Abortion is bad for women.

I began this discussion with the premise that "abortion is bad for women." I stated four supporting points: (1) Abortion is psychologically traumatic for many women, (2) Abortion hurts women relationally, (3) Abortion harms women physically, and (4) Abortion leaves women in the position of being finally responsible for preventing pregnancy, or, if not, facing the choice between abortion and what may seem like even more dire consequences. In the second round of this debate, I offered supporting evidence, including (wherever possible) peer reviewed studies, in support of my premises. Dalzuga has kindly engaged these points with me and offered the counter-perspective that abortion may be less bad for some women than premature parenthood. He has offered anecdotal evidence of this. He has offered the reminder that many women feel psychological relief after an abortion. This is surely true, although whether that relief will persist for any given woman is uncertain. Many women who later regret their abortions initially felt relief. He has reminded us that at least some women who carry to term wonder what life would have been like had they chosen abortion -- would they have been further ahead economically, less stressed, happier? Surely we cannot offer alternative futures with certainty. Some women certainly believe that abortion was the "less bad" alternative for them. Keeping in mind that social scientists will tell us that most people have a powerful psychological inclination to reinforce any decision that they have made and that admitting that one was mistaken or made a poor choice requires considerable courage, we can certainly understand why many women avoid considering the impact of abortion on their life. We do not know precisely how many women regret their abortions. We do know that the women who feel harmed by abortion and who have been willing to say so publicly are black, white, hispanic and asian; they are pro-choice and pro-life; they are young and not so young; they are wealthy, middle-class and poor; and they are speaking from personal experience. Ms. Magazine has collected over 5000 signatures of women who said that they have had abortions. One of them stated in an interview: "It's emotionally devastating... I don't regret my decision — but I regret having been put in the position to have to make that choice. It's something I'll live with for the rest of my life." (http://www.foxnews.com...). Individual women submitted more than 2000 affadavits to the US Supreme Court. In her own words, each of these women said, "I regret my abortion." See: http://www.sptimes.com...; the comments below the story are particularly illustrative. In the words of some, abortion is the "unchoice" - the choice that isn't one at all. If a woman were given a choice between being raped and being murdered, no civilized person would say, "well, at least she has a choice." No, a civilized society seeks to help people who are stuck between a rock and a hard place. And that's what we should do -- we should help women avoid forced, coerced and unwanted abortions. As a society, we do not do that adequately. Dalzuga postulates, essentially, that even if I am correct that abortion is bad for women and that women regret that decision, that essentially, such regret - the hidden horror of abortion - is the fault of religion in society. Research does seem to show that religion is one among many factors (including age at the time of the decision, whether coercion was involved in the decision and subsequent life changes) that may affect whether a woman experiences psychological trauma related to an abortion. But women who regret their abortion deserve to be taken as seriously as women who are not religious and as seriously as women who never experience regret related to their abortion. Studies also show that women from various cultural and religious backgrounds experience abortion related grief, regret and trauma (http://query.nytimes.com...; it is interesting to note that Buddhism is a non-theistic religion). Given that religion of some type is held to by approximately 95% of the world today and even more in earlier times, Dalzuga's explanation for why women may regret abortion seems irrelevant, even if true. What is his answer for these women - forget about your religion and you'll be free from regret? Human psychology doesn't work that way. Victoria Woodhull, the first female presidential candidate said: "Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth." Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard, November 17, 1875 Current presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has also acknowledged the devastating impact of abortion on women. In a 1/24/05 speech, Senator Clinton essentially suggested that abortion should be safe, legal and NEVER. She said that abortion is "a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," ... "There is no reason why government cannot do more to educate and inform and provide assistance so that the choice guaranteed under our constitution either does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances." (http://www.slate.com...) Whatever your perspective on the legality of abortion, sufficient evidence exists that the experience of abortion is bad for individual women and bad for women in general. We ought to be able to agree that abortion is not a "good" choice and is, in fact, a poor one. An abortion represents a mark of pain, regret, embarrassment, shame or grief that continues to scar many women emotionally (and sometimes physically) long after their choice has been made. Many women in difficult pregnancy situations have chosen healthier alternatives, including parenting and adoption. To defeat this argument, one must show that abortion is itself a positive good, not merely an occasional "less bad" option for women. I appreciate Dalzuga's meaningful contributions on this important subject, but he has not done this.