What's More Traumatic? Abortion or Childbirth?
A common argument against abortion is that women who choose to terminate a pregnancy are psychologically traumatized afterward. While this theory has long been considered questionable (and manipulative) by the pro-choice camp, it has been argued as fact by pro-lifers. But here’s something that could turn the whole angle on its ear.
A just-published study found that women may actually be more psychologically traumatized after giving birth to a baby than they are by having an abortion.
The study followed 365,550 women who either had an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy or gave birth to their first baby over a 12 year period. The women in the study had no prior history of mental illness. The women who had abortions were in need of psychological help at roughly the same rates before and after the procedure. The women who had babies, on the other hand…
were more than twice as likely to seek psychological help in the year following childbirth.
So according to this study, having an abortion is less traumatic for women than having a baby. And that’s not women who had pregnancies they were considering aborting. That’s births across the board.
Of course people are already arguing over whether this study should be discounted for one reason or another. “Psychological problems” are a murky subject, one that’s hard to analyze from the outside, and easy to project onto. There are hormonal issues, cultural issues, religious and moral issues…Who knows why these women sought psychological support, either before or after their abortions or births?
I was never a big subscriber to the irrevocable psychological damage of abortion theory, for reasons reinforced by this study. Abortion definitely has emotional ramifications and reverberations. Sometimes lasting ones. But in an unwanted pregnancy, both choices have lasting ramifications and reverberations. The prevailing wisdom supporting the pro-life stance is that women who have abortions regret their losses, while women who don’t terminate never regret their babies. But is that really always true, or is it just an impossible thing for a woman to admit? And even if instinct prevents women from feeling (or acknowledging) regret, does that mean that having an unwanted child can’t be equally psychologically damaging?
The study was conducted in Denmark between 1995 and 2007 and published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, Read more about this study and its potential impact on abortion politics in Delia Lloyd’s Woman Up column.
photo: Wesley Fryer/flickr
This makes perfect sense to me. As long as the person was emotionally stable going into her choice to have an abortion, it’s understandable that she’d be well equipped to deal with the aftermath of it. Once it’s done, it’s done, there’s no going back.
With a child however, every day can be a constant struggle, new obstacles to overcome, new stresses to deal with, and unexpected life altering changes to deal with. Not to mention the hundreds of decisions that have to made and agonized over (do I send her to this school or that? Breast or bottle?…) and regretted, instead of just one significant one.
I had an abortion at age 20, and while it was the most difficult decision I ever made, I’ve never regretted it or suffered undue stress because of it. I know it was the right decision for me at the time. Now at 8+ months pregnant with my first, I find it much more stressful and agonizing to deal with than the decision to have my abortion. Am I taking enough vitamins? Have I put on enough weight? What if the birth has problems? What if she’s got _____? What if I can’t breastfeed? What if she’s special needs? What if…..???? Don’t feel like I need therapy (yet), but I could easily see how many women/couples could.
Thanks for this article, I hope this study (and other like it) find some real traction in this debate.
i think it really depends on who you are and what your situation is – as in anything dealing with humans. i have experienced both and have been changed forever by both. i was in very different situations for each event so that obviously played a major factor. i am still not over the abortion and it was over 10 yrs ago.i think it is harder to get help or sympathy for an abortion because it is such a nastily faught about topic. the birth was 2 yrs ago and i am still dealing with all that comes with this major ife change as well. the only way i can see that one could say that chilbearing is more of a stressor is because you have to deal with it every second of the day for about the next 20 years(assuming you keep the child). an abortion choice can be put aside mentally from time to time because you have to live your life. thats not to say when it comes back, it is not just as strong an emotion. i don’t think any study can tell the world what i am feeling about my life.
Thanks for a meaningful piece of writing. So important to discuss this topic. Much appreciated. -Lisa
I had an abortion when I was 16. It was from a man I just met 4 months earlier. We only had sex once and I was pregnant. I talked to my parents and they agreed to pay half the cost of the abortion and Mike who was 21 at the time paid the other half. Today Iam married to Mike for what is going on 31 years. We have four beautiful children and two grandchildren. When I think about what I did and how it affected me I feel it was the wrong decision. Every December 20th I remember the abortion and cry. I now have a baby in heaven waiting for the rest of his/her family. Mike and I have never discussed the abortion after it was done but he knows how I feel from comments through the years. We are both sad it happened.
The study was funded by the pro-abortion Susan Buffett Foundation that funds pro- abortion projects.The Foundation obtained the results that they paid for.
It is understandable that a woman will suffer psychological problems as a result of an abortion. Women are uniquely programmed to nurture and protect their children in utero. It is always wrong to kill the innocent and it is natural that a woman will suffer as a result of taking the life of another human being especially when it is her own child.The study is a sham and no service to women because it deliberately misrepresents its findings to achieve the result that was wanted. The study discounts the 50 per cent of women who had repeat abortions and those whose abortion was after 13 weeks gestation. It only includes mental health problems that are recorded in the first year after the abortion. It disregards the large number of women who dont seek help for psychiatric disorders. It is well known that repeat abortions increase the incidence of mental ill health and that many cases of mental illness occur many years after the abortion. It is outrageous to tell the thousands of women who have been wounded and mentally damaged by abortion that they dont exist and that abortion does not damage their mental health.The Care Net Pregnancy centres in the United States had 23,000 women and men seeking post abortion help in 2009 alone. There are over 30 studies including the renowned study conducted by pro-choice Professor Feregusson of Christchurch that reveal that abortion damages women’s mental health, with an increased risk of severe depression, grief, sorrow, suicidal intentions and drug and alcohol abuse.
Thanks to Doreen & Ken O. for speaking the truth about abortion. I would like to ask the question, “does a murderer regret his/her actions?” Obviously some do, some never do. However, lawyers still use the “insantity plea” at some trials? WHY? Because IF in a court of law, society states that if one human being takes the life of another human being, the murderer probably was not in his/her ‘right mind.’ Only difference today is that a small minority of the U.S population choose legalized murder. We have allowed that to continue to the tune of 53 million innocent lives, yes that is with an “m”. 53 million human beings “murdered” because two other human beings were not acting responsible. Choice starts BEFORE intercourse, NOT AFTER. There seems to be lots of excuses about the reasons it is OK to have an abortion. Being a parent is a HUGE responsibility and takes a lot of patience and prayer. Some parents are not able to handle the stress of raising a child and especially if that child is difficult child or handicapped. Get the help, parents, you may need, because it is NOT the child’s fault and does not deserved to die because of anger. If it becomes too demanding, give the child up to a family who says they will love and care for this child. We are not God, and certainly don’t have right to kill another human being, at any age; pre-born or post-born.
shar
this is such a horrible argument from pro-choicers
Well, its better than the nonexistent argument from the anti-choicers.
Yet another flawed “scientific” study. Women who had abortions are not encouraged to get counceling, as a matter if fact usually the abortion is hardly talked about, if ever again. Women who give birth to children are encouraged, asked at postpartum appointments, are they doing okay and do they want counceling? She gets an abortion and there is no aftercare at all. THAT is why childbirth is “proven” to be more tramatic.
SHAR- You are so naive and uneducated it literally makes me sick to know people who think like you live in society.
Voiceover- I know am new to this site but I just wanted to say that I had an abortion when I was 19,now 28, for personal and medical reasons. The place I went had a follow up appointment and gave me lots of resources for counseling and also how to deal with the psychological feelings I had/could have afterward. I don’t know where you got your ‘no counseling after abortion’ information but as someone who knows firsthand I disagree. No matter how many people say abortion should be illegal it’s still going to occur.