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Abortion Psychologically Damages Teen Girls? Not Really, Study Says
Filed under: News, In The News, Weird But True, Health & Safety: Teens, Development: Teens, Social & Emotional Growth: Teens, Activities: Teens, Research Reveals: Teens, New In Pop Culture
Guilt? Not here. Credit: Corbis
Actually ... not so much.
Teenage girls aren't booking that particular guilt trip. A new study says girls who get abortions are no more likely to feel guilty or depressed than their peers who got pregnant and had their babies.
Stern warnings about dire psychological consequences have been part of the anti-abortion arsenal for almost 40 years, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the the right of privacy includes the right to have an abortion.
But researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California say abortion foes are peddling fear rather than facts.
The Times of India reports researchers looked at a nationally representative sample of 289 pregnant teens and followed the teens for five years after their pregnancies. The results were the same.
The girls who had abortions had no more problems with guilt, depression and self-esteem than their pregnant peers. The results of the study will appear in the December issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
"We know most teen pregnancies are not wanted pregnancies and an unwanted pregnancy can be very stressful," lead author Jocelyn Warren of Oregon State tells the Times of India. "What we didn't know was whether psychological outcomes are worse for girls who choose abortion. This study says, 'No.' "
Warren adds that a 2008 report by the American Psychological Association found no evidence that abortion causes mental health problems in adult women. But no evidence was examined regarding teen girls.
It's important not to generalize, Warren tells the Times. Individual women may have very different emotional responses to abortion.
"But on average, abortion does not appear to have major psychological consequences -- for adult women or for teens," she says.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
9-28-2010 @ 1:24PM
Alicia said...That's been accepted scientific fact by everyone but anti-choicers for years. There is no such thing as Post Abortion Stress Syndrome. Yes, some women get depressed, but it's the same as postnatal depression and it's widely accepted that a woman supposedly suffering from PASS would've been depressed had she had her baby, and quite probably more desperate and upset depending on the reasons why she aborted in the first place.
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9-28-2010 @ 2:09PM
Donovan said...So what this says is that girls who have abortions are as messed up psychologically as immature young single mothers.
That's pretty messed up. In other words, whether you have an abortion at 13 or a child at 13 your life is going to be messed up.
Yeah, exactly.
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9-28-2010 @ 4:06PM
Heather said...Not all murderers feel guilt or become depressed. I guess it depends on the individual killer...
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9-28-2010 @ 8:14PM
nadia said...Do you eat meat? How about kill mice or other pests in your house? Congratulations, you too are a killer.
I'd rather see a girl abort her child then see it live an unhappy life in the foster system or with a mother who doesn't want it.
9-29-2010 @ 6:35PM
Zana said...I agree Heather.
9-28-2010 @ 5:03PM
RM said...SOMETIMES IT'S DELAYED..UNLESS YOUR HEART IS STONE, YOU WILL FEEL SAD, GUILTY AND DEPRESSED AT SOMETIME IN YOUR LIFE. EQUAL RIGHTS FOR UNBORN WOMEN! WHEN YOU HAVE AN ABORTION, SOMEONE DIES. GOD HAVE MERCURY ON THOSE WHO MURDER THEIR BABIES.
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9-28-2010 @ 9:09PM
Jennifer said...Not everyone subscribes to your beliefs. And the saying is "God have MERCY..." MERCURY has nothing to do with it.
9-29-2010 @ 8:33AM
Alicia said...Just because a women doesn't want to risk her life in childbirth (check the maternal birth mortality rate in the US, it's staggering), doesn't want to torture herself for nine months to produce a *potential* life doesn't mean she's got a heart of stone. Look at your mother, your friends, your sisters and aunts and daughters and cousins. One or more has probably aborted. One in three American women abort in their lifetime. Most are already mothers, many more want to be mothers in the future but cannot handle a baby right now. There is nothing beautiful or wonderful about an unwanted pregnancy. It's violating, it's painful and it's terrifying. To punish women for doing what comes most natural to human beings is cruel. We have a right to control our bodies, that doesn't make us evil. Women who abort just as easily and readily love our family and friends as women who don't. Here's another thing people don't consider: as long as abortion is legal, only professional doctors will do it. It will remain safe, harmless, sterile. The majority of women will suffer no medical effects after receiving an abortion. Making abortion illegal again doesn't drop the number of women who get abortions at all. Not even by 1%. What it does do is decrease the number of trained doctors who perform abortions. It increases the number of women who receive botched abortions, who are rendered sterile, suffer internal bleeding or have their bodies scarred for life. It increases the number of women who die from abortions exponentially. So the choice comes down to saving a life that is already being lived or saving a potential life. I choose women who have love, work, struggle, laugh, dance, cry, suffer heartbreak, celebrate and live over a life form that, until it takes its first breath, is merely potential and is really no more than a parasite to a woman who doesn't want it.
9-29-2010 @ 5:57PM
sofismom said...I completely agree with Alicia.
Just because someone chooses to make the best decision for their baby does not make them evil. And remember bringing God up, does not a good argument make. God is a Merciful God, and he will grant forgiveness for those who are truly sorry for their sins
Reply
9-30-2010 @ 7:05PM
GSF said...I beg to disagree. When do you stop studying her guilt, one year after abortion 2 years, 3 years , 5years, 10 years, 20 years , 50 years or the time of her death.
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10-01-2010 @ 9:28AM
Cindy Mullins said...It's not only the climbing on the table that destroys lives, it is the next 40 years of living with it that has changed the course of my life. Do that same study on women who have lived with it, I know it will b a much dif story. I talk to them everyday, and I am also a person who chose abortion, and hardly a day has gone by that I don't regret my decision. I was young, scared and alone, and it was an easy out at the time, I don't understand why no one ever talks about the long term effects. If the young girls could see inside my head for 3 secs they would see things in a much different way.
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10-18-2010 @ 1:49PM
Alicia said...Not everyone has the same experience you have had. I'm sorry you regret it. Many other women don't. It is an individual experience and an individual choice.
10-02-2010 @ 7:59PM
Bonnie said...Honestly,have any of you pro choicers ever thought about what it might feel like if you were the baby being aborted? To be torn apart in to pieces,have your skin eaten away,or have your head removed with no pain killer at all? Most of the aborted babies feel every single pain.Just stop and think about it.A mother that aborts her baby is a murderer.
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10-18-2010 @ 1:49PM
Alicia said...I have thought about it and what you suggest is ridiculous. At 14 weeks of development, nerves haven't developed enough yet to feel pain. The spinal cord doesn't even form an attachment to the brain until 20-22 weeks. Most doctors won't perform an abortion after 16 weeks because it becomes less of a procedure and more of a surgery. Only wanted pregnancies are aborted after 22 weeks.
10-29-2010 @ 3:06PM
Amy said...Of course females that would make the conscious decision to kill their child would feel no guilt. Only psychopaths would do this. They don't HAVE a conscience. Every girl I know at my high school that got pregnant would never even consider an abortion. Murder of an individual should NEVER happen simply because they're an inconvienence for you. Abortion is barbaric. It's a testament to the psychopathic, animalistic tendencies of the human race. Pro-choicer's only argument is that fetuses "aren't human". The same argument was used about black slaves and jews. Now it's the unborn who's murder is justified b/c of this twisted mindset.
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10-29-2010 @ 4:26PM
Amy said...Alicia, you are a sad excuse for a human being. Stop acting like women are victims because they decided to spread their legs and take the risk of getting pregnant. Women who abort as a result of consensual sex are weak, pathetic, irresponsible, and cowardly. You can NOT seperate sex and reproduction. The only reason human beings desire sex is to ensure procreation. Only an egotistical narcissist would deny this. If you don't want to get pregnant, either keep your legs shut or get your tubes tied. The term "pro-choice" is a joke. It's BECAUSE of a choice you made that resulted in the pregnancy in the first place. Along with choices comes consequences. Be a woman and face up to the circumstances you have created for yourself. One poster even compared human fetuses to animals. This alone speaks volumes. To say that there is nothing beautiful about an "unwanted" child is disgusting. Like my father told me, probably 95% of pregnancies are by accident. But anyone who isn't a psychopath has instant unconditional love for their own flesh and blood that they created. Women who have abortions should be required by law to have thier tubes tied. These are the same women who are incapable of giving their child the love and care they need. Many of them turn out to be neurotic, abusive basket cases. They are dangerous to society. Reproduction is a natural process of life and why sex exists in the first place. Alicia, you sound like you receieved little, if any, love as a child. Only someone from that type of background would have such a twisted, pessimistic, cold-hearted mindset. I'd be willing to bet that the large majority of "pro-choicers" come from a broken home.
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10-29-2010 @ 4:53PM
Amy said..." It's violating, it's painful and it's terrifying. To punish women for doing what comes most natural to human beings is cruel. We have a right to control our bodies, that doesn't make us evil."
You have GOT to be kidding me. Alicia, people like you truly belong in the nuthouse. I have NEVER in all my life heard or read such an illogicial, asinine statement. I can't believe anyone would even have the nerve to suggest that a child is a punishment to a woman who couldn't control herself and keep her legs shut when she's not willing to have a child. Yes, sex comes natural FOR the purpose of reproduction. Continuing a species is more important than the pleasure you recieve that you could have just caused for yourself if you hate reproduction that much. Killing a human being that's only in the first stage of their life is what's cruel. You're telling me that if you spread your legs and allow a man to plant his seed in you and infanticide is against the law that YOU'RE being "punished" because you caused the pregnancy for YOURSELF? How can anyone suggest such a thing with a straight face? People like you need to be kept a close eye on. You have a right to control your body? Seriously? If you DID control your body, you wouldn't be pregnant in the first place.Yes, pregnancy is painful. But so what? Lots of things are painful. Quit being so childish and whiny and deal with it. It's only temporary anyway. You are truely sick in the head. The only individuals who have their rights violated in the issue of abortion is the FETUS. They lose their right to life simply because their irresponsible, cowardly, psychopathic "mother" can't handle a little bit of pain and is unable to keep her legs shut. Just because you grew up in a home without love doesn't mean you shouldn't have respect for other's right to life. You disgust me.
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1-09-2011 @ 10:55AM
Netta said...Amy. You seriously need to calm down. Alicia isn't saying that everyone should have an abortion. That would be ridiculous. BUT! Everyone should have the right to choose whether or not they want to. If you don't want to, that's your choice. But to force someone to have a child when they are not ready to is awful. I am pro choice.( i think you could tell by now) I am happy in my completed home of four. I was raised in a nice home and had very supportive parents. I was always an A and B student. So to say that all pro choice people come from a broken home is just plain ignorant. Not to say that you are ignorant. But your statement was. Now let me ask you. Do you have children? Are they 12 or 13? At about 12, most girls start their period. So they can, from a productive stand point, have children. But if your 12 year old daughter got pregnant, you'd make her keep the child? Do you know what that would do to her? Socially? Psychologically? Do you? Probably not. Well lets look shall we? She would probably be socially outcasted as a whore. Her friends might leave her. Her boyfriend or who ever got her pregnant would leave her and deny they had ever had sex. Her body would be ruined. Her most likely small frame would be pained by the growth of the fetus. Since she is so young, she might not even be able to birth the baby. The baby might die anyway. So you made her go through all the mental and social pain just to end up with a dead baby? Wonderful right? No. Not wonderful. Of course these are only possibilities but they could very well happen. Oh! And having a child is not only temporary. For Someone in their 20's or 30's i can see how you'd think someone wouldn't think nine months would be that big of a deal but for a teenage girl, those nine months are about a school year. She is missing out on a whole school year and after the months she can no longer be a teen. She is thrusted into the world of motherhood. How can a child raise a child? She can't. So now its your new child as well. She is not ready for a child so why punish both the child and her to a life of misery? If i was the child, i would rather not be alive than feel like a bother or unwanted. These pregnancies make broken homes. Just think of the other side for a while. And keep the discussion just that, a discussion. Bashing others with name calling does not make your argument stronger. It actually weakens everything you tried to say.