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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 a matter of women’s health or moral action requiring

legislation, there is no doubt that this issue will only cause more women to die due 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

own 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 lit review, the

sources highlight the different perspectives regarding the topic of abortion that can be seen in the

political perspective with its legalization and its consequences as well as in the mental health

perspective with the stigmas that can affect women’s decisions and health.

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. It is also

mentioned 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.
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Also, Nossiff explains that the anti-abortion movement has made lawmakers use a new approach

that seems more acceptable to society because it is being presented in women’s best interests.

“The liberty at stake here is reproductive liberty, which is at the heart of women’s very ability to

participate in body politic” (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

are being completely respected.

Likewise, Edith Gutierrez and Emilio Parrado used as an example the legislation of

abortion in the Federal District of Mexico to mention the impact of abortion 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. Similarly to Roberti, 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. Commented [ma1]: add a conclusion based on the things
that you can imply of the research, this applies to all
paragraphs
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
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equality of people who can become pregnant’” (1). The author mentioned that the letter also

listed 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. Commented [ma2]: add a synthesis on how does this
article is similar to the previous ones you used
applies in all paragraphs
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

explains different medical cases where medical staff who had practiced abortion on women had

suffered from harassment from people against this service. She ended her arguments by stating

that society and politicians should start looking for that desire to help an individual woman

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

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 they were looking for one, they would be looked down by the
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people close to them, and their community. On 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 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 abortion, especially because of the

diversity of thought 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 from each other, and this can be a problem

for women specifically. 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
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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 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 “[t]he 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 the sources showed, 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
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the years, have slowly been taken into consideration by some countries that have legalized

abortion and have showed less stigmas around the topic of abortion as well as an improvement in

decreasing fertility rates in teenagers. However, in countries like the United States, women’s

rights have been presented and advocated by different charities under the argument that the

government is violating women’s reproductive rights by not legalizing abortion due to

stigmatization. Similarly, other authors that adopted the psychological approach argue that the

background and sociocultural environment are full of people with different beliefs, races,

ethnicities, and stigmas, that women surround themselves with that can influence their decisions

and their thoughts on abortion which can also impact the decision from lawmakers on whether

they decide to legalize this service or not. The debate on 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

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.

Roberti, Amanda, “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, 2021, 207-

224, DOI: 10.1080/1554477X.2021.1925478

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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.