Porras 1

Juwanna Porras

Oscar Martinez

ENGL 1302-217

29 January 2024

[Title]: An Annotated Bibliography

“Abortion.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/health

topics/abortion#tab=tab_1. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.

The WHO considers abortion as health care, and recognizes that the lack of access to

safe, affordable and respectful abortion care can put women at risk physically and mentally. It is

also mentioned that induced abortions are very common and that abortions can be safe when

following a procedure appropriate to the pregnancy duration. What I liked about this was the fact

that it contained a lot of information, like what medicine women can take that is appropriate if

they want an induced abortion, along with the instructions and risks. Also, I liked how abortions

weren’t stigmatized and were actually talked about as a medical procedure.

Amanda Roberti (2021) “Women Deserve Better:” The Use of the Pro-Woman Frame in

Anti-abortion Policies in U.S. States, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 42:3, 207-

224, DOI: 10.1080/1554477X.2021.1925478

In this article, Roberti explains, using visual aid, how the anti-abortion movement and the

pro-women movement are still very far from each other and explains how the parenthood frame

used by anti-abortion lawmakers uses a “love them both” approach. This has allowed lawmakers

to stop using violence as an approach, but instead use a “nurturant parent” approach which

makes it more appealing to society because all these arguments are presented as being in
 Porras 2

women’s best interest. The author also mentioned how, historically, women have been left out of

gender-based policies in the United States, explaining that these can become a threat to women’s

rights as it goes against the reproductive liberty of women. Reading this article was helpful to

understand how lawmakers can influence in the public by using a different approach than the one

where not only the fetus life is in danger, but also the women’s life. I also liked the way the

author mentioned that it is important to start thinking more about women’s health and let them

participate more in reproductive laws because it can cause harm to them in the long run.

Biggs, M. Antonia, et al. “Perceived Abortion Stigma and Psychological Well-Being over

Five Years after Receiving or Being Denied an Abortion.” PloS One, vol. 15, no. 1, 2020, pp.

e0226417–e0226417, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226417.

In this article, the authors had as an objective to analyze the perceptions, psychological

effects, and stigmas of abortion after receiving or being denied one in over 5 years. For that, they

recruited women who wanted to have an abortion from 30 facilities across the US and

interviewed them one week after their procedure, and then after 5 years. They also analyze the

stigmas of those who were once denied an abortion because of their gestational age limit. The

results show that over half of those who were seeking for an abortion thought that if other people

around them knew about their decision, they would be looked down on, while people who were

denied an abortion and carried their pregnancy didn’t have much stigmas about abortion from

people close to them. This article makes a good point in showing how stigmas about abortion can

make women face emotional distress for years while not being biased. I liked the way the authors

talked about the topic of abortion and explained the impact that stigmas can have a big impact.
 Porras 3

Bruce, Tricia C. “Efficacy, Distancing, and Reconciling: Religion and Race in

Americans’ Abortion Attitudes.” Religions (Basel, Switzerland ), vol. 11, no. 9, 2020, pp. 475-,

https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11090475.

The main focus of this article is to explain how the perceptions that people in the US

have about abortion can be influenced by their religion and their race, however, assuming that

people with different religious beliefs share the same opinion about abortion is also wrong. To

have a clearer response, the researcher studied a group of people considering their religion and

their race and identified three processes that were important while shaping their views on

abortion: efficacy (believing that one can make a difference), distancing (being emotionally

away from the issue), and reconciling (looking for ways to bring together the different opinions).

The results showed that even though religion did played a big role in people’s perception about

abortion, what played a more important role in their perceptions was their background. This

article was a good way to understand how even religion can affect the way a person perceives

abortion, considering that a lot of the arguments from anti-abortion are religious-based.

Cockrill, Kate, et al. “The Stigma of Having an Abortion: Development of a Scale and

Characteristics of Women Experiencing Abortion Stigma.” Perspectives on Sexual and

Reproductive Health, vol. 45, no. 2, 2013, pp. 79–88, https://doi.org/10.1363/4507913.

The author of this article explains the stigma that women who have practiced an abortion

suffer stigmatization from society, and to prove that she surveyed 627 women from the US to see

the different abortion stigmas that each woman presented. The results revealed that the four main

stigmas were worries about judgment, isolation, self-judgment, and community condemnation.

Also, the survey showed how women with stronger religious beliefs had higher levels of self-
 Porras 4

judgment and a bigger perception of community condemnation. This article is good for

researching more about the stigmas of abortion and the effects it can have. I think this article also

helps me expand my knowledge regarding the stigmas about the issue and how they impact

women in a more psychological way.

deVeber, L. L., and Ian Gentles. “Psychological Aftermath of Abortion.” Canadian

Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), vol. 173, no. 5, 2005, pp. 466–67,

https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.1050079.

deVeber shows with this article that the claim by William Fisher that says that there is

evidence that women who go under an abortion are not psychologically maladjusted might be

misleading. The author uses a study by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario that

compared 41 000 women who had an abortion with women who had not gone under an abortion,

and the results showed that women who had had an abortion were five times more likely to be

admitted in a hospital for psychiatric problems. I chose this article because it shows how

psychologically damaging an abortion can be for a woman and that no matter how conscious the

decision is, an abortion is still a hard procedure that can cause distress.

Gutiérrez Vázquez, Edith Y., and Emilio A. Parrado. “Abortion Legalization and

Childbearing in Mexico.” Studies in Family Planning, vol. 47, no. 2, 2016, pp. 113–28,

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4465.2016.00060.x.

The authors of this article explain the effects after the legalization of abortion during the

first trimester of pregnancy in 2007 in the Federal District of Mexico. They examined the

metropolitan area differences and age pattern regarding childbearing between 2000 and 2010,
 Porras 5

their statistical results showed that there was an association between abortion legalization and

fertility. Iin other words, the law contributed to lower fertility rate in Mexico City in women

between the ages of 20-34. This article makes a good point in proving the side effects of abortion

in society, like low fertility rates, and denies the stigmas that legalizing abortion would increase

deaths or more unwanted pregnancies.

Hadley, Janet. “The Issue of Abortion in America: An Exploration of Social

Controversy.” Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 25, no. 4, 1999, pp. 355–56,

https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.25.4.355-a.

In this article, Hadley explains that in America, there are some people who think that

abortion is just based on the questions of kill or let kill, and talks about a Doctor who worked in

the US and was killed for practicing abortions at clinics. She also mentions that the debate on

abortion most likely will never hit common ground because of the different perspectives. She

analyzed case histories and realized that a lot of doctors denied abortions because of their morals.

She shares her opinion by saying that the only way to overcome this debate is to look beyond the

nation's borders. I liked this article particularly because the author mentioned how doctors who

practiced safe abortions where still murdered because of the mis-information that still exists

around the idea of abortion, and shows that people don’t think about the needs of the women, but

as a personal moral issue.

Hanschmidt, Franz, et al. “Abortion Stigma: A Systematic Review.” Perspectives on

Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol. 48, no. 4, 2016, pp. 169–77,

https://doi.org/10.1363/48e8516.
 Porras 6

Hanschmidt explains how stigmas are potential risk factors for women who have had

abortions. He used systematic research of the databases Medline, PsycArticles, PsycInfo,

PubMed, and Web of Science where articles related to abortion and stigmas were analyzed

where participants that were mostly from the US, but also from other countries like Ghana, Great

Britain, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, and Zambia. The results showed that women who had

abortions felt fear of being judged by society and themselves, which is why, most of the time,

they keep it secret. Personally, I liked how the author talked about abortion and the stigmas

which plays a huge part in people’s perceptions and women’s actions.

Looi, Mun-Keat. “Abortion: UN Is Urged to Intervene in ‘Human Rights Crisis’ in US

after Ending of Rights.” BMJ (Online), vol. 380, 2023, pp. 521–521,

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p521.

This article exposes the situation in which five charities called on the United Nations to

act to what they have described as “human rights crisis” in the US after the wake of the Supreme

Court’s abortion ruling to restrict access to this service to women. The author mentions that these

five charities wrote an open letter where they plead for UN officials to visit the US and ask

politicians to follow international law and their obligations as UN members to protect the rights

of life, health, privacy, liberty, and security. The letter also lists a few responses from US

healthcare practitioners about the effects of anti-abortion on women, where they described cases

where women who had a miscarriage had difficulties accessing abortion and were denied one in

cases of ectopic pregnancy. Another example mentioned included hospitals delaying care until

the women’s health was severely deteriorated and pregnant women forging pregnant care to
 Porras 7

avoid surveillance. I liked how this article covered more how American healthcare treat abortion,

and how unfair it is for women as their life is put at risk.

Major, Brenda, et al. “Abortion and Mental Health: Evaluating the Evidence.” The

American Psychologist, vol. 64, no. 9, 2009, pp. 863–90, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017497.

For this article, the authors evaluated empirical research to look for the relationship

between induced abortion and women’s mental health. The two main used that were addressed

were: the relative risks associated with abortion compared with the risks of alternatives, and the

sources of variability in women’s responses to abortion. The results showed that there is no

evidence that shows that in some cases abortion can cause mental health problems, and instead

explains that there might be other factors and risks that can relate with abortion and generate

distress. However, most women who chose to end their pregnancy didn’t face mental health

issues, either way some others did. This article added more information about mental health an

abortion, an as I mentioned previously, while abortion can be a hard topic to talk about and to a

hard process to go through, that doesn’t mean that it can cause mental health problems.

Ntontis, Evangelos, and Nick Hopkins. “Framing a ‘social Problem’’: Emotion in Anti‐

abortion Activists’ Depiction of the Abortion Debate.’” British Journal of Social Psychology,

vol. 57, no. 3, 2018, pp. 666–83, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12249.

This article uses social psychology to analyze individuals’ social identifications. The

researchers explored anti-abortion activists’ and used the interview data obtained from UK-based

anti-abortion activists to consider how different people characterized women who had an

abortion or were planning on having one depending on their own opinions about the issue. The
 Porras 8

results demonstrate that, in some cases, they were depicted as emotionally damaged and that the

evidence of this was the reality of abortion; then, pro-activists and those involved in abortion

were seen as not being rational, and finally, anti-abortion activists were seen as more

appreciative of women experiences and as being more willing to help women.

Rivera Rodriguez, Grecia, et al. “The Medical and Financial Burden of Illegal Abortion.”

Curēus (Palo Alto, CA), vol. 14, no. 10, 2022, pp. e30514–e30514,

https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.30514.

This article discusses how abortion is still a hard subject to talk about, however, it has

been present in human history for a long time, and because of socioeconomic and technological

developments the perception of this subject has also changed. The author of this article explains

the impact and medical complications of illegal abortions by suing EBSCO, PubMed/Medline,

Cochrane, EMBASE, and DARE focusing of the risks of illegal abortion. The conclusion of this

article mentions how even if abortion is legal or not, women will continue to seek unsafe

procedures to get the result they want but mentions the importance of the effects that illegal

abortion can have in society. It briefly mentions the impact of abortion in the US and other

countries after being legalized. I liked this article because illegal abortion does impact society,

and putting this situation could help lawmakers realize that legalizing it may not be a bad idea

but instead a way to prevent more women from suffering from bad procedures or even death.

Sparrow, Margaret June. “A Woman’s Choice.” Australian & New Zealand Journal of

Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 44, no. 2, 2004, pp. 88–92, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1479-

828X.2004.00190.x.
 Porras 9

Sparrow mentions in the article how abortion is the most common gynecological

operation in New Zealand and Australia, and she also elaborates in the fact that this is a safe

procedure whether carried out surgically or medically. On the contrary, she mentions that the use

of abortifacients has been unscientific and illegal. The usage of mifepristone as an option for

induced abortion became recently available in New Zealand because of political, professional,

legal, socioeconomic, and commercial reasons. In the end, she mentions how feminists’ attitudes

regarding abortion can contribute to the public’s opinion, and mentions that the desire of

motherhood and a good quality of life influences women in their choice against or pro-abortion. I

liked this article because of the perspective she used in the article, which looks at women's rights

and demonstrates that the legalization of abortion won’t generate more abortions and doesn't

have negative effects.

Weitz, Tracy A. “Rethinking the Mantra That Abortion Should Be ‘Safe, Legal, and

Rare.’” Journal of Women’s History, vol. 22, no. 3, 2010, pp. 161–72,

https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2010.0595.

The article examines and shows how the constant desire to find an end to abortion has led

to many wars with different fundaments like whether abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.

The author examined history and the consequences of some of these wars and argues that

women’s health and well-being are harmful when people only focus on solving the conflict of

abortion over women’s need for abortion. She also demonstrates how focusing not legalizing

abortion reduces access to care and sets unreachable goals in relation to the number of abortions

that happen in the US. I chose this article because of the strong arguments that she used in

regards of the legalization of abortion, and how important it is to recognize it as health care.