Pro Choice Essays

Abortion can be defined as when a woman decides to end her pregnancy before the fetus/embryo can survive outside of the mother’s uterus. This can be a controversial topic for some due to where they take position in (Such as a Pro-Life or Pro-Choice supporter). The reason why this is a controversial topic is because there have been differences in opinion. For instance Pro-Life supporters argue that a woman should not decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy while Pro-choice supporters argue that it’s the woman’s choice. Whatever the position may be, there have been thoughts for some time now that abortion is bad for the woman because it can cause “psychological and physical effects” on the woman’s general well being. Pro-Life supporters will usually argue that there are indeed Psychological and physical effects that can affect the woman. For example, they argue that some psychological effect that a woman could suffer after an abortion is; grief, self-hatred, suicide thoughts, eating disorders and use of drugs and that some physical effects are heavy bleeding, damage to the woman’s uterus(like being penetrated), Breast cancer,or even death(due to over bleeding or the pain).

In Liz Townsend’s report she says that some of the effects that can be are “The studies showed that the loss of a child leads to varying degrees of physical (poor appetite, disturbed sleep patterns, low energy/fatigue); emotional (anger, sadness, depression, frustration, self-blame/guilt); cognitive (hallucinations of a baby’s cry, phantom fetal movement); and behavioral (substance abuse, avoidance of pregnant women and children, isolation) reactions (Liz Townsend, Page 1).”.This effects have been heard for a long time, but have not been able to be proved right or wrong. These “side effects” have not been able to proven due to some women not willing to talk about what they really feel as it is stated in Dr.Franz studies, “studies claim that most women after an abortion simply report feeling relieved that the ‘problem’ has been eliminated. However, this tells us nothing about the actual impact it is having on the woman’s psyche(Dr. Franz, Page 1).” This doesn’t really tell us anything because it may not be true because they might not want to express/say what they are feeling in reality “a great deal of difficulty evaluating (Dr.Franz, Page 1).”. Many women may not want to actually express their pain for fear of judgment they may get. On of the most common/known effects that a woman can have is breast cancer, breast cancer has been said to be a major “physical effect”, it has been said that woman who have had an abortion are most prone to having it than woman who haven’t had an abortion. This link has not been able to be proven true or false because several studies have been conducted where there is evidence for yes and no. For example, in The Network News, they released some studies that state that it shows that it does and doesn’t affect. The first study shows that there does exist a link between abortion and breats cancer “ An oft-cited study was reported by Pike et al. in 1981. It found that the risk of breast cancer was increased 2.4 times in women who had either a spontaneous or induced abortion before a first full term pregnancy (FFTP). Hadjimichael found that breast cancer risk was increased 3.5 times among women who had experienced an abortion before an FFTP (Hadjimichael, 1986). A Danish study found a smaller increase in risk (1.4 times in a group of women whose first pregnancies terminated before 28 weeks (Ewertz, 1987). Howe found that the risk of breast cancer was increased by 1.9 times among women who had undergone an induced abortion (Howe, 1989) (Network News, Page 1).”.this shows that abortion automatically increased the risk of having breast cancer. on the other hand, the other study released shows that there is no connection, “In 1981, Vessey reported no indication of any association between breast cancer and abortion (Vessey, 1981).

LaVecchia and Parazzini also studied the relationship between breast cancer and abortions/ miscarriages. In their 1987 study, the researchers reported, ‘little relation of breast cancer risk with abortions or breast cancer risk with abortions or miscarriages’ (LaVecchia, 1987). In a recent study the same the same researchers again found no consistent relationship (Parazzini, 1991). Data reported by Rosenberg et at. ‘suggest that the risk of breast cancer is not materially affected by abortion, regardless of whether it occurs before or after the first term birth’ (Rosenberg, 1988). .The risks were equal for women who had experienced an abortion and those who had not. In summary, the evidence for the link between abortion and breast cancer is completely inconclusive at present (Network News, page 1).”, this study showed that there was indeed no relation.therefore after these studies, one cannot argue that there is or isn’t since the studies show both sides. After searching many sources I found out that breast cancer is a controversial topic due to the variety of answers I got (which are the “proof” of connection and no connection between abortion and breast cancer). It can be concluded that maybe the woman who had a rise in the possibility of breast cancer was due to how they handled the abortion or what type of abortion they had. In conclusion, it can be concluded that there can be some effects on the woman after an abortion, but it really just depends on the woman’s body(how she handles during and after the abortion). The effects of abortion may or may not be true but as stated earlier, one cannot be sure because there can be women who could have lied about not really feeling anything.

In addition, the “effects” after an abortion are also as controversial as the “link” between breast cancer and abortion because there have been several studies that show both sides, also the actual believing that there is indeed effects depends also on the woman’s ideology, For example, if a woman was raised pro-choice her ideologies would be different to one raised pro-choice in the way that since they are different views, one will believe that abortion is bad because she was raised by people who thought that and therefore would actually believe in the effects but the other one would believe there are no effects. The studies could also have been biased by the experiment conductors. For Instance, if the experiment conductor was either of the positions he or she would lean more to whatever benefits his beliefs and that wouldn’t really tell us anything, it would be like the women’s not telling the truth about how they really feel. Lastly, we cannot conclude whether there are or aren’t any “effects” after an abortion because in all the studies there is a possibility that there may be bias for a certain position or the other. This is not favorable but as in what I was able to comprehend from my research is that it is important to see/read more than three studies to understand what they say and it is important to know how to determine bias or else you/we could get confused if we try to look for an answer. I was also able to conclude that the type of abortion a woman had has a lot to do with the effects a woman gets, for example, a spontaneous abortion has fewer risks because the body naturally disposed of the fetus rather than an intentional one because the body wasn’t ready. ‘Koop finds abortion evidence ‘inconclusive.’ (C. Everett Koop; mental & physical health effects of abortion).’

References

1. Science, vol. 243, no. 4892, 1989, p. 730+. Academic OneFile,https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A7355131/AONE?u=j057803&sid=AONE&xid=89549a5f.Accessed 28 Jan. 2019. Sully,
2. Elizabeth A., et al. ‘Abortion in Zimbabwe: A national study of the incidence of induced abortion, unintended pregnancy and post-abortion care in 2016.’ PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 10, 2018, p. e0205239. Academic OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A559617273/AONE?u=j057803&sid=AONE&xid=11abe137. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019. Dyer, Clare.
3. ‘Woman sues for not being warned about the psychological effects of abortion. (News).’ British Medical Journal, 22 June 2002, p. 1477. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A89146472/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=c63e3aad. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
4. ‘Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion.’ Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, Fall 2003, p. 45. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A110807198/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=ef60bef2 Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
5. ‘Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion.’ Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, Fall 2003, p. 45. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A110807198/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=ef60bef2 .Accessed 28 Jan. 2019. ‘The Truth Is: Abortion Hurts Women.’ National Right to Life News, Aug. 2003, p. 3. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A107899632/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=c93877ca. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
6. ‘Abortion and breast cancer: the unproven link.’ The Network News, Mar.-Apr. 1994, p. 3+. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A15430598/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=9fc3e328. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
7. ‘APA’s Flawed Report on Mental Health and Abortion.’ National Right to Life News, Sept. 2008, p. age 4. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A191961579/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=8c22e451.Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
8. ‘The Cost of ‘Choice’: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion.’ National Right to Life News, Feb. 2005, p. 22. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A128293157/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=3b68a33a Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
9. ‘Report Calls for Further Study of Effects of Abortion on Women.’ National Right to Life News, June 2009, p. age 16. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A204073126/ITOF?u=j057803&sid=ITOF&xid=ffaa4f7c Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.