A commenter says one reason why the abortion debate is stuck is that at least the Right (and perhaps the Left) isn't being completely honest about their side of the debate. The issue is supposed to be about the horrors of abortion, taking a human life and the regret many women feel afterwards. The solution should simply be to reduce the number of abortions. Even many on the left are pro-life. However, if it were that simple, we could reduce the abortion count quite simply: provide comprehensive sex education and provide birth control to everyone who wants it. Ain't gonna happen soon, because the Right isn't interested in just reducing abortion. They also want to dictate sexual morality (including the possibility as pregnancy as punishment) and dictate family structure. And that is the choice in "pro-choice" that the Left wants to maintain.
I commented the Left's motives may also not be pure. In this case it seems to be individual positions, not the views of the movement as a whole. The second part of this article is about some truly bizarre and sick "performance art" which doesn't contribute to the debate and allows the Right another way to demonize the Left. I wish I could have split the article.
I want to start by saying that I agree that that the arguments made on both sides are simplistic and not honest. For example, the word pro-choice implies that women who have abortions feel that they have a choice -- most do not. This is a phrase created for political reasons, not out of women's experiences.
ReplyDeleteI also want to note that not all women experience grief after an abortion. In actuality, a lot of women don't. Research shows that women who have a history of depression or wanted to have the child are also likely to experience depression after the abortion; women without a history of depression are not likely to experience post-abortion blues. Further, women who want to have abortions but do not have a great deal of anxiety and depression relating to their pregnancy.
Also, women who have an abortion report having higher self esteem than women who don't.
In my opinion, the myth that abortion causes psychological distress is another tool of the right. Their misinformation is a tool to create undue fear and anxiety, where it would not otherwise exist.
My information is best summed up by this article:
Russo, Nancy. "Understanding Emotional Response After Abortion." In Lectures on the Psychology of Women, eds Chrisler, Joan C., Carla Golden, Patricia Denise Rozee, 260-273. New York: McGraw Hill, 1996.
Thank you for the comments about the Right's claims of the psychological distress of abortion.
ReplyDeleteTo verify, your comments about "pro-choice" mean that a woman has found herself in a precarious situation and sees the only way out of it is an abortion. From her point of view, that is no "choice" at all. Did I get that right?
If the goal of the abortion debate is to reduce the number of abortions then women need ways to avoid getting into that precarious situation. And the Right seems to want to eliminate those options as well.