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Juwanna Porras

Professor. Oscar E. Martinez II

ENGL 1302 217

23 February 2024

The Debate Of Abortion: Political and Psychological Approaches

The topic of abortion has been going around sparking debates for a long time, and

whether politicians consider this women’s health or morally right and decide to legalize it or not,

there is no doubt that this issue will only cause more women to die thanks to the bad conditions

of making this procedure in a clandestine way and by becoming a threat to women’s rights of

reproduction (Roberti, Gutierrez, Looi and Weitz). Also, it’s relevant to mention that the way

lawmakers view this affects society and their perspective of this issue as well; the different

opinions regarding this issue had been mostly from each person’s background and their out

believes and stigmas which can influence in the way they view women who have had an abortion

or have thought about it and start a chain were women suffer from mental health issues thanks to

this incorrect perceptions (Biggs, Bruce, Hadley, and Major). For this paper, the different sources

highlight the different viewpoints regarding the impact of abortion that can be divided into

political and mental health categories.

The role of political ideologies in societal stigmatization of abortion.

In this article, Amanda Roberti mentions how, historically, the different perspectives

regarding the debate of abortion are slowly getting further away from each other. Roberti says

that the fact that women have been left out of gender-based policies in the United States, displays

a threat to women’s rights because this goes against their reproductive rights. Also, explains that

the anti abortion movement has made lawmakers use a new approach which seems more
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acceptable by society because its being presented in women’s best interests to which she

arguments that “The liberty at stake here is reproductive liberty, which is at the heart of women’s

very ability to participate in body politic (Nossiff 2007).” (218). This just shows how a change in

the perspective that lawmakers use when it comes to abortion that is apparently less damaging to

women, can influence in the acceptance rate from society, however, this doesn’t mean that

women’s rights re being completely respected.

Likewise, Edith Gutierrez and Emilio Parrado mention the impact that the legalization of

abortion in the Federal District of Mexico by providing data like teenage fertility and unplanned

fertility before it was legalized to new statistical data about the effects after its legalization. “In

2009, 34 percent of all pregnancies in Mexico were reported as unplanned or unwanted” (113).

The authors mention that unwanted pregnancies were more common between teenagers, but even

among women in their 30’s or older represented around 32 percent of unwanted pregnancies.

They concluded that considering women’s reproductive rights and health can create a systematic

association between abortion legalization and fertility. They also mention that the consequences

of the legalization of abortion made a major impact on women between the ages of 20-34, with

limited impact on teenage fertility.

In addition to the previous facts, Mun-Keat Looi mentioned an occasion where the United

Nations had to intervene after five international charities requested them to act over what they

described as the “human rights crisis” in the U.S. where the Supreme Court wanted to restrict

access to the service of abortion. “The letter, from agencies that include Amnesty International,

Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Human Rights, said that the restrictions on abortion

deny “women’s decisional and bodily autonomy in a way that rejects the agency, dignity and

equality of people who can become pregnant” (1). The author mentioned that the letter also listed
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some effects of anti-abortion laws on women’s health and described cases where women had

difficulties accessing this service and their health was put in risk. As it was mentioned

previously, lawmaker's new approaches that are masked as taking women’s rights into

consideration are being reflected in the decisions being taken by the Supreme Court, that’s why

these five charities advocated that the U.S. must be castigated for its unfair treatment of women,

and girls as they are violating their rights.

On the contrary, Tracy Weitz takes a different perspective and rather explains the

consequences of trying to end the debate of abortion, she mentioned as an example how this has

negatively affected even medical personnel. “This article examines how the desire to find an end

to the abortion wars led to the widespread adoption of the rhetorical mantra that abortion should

be “safe, legal, and rare” (161). Throughout the article she explains the role that abortion has had

in society advocating in favor of women’s rights and health who are the most affected. She ends

her arguments by stating that society and politicians should start looking for that desire to help an

individual women achieve her reproductive rights by making abortion an accessible and legal

service, not to make it look like a goal, but rather to reduce the need for it.

Psychological impact of abortion

Following a different approach several authors like Antonia Biggs et al were in charge of

evaluating the perceptions of abortion stigmas after receiving or being denied an abortion over 5

years, and how they affected women in a psychological way. They concluded that women who

seeks an abortion perceived that if other people knew that the were looking for one, they would

be looked down by the people close to them, and their community, in the contrary, women who

were once denied an abortion had lower abortion stigmas from people close to them “Most

people considering abortion perceive some abortion stigma, which is associated with
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psychological distress years later” (2). The stigmatization of this service by society and politics

has been proved by these authors to be a factor of psychological distress on women who had or

were planning on having an abortion.

As for Tricia Bruce, she analyzed and explained how religion and race can create certain

attitudes towards abortion (stigmas). She explains that it’s wrong to think that people that belong

to the same religion or not have the same opinions regarding opinion, specially because of the

diversity of thought specially considering factors like race. The author analyzed data from the

2019 National Abortion Attitudes Study (NAAS) in the United States, and she concluded that in

America, religion still plays a big role when it comes to the topic of abortion and the attitudes

towards this service “Here, religion’s impact on abortion attitudes is revealed as complex: its

effect on attitudes strong, but mediated through race. Efficacy, distancing, and reconciling signal

active and interactive processes not fixed or finished outcomes” (20). As a conclusion she

mentioned that even though religion can be an important factor when it came to shaping certain

beliefs and opinions, what was more relevant was people’s background.

Janet Hadley, decided to make take a social viewpoint by analyzing the issue of abortion

in America and the different moral approaches (that have stigmas as base) that have led to

fanatics to violate clinic workers. Hadley agrees with the argument made by Roberti that says

that the different perspectives on abortion are still far way form each other, and this can be a

problem for women specially. As she expands on her research, she mentioned the different

categories of abortion dilemma while analyzing case studies as well, she concluded that “The

views on abortion are not immutable, and a paltry three paragraphs on abortion in America today

mainly about the activities of the “moral majority” and the other campaigners, left me wanting

more” (356). As the author mentioned, the way abortion is handled today in America still has a
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moral approach behind, which impacts society and creates rejection on some parts that affects

women or even people of the medical field.

Similarly to Antonia Biggs et al, Brenda Major et al also had a psychological approach

where they mentioned the different approaches and frames that can be considered when people

talk about abortion. The authors mention that women experiences with abortion can be chapped

by their personal desires to be mothers. They studied different women who had an abortion and

tried to look for the relationship between having an abortion and their mental health, to this, they

concluded that “The local and larger sociocultural contexts in which a woman lives also affect

her mental health following an abortion. Perceived social stigma surrounding either continuing a

pregnancy (e.g., in the case of an unwed teenager) or having an abortion can influence the

decisions that women make, how they feel about their decisions, and how they cope with their

feelings” (886). In other words, they concluded that the sociocultural background could affect

women’s mental health after having an abortion, as it creates a certain pressure on them that can

influence their decision, especially if that society looks down to women or teenagers who get

abortions.

Conclusion

Based on the previous analysis of information that presents the two main viewpoints of

abortion that are the political and psychological approaches, and as some researchers mentioned,

in today’s society what is mostly taken into consideration when it comes to the topic of abortion,

is and should be women’s rights. As other researchers mentioned, these rights, over the course of

the years, have slowly been taken into consideration by some countries that have legalized

abortion but have also been presented and advocated by different charities under the argument

that some governments are violating women’s reproduction rights. Similarly, other authors that
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adopted the psychological approach argumentes that the background and sociocultural

environment that is full of people with different believes, races, ethnicities and stigmas, in which

women surround themselves can influence their decisions and their thoughts on abortion which

can impact the political perspective of lawmakers. The debate of abortion won’t end anytime

soon, but it is important to consider it with genuine care for women and their overall health and

rights instead of adopting a moral approach that can be subjective for different people.
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Works Cited

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.