Abortion/Depression "Link" Is FALSE!

[ravan]

Politically motivated "studies" that have been biased and loaded with a religious agenda have been trotted out for years to "prove" that abortions harm mothers, bah, blah. It's one of the few non-religious arguments that is used against allowing abortions.

But it's false.

The reality is the opposite:
Abortion not seen linked with depression, and
New moms at risk for range of mental problems.

Having kids is actually more likely to cause or exacerbate depression than having an abortion.

Comments

[calliean-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Sure abortion is stressful yes, indeed, but depression inducing? Hardly. Having been at both ends of the spectrum on this one, and 6 months into pregnancy right now, I find that I am struggling more with the hormonal changes and fighting off depression right now.

If women are seriously experiencing depression and other problems (not physical) after an abortion, I'd be more likely to look into problems that existed before they underwent the surgery.

[elf]

I suspect that the reason abortion has been linked with depression is that careless, self-destructive behavior--like "unprotected sex"--is linked with depression.

Babies eat the brains. It takes about three years for a person doing full-time childcare to pull out of the mommybrains mindset--and our whole culture is incredibly toxic for both young children and their caretakers; the "nuclear family" meme feeds isolation & depression and probably causes an incredible number and range of neuroses that, of course, are not studied because the people doing the studies can't imagine there's anything unhealthy in their own histories.

(Incredibly long compound complex sentences are not a sign of mommybrains. Really. My kids are much older than three.)

[heethen-crone.livejournal.com]

You hardly ever hear about women experiencing depression or post traumatic stress disorder after abortions except when there's a vote coming up on the issue. I've always wondered about that. Well, not wondered 'cause I know that the pro lifers were paying for that news, but really, where are their studies? It seems like it's only a few women that get drug out to tell their tale of woe and I wonder how many of them didn't feel that way 'til some preacher got to them with tales of woe and "oh you've sinned, you must feel bad, blah blah blah".

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

In Japan, where abortion has never been illegal or socially disapproved, there is an interesting statistic:

SIDS is almost nonexistent.

That is, in a culture where women are not forced to give birth to unwanted children, babies are not known to "mysteriously" die in their sleep.

Just FYI.