Anti-violence group expresses concerns over APA abortion task force
Just over a year ago, I reported on the creation by the American Psychological Association of a task force to study the mental health issues related to abortion.
The task force is slated to report findings at the August, 2008 annual convention. I have obtained letters of concern regarding the timing and composition of the task from a group called Consistent Life. Their mission statement reads:
We are committed to the protection of life, which is threatened in today’s world by war, abortion, poverty, racism, capital punishment and euthanasia. We believe that these issues are linked under a ‘consistent ethic of life’. We challenge those working on all or some of these issues to maintain a cooperative spirit of peace, reconciliation, and respect in protecting the unprotected.
The first letter is here.
APA President Alan Kazdin replied here.
Consistent Life then wrote a follow up response.
The report is not available to the public as yet but will probably be made public during the APA convention. I will be surprised if the report provides reasonable guidelines for informing women of potential risks associated with abortion.
I will be surprised as well. I guess this subject is really no different than how individuals respond to their same gender attractions. Some are very content with them while others are not. Some women are not affected at all about an abortion and feel relief after it is over while other women regret the decision the rest of their life and live with an indescribable emotional pain because of it. I am sure the physical aspect of the procedure can involve potential harm as well. I do hope reasonable guidelines will be provided for women to make an informed choice.
I sure hope they don’t follow the South Dakota model - with warning of the potential harms with abortion - but not the potential harms with carrying the fetus to full term.
Thanks Warren for posting about Consistent Life. I had never heard of them before. They’re advocating the kind of stance that has been sorely missing in a lot of the debate on abortion and “pro life”.
If only more Christians in the U.S. would be ‘consistent’ in their views. It sends a sad message to non-Christians when they see the apparent hypocrisy of some pro-life Christians who have a disturbing way of encouraging and accepting war and violence.
I did a quick search and found this page: The New Abolitionists
Wow just wow, there’s Feminists For Life, Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League, Prolife Alliance of Gays and Lesbians and many others.
Take that cynical and jaded right wing evangelicals!
The world is indeed a more complex place than the usual black and white distinctions made by some.
[...] Last week, I reported the concerns of peace advocates, Consistent Life, about the upcoming American Psychological Association report regarding potential mental health consequences of abortion. In one of their letters to APA President Alan Kazdin, CL Executive Director, Bill Samuel, wrote: It is accordingly with great concern we note APA has not taken sufficient care with a highly volatile issue, that of abortion. APA has held a position of abortion as being a civil right for women since 1969, and therefore has a clear political stand. Yet the Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion had no call for nominations; it was formed by Division 35, whose position is stronger and more focused than that of the national organization; and the final make-up of the task force had half the members as strong public advocates of the pro-choice view. Advocates of the view that abortion is violence to both unborn children and to women, which could balance such biases, are ominously absent. There are several well-qualified researchers who would have been pleased to serve on the panel, had the panel been selected with balance in mind. [...]
[...] Life has been writing letters to the APA to ask how it is that the APA can hold a clearly political stand, at the same time as they purport [...]