New York Times Magazine Examines Antiabortion Strategy Seeking To Persuade Voters That Abortion Is Harmful To Women's Health

The New York Times Magazine on Sunday examined an evolving antiabortion strategy that aims to "dismantle th[e] framework" of "pitt[ing] the rights" of fetuses against women and replace it with the argument the procedure is at the "root of women's psychological ills." According to the Times Magazine, the strategy says that undergoing abortion can increase the risk of depression, drug abuse and other psychological problems. Antiabortion advocates aim to use the strategy to persuade the 40% to 50% of U.S. voters who are "uncomfortable with abortion but unwilling to ban it" that banning abortion would be more beneficial to women, the Times Magazine reports. According to the Times Magazine, the strategy "challenges the connection" between access to abortion and women's rights by arguing that "if women are suffering because of their abortions, then how could making the procedure readily available leave women better off?" In addition, the strategy "replaces mute pictures of dead fetuses with the voices of women who narrate their stories in raw detail and who claim they can move legislators to tears," and it "trades condemnation for pity and forgiveness," the Times Magazine reports. The majority of scientific research "strongly" shows that abortion does not increase a woman's risk of any psychological condition, including depression and drug abuse, any more than having an unintended pregnancy or delivering an infant, according to the Times Magazine. An American Psychological Association panel in a 1990 issue of the journal Science concluded the "weight of evidence" indicates that an abortion during the first-trimester after an unintended pregnancy "does not pose a psychological hazard for most women." APA has convened a new task force to examine the more recent scientific studies about the effects of abortion, and it is expected to issue findings next year (Bazelon, New York Times Magazine, 1/21).

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