their
distress is likely to be rooted in events and conditions that existed
before they became pregnant. Legal abortion per se does not increase a
woman's risk of negative well- being."
Article: "The Relationship of Abortion to Well-Being: Do Race and
Religion Make a Difference?" by Nancy Felipe Russo, Ph.D., Arizona
State University, and Amy J. Dabul, Ph.D., Phoenix College, in
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol. 28, No. 1.
(Full texts available from the APA Public Affairs Office.)
--
Ray Fischer
rfischer@sonic.net
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| User: "Adam H." |
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| Title: Re: STUDIES SHOW ABORTION'S NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON MOTHERS |
24 Feb 2006 06:05:50 AM |
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On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:57:13 GMT, usenet@mantra.com88d and/or
www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj) wrote:
Studies Show Abortion's Negative Effects on Mothers
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1584019/posts
And looks to be simply chock-full of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc
fallacies, so doesn't really show anything. Of course, it's hard to
know exactly without any link to the study, so the post is crap.
---
I bought a Venus Fly Trap today. I was going to name it
‘Republican’, but the fly trap is beneficial to the
environment. I’ll save that name - someday I might find
a plant that eats poor people and minorities.
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