The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Cienna Madrid

"Is abortion a social good?"

Cienna Madrid — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:57:08 -0700

This NYTimes article looks at what happens to women who are denied abortions, and how they compare with women who successfully had the abortions they sought, while also delving into a fascinating tangent on Czechoslovakia's abortion panel and the likeability of unwanted children:

When Diana Greene Foster, a demographer and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, first began studying women who were turned away from abortion clinics, she was struck by how little data there were. A few clinics kept records, but no one had compiled them nationally. And there was no research on how these women fared over time. What, Foster wondered, were the consequences of having to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term? Did it take a higher psychological or economic toll than having an abortion? Or was the reverse true—did the new baby make up for any social or financial difficulties?

...“The unstated assumption of most new abortion restrictions—mandatory ultrasound viewing, waiting periods, mandated state ‘information,’ ” Foster says, “is that women don’t know what they are doing when they try to terminate a pregnancy. Or they can’t make a decision they won’t regret.” Lost in the controversy, however, is the flip side of the question. What, Foster wondered, could the women who did not have the abortions they sought tell us about the women who did?

It's definitely worth your time.

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Cienna Madrid

"Is abortion a social good?"

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