Introduction
Most individuals and activists suggest that abortion does not harm the mental health of women, based on political notions other than scientific evidence. The American Psychological Association, combined with other studies, concludes that abortion damages the mental health of women depending on various circumstances. This paper reviews the studies critically on adverse impacts of abortion to the mental health of women, to inform many practices and policies.
Method
This study will be based on the evaluation of qualitative studies on both abortion and mental health, including; assessment of prior mental health, common risk factors, and analysis of associations between abortion and mental health.
Results
The most healthy part of the emotional well-being of women is giving them the outlet for discussing how they feel. The negative feelings that a woman gets after having an abortion are in part due to the reaction of their close associates and relatives that have to condemn the act and rebuke them for getting unplanned pregnancy to begin with.
Conclusion
Women who are at risk of adverse mental health outcomes after an abortion include; those that have an abortion in their second trimester, those that have already existing metal conditions, women who lack psychological support from their families and partners, and women whose religious beliefs and cultural environments disapprove of abortion. Since studies have suggested that women who have an abortion get mental health problems under various circumstances, future investigations should examine the psychological experiences of women through making it possible for women to be comfortable in sharing their experiences.
Abortion Effects on the Woman’s Mental Health
To offer women full information when they are faced with difficulties in pregnancies, the risk that abortion could be associated with mental health disorders should be assessed carefully. Research conducted between 1995 to 2011 on the correlations between abortion and mental health problems indicates the most studied outcome are anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse disorders (Sullins, 2016). In the last few years, the possibility that abortion could have a mental health consequence has been widely investigated. Most studies have focused on women who experience foetal loses through either inducing or involuntarily (Biggs et al., 2016). Mental drawbacks of abortion have been investigated to give full information to hesitant females who face complicated pregnancies. While there have been constant studies in the last few years, this field requires a continuous update of study evidence. Most studies conducted so far have offered a comparison of abortion mental consequences with the consequence’s involuntary termination of pregnancy through miscarriage (Sullins, 2016). Most studies conducted have aimed at investigation of the possible psychological implications of abortion, since intervention is needed to determine if pregnant women can get help with their health and how drawbacks underlying pregnancy can be prevented (Biggs et al., 2016). The psychological impacts of abortion is an essential subject of scientific investigation. Given the essence of this issue among women and the implications of public health that result from it, the effect of abortion has to be given a lot of attention from the perspective of health policy. This paper focuses on arguing that abortion may have longer tern adverse impacts on women as a result of unresolved loss, guilt, and lower self-esteem.
Problem Statement
Most antiabortion activists have drawn inappropriate conclusions from various studies by saying that abortion is directly linked to post-traumatic syndromes. Also, the research body in this area is not extensive and vigorous since it has not established or disapproved conclusively that there lacks a relationship between abortion and mental health problems. No scientific evidence to date in the United States can clearly state that the negative psychological impacts of abortion are more significant than neglecting a child or placing them up for adoption (Biggs et al., 2016). The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine if abortion increases women’s risk of mental health problems. The independent variable is a mental illness, and the dependent variable is abortion. The independent variable is defined as a wide variety of conditions of mental health disorders that have adverse impacts on the thinking, mood, and behavior of an individual, whose examples include depression and anxiety disorders, addictive behaviors, and eating disorders (Cole4man et al., 2017). The dependent variable is/will be defined as deliberately terminating human pregnancy so that it does not result in the birth of a child.
Research Question
The question of this study is; does abortion increase women’s risk of mental health problems?
Literature Review Purpose
The purpose of this review is to determine if abortion increases women’s risk of mental health problems. Also, a lot of existing literature regarding this topic is from a few years back, yet there is a need to review more recent research. This literature review observes the limits of peer-reviewed sources not more than five years back. While some exceptions can be made where there are comparisons with women in the 1990s, reviewing recent studies is more effective since these are more reliable sources (Coleman et al., 2017). The type of literature that is covered in this review include; individual research regarding the psychological effects of abortion on women, analysis of the literature concerning psychological impacts of abortion on women and articles and reports from professional groups.
Study Population
The study population for this research is teenagers in the United States and women below 25 years of age. This age group needs to be assessed since most authors have pinpointed it.
Significance Of The Study
This study will ensure that nurses, gynecologists, and counselors that come across women that are contemplating abortion are well trained and are aware of the possible mental outcomes and their risk factors and look out for symptoms of the mental stress so that they can refer patients for therapy and counseling when required.
The research will enable training professionals to include their familiarisation with the literature on the mental impacts of abortion, including adverse outcomes and risk factors, over time.
This study will also inform women and mentally ill patients on the likely impacts and possible risks of abortion so that they can make an informed judgment about whether to have an abortion or not.
Through this study, women who are undergoing abortion will be made aware of the possibility of experiencing adverse outcomes.
This study will be made available for women that experience distress after having an abortion so that they can get insights about why and how to cope.
Review Of Literature
There exists a controversy on abortion and mental health, that is driven by the perspectives regarding the best away to interpret facts. Studies suggest that abortion and mental health proponents are more inclined towards emphasizing the risks associated with abortion (Coleman et al., 2017). Both opponents and proponents have agreed that compared to women without the history of abortion, abortion has been linked with elevated mental illness risks. Secondly, for some women, the experiences of abortion contribute to mental illness. Thirdly, a pre-existing mental illness before an abortion can heighten mental illness after abortion. Lastly, research conducted on this field has hardly identified the extent to which mental illness can be attributed to abortion itself.
According to Foster et al. (2018), most antiabortion activists have opposed abortion based on the idea that besides abortion being wrong, it has adverse effects on a woman's psychological and physical well-being. The science that attests to the physical safety of the process of abortion is evident, and people have tended to only focus on the adverse mental side effects. In various decades, it has been argued that by having an abortion, a woman becomes mentally unstable and even might commit suicide. Contrary to the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, most antiabortion activists have linked abortion to post-abortion traumatic stress syndrome. As stated by Gelman et al. (2017), to a certain extent, antiabortion activists have taken advantage of the fact that most people and policymakers hardly understand the constitutes of good science. Although it might be true that some females that have undergone abortion suffer severe mental health problems at some point in their lives, the existing research body fails to rule out the pre-existing conditions and contextual aspects that impact or explain these problems.
Studies have indicated that at least one in four women in America has had an abortion by the time they are 50 years of age (Gomez, 2018). Given the millions of women that have had an abortion, if mental health conditions were as common as activists suggest, then there would be a pandemic of women that seek treatment. Debates on issues regarding mental health and abortion seem to be more political than scientific. Extensive research must be conducted on the psychological impacts of abortion and unplanned pregnancy combined, for a more expansive view on this matter; this is because unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are the most significant abortion factors. According to Hangparast et al. (2016), some groups of women have been identified to be at a higher risk factor than others when it comes to adverse reactions after abortion. A majority of studies have also determined that most women that seek abortion already have other risk factors of mental illness (Hanschmidt et al., 2016). While we cannot tie down the argument to one abortion incidence, one of the risk factors is multiple abortions.
As suggested by Herd et al. (2016), the majority of reviews that are related to abortion and psychological impacts have resulted in the same conclusion. Most healthy women do not experience lasting mental changes based on the legal and voluntary termination of pregnancy. When there is an occurrence of psychological impacts, they are usually mild, with more pronounced effects only occurring to a minority of women. Serious and pathetic illness after abortion is mostly common among postpartum women than post-abortion women. As echoed by Kotta et al. (2018), psychological changes that occur after abortion can be grasped within the framework of coping and stress other than on psychopathology. Kulathilaka et al. (2016) pointed out that while many studies have attempted to identify adverse impacts of the consequences of abortion, a few studies have reported positive outcomes. Recently, at least 500 women in the United States have been reported to benefit from termination, more than they have experienced harm (Kulathilaka et al., 2016).
