It is health care
Access to abortion important
Guest writer Dr. Mary Gunter (Feb. 10) maintains that abortion is not health care. If removing a fetus before it can result in the mother becoming extremely ill or dying of sepsis or hemorrhage isn’t health care, what is?
If an unwanted pregnancy would alter a woman’s work, education, or ability to care for existing children to the point that she becomes emotionally distraught, is abortion not mental health care? If a young girl becomes pregnant before her body has developed enough to safely carry and give birth, is an abortion not health care?
She states that domestic and intimate partner violence is common surrounding abortion. Yet, in the USA, murder by those same intimate partners is the leading cause of death of women who are pregnant and up to one year postpartum. Nearly 20 percent of women, especially adolescents, experience violence during pregnancy.
The doctor has worked with “females who experienced clinical depression, suicidal ideation, and/or estranged romantic and family relationships surrounding abortion, as well as deep shame, castigation, fear, self-blame. Grief and loss are poignant, frequent and largely unaddressed.” Those same mental states are frequently experienced by women who have an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
The 30-year longitudinal study she quotes reflecting a 30 percent correlation between abortion and mental disorders sounds very conclusive, doesn’t it? However, when the women in the study were analyzed concurrently (at the time of the procedure), those who had an induced abortion were 1.49 times more likely to have a mental health problem than women who did not become pregnant. The women who lost a pregnancy for other reasons had a 1.48 times increase in mental health disorders than those who did not become pregnant. Basically no difference, so it’s hard to claim that the reason for mental conditions is due to the induced abortion.
Five years later, the induced group remained nearly the same (1.48) while the group who lost their pregnancy for other reasons was reduced to 1.26 times more likely to have a mental health disorder than women who were not pregnant. Interestingly, the women in the study who delivered a wanted baby at term experienced mental health issues slightly less (0.91) than women who did not become pregnant. But five years later those same women were 1.27 times more likely to experience subsequent mental disorders. No one is using that statistic to encourage women to forgo child-rearing in order to maintain their mental health. The authors of the study concluded that “the overall effects of abortion on mental health proved to be small.”
Other studies have found that the majority of women who suffer longterm mental disorders following abortion are those who were convinced to do so against their wishes. Women who obtained illegal abortions or those who had to leave states which banned abortion also tended to have more lasting depression, guilt and anxiety due to the perceived stigma. According to the president of the American Psychological Association (May 2022): “Rigorous, long-term psychological research demonstrates clearly that people who are denied abortions are more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety, lower life satisfaction and lower self-esteem compared with those who are able to obtain abortions.”
According to a 2018 study, women who are denied abortion are four times more likely to live below the poverty level, remain linked to a violent partner or to raise children alone.
Dr. Gunter regrets that prochoice advocates do not provide support for women who choose to continue an unplanned pregnancy. If one concedes that it is Republicans/conservatives who oppose abortion and worked for years to overturn Roe v. Wade, what policies do they embrace? They object to expanding health care (and have fought to minimize and overturn the ACA), the child tax credit, food services for needy children (Arkansas was an exception), increasing the minimum wage, equal rights for women, birth control, and are more than willing to shut down the government, cutting services to those most in need.
The progressive, liberal Democrats, on the other hand, believe that health care should be expanded to everyone and that the social safety net is a necessity, and yes, they believe in a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term.
Access to abortion (and birth control) is important for equal opportunities for women and their economic stability. Being able to plan the size of one’s family and choose when to begin that family allows children to be raised in a more stable, loving environment.