Summary: The Politicization Of Abortion

Abortion and its subsequent mental health on women has been a topic discussed and argued over the years. It has long been debated if abortion has long lasting mental effects on females, and if it increases chances of mental disorders. Due to ethical reason, it is impossible to fully study and control the environment of a female of who has had an abortion. This has created discrepancy over verifying the legitimacy of increased mental disorders on women who have had an abortion. It is believed to some that abortion increases mental health disorders in women and increases chances of depression, regret, and denial. Doctors Angela J Taft and Lyndsey F Watson did a study on induced abortion and depression rates. They sent out two mass surveys, …show more content…
Speckhard and Vincent M. Rue question the legitimacy of studies done due to political stances on abortion. Anne C. Speckhard and Vincent M. Rue stated, “The Politicization of abortion has significantly restricted scientific investigation of the effects of abortion, and has produced a profound schism in America, including media reporting biases and misinformation,” (Speckhard and Rue, 1992). Speckhard and Rue also speculate that information could be inaccurate due to denial of participants in studies. They state that women who have had an abortion go through regret, which leads to repression, then denial (Speckhard and Rue, 1992). Some of the women repress the abortion to the point where they are ashamed to talk about it to anyone and end up denying its existence altogether (Speckhard and Rue, 1992). Women in denial of their abortion are less likely to have shown any physical signs of mental illness, for they did not fully accept that they terminated their …show more content…
To fully address the problems of mental illness in women who have had an abortion, information must fully presented to the public. Someone who advocates abortion will not do research on the topic if the information they find will taint the image of abortion and question the morality of it. If the researcher holds a stance for abortion, they will go in with preconceived biases and it will influence the way the results are interpreted. If this researcher truly believes abortion is morally wrong, the researcher will most likely try and prove way he is right as opposed to what is actually right. Both sides have the capabilities to bend statistics, meet their own view point, and back their side of the ethnicity debate of abortion. This is a problem because if abortion does lead to increased mental illness, many women will suffer the effects of it due to inaccuracies by