https://wthrockmorton.com/2008/07/25/handicapping-the-apa-abortion-and-mental-health-task-force-report/ A [retired] college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:58:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://wthrockmorton.com/2008/07/25/handicapping-the-apa-abortion-and-mental-health-task-force-report/#comment-18585 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:58:28 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com//?p=968#comment-18585 Warren,
It doesn’t sound like she was taking issue with , GASP, the fact that their research was appearing in peer-reviewed journals, it looks like she’s taking issue with their methodologies. Am I wrong?
Abortion is a fact of life – something I deem a necessary evil because to me, the other option is worse – and I think has been proven to be so.
Perhaps we should next study the psychological effects not just on women who have abortions, but who have, for whatever reason, had to carry babies to term that they absolutely didn’t want. Not to mention the effects on the baby, their spouse, etc…
I realize this is a hot-button issue, and I completely understand the desire to defend life – especially that of the unborn, but it isn’t simply the life of the unborn child that has to be taken into consideration. And while I think education and perhaps even the social sciences can help to curb/curtail abortions – and I sincerely hope this is the case – this can’t and shouldn’t impinge on a woman’s right to choose.

]]> https://wthrockmorton.com/2008/07/25/handicapping-the-apa-abortion-and-mental-health-task-force-report/#comment-18584 Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:26:50 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com//?p=968#comment-18584 The issue is one of good science vs cooking the books to serve a political agenda.
We need to shackle all the variables we can, compare like with like.
That means not comparing those refused an abortion of a malformed foetus in the first trimester as the result of violent incestual rape with those to whom it is seen as a casual means of contraception – thereby “proving” that Abortion Is Good. It also means not comparing those forced by family pressures to abort a child they want to keep with normal motherhood to “prove” that Abortion Is Bad.
There’s been too much of both. The APA’s biased position is due to the backlash against the Comstock laws and other religion-based positions in the past. While understandable, it’s still bad science. I have no faith that their political opponents will be any better.
For the record, I believe abortion in the third trimester is infanticide. In the first, it is regrettable, and should not be treated lightly, and certainly not as a form of contraception. But my beliefs should not be allowed to bias studies on the psychological effects on the mother. That’s another issue.

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