Thursday, September 30, 2010
Article 3
Divya Unni
Mrs. Bailey
AP Government- 7th
01 October 2010
Article #3 Summary
Title: Psychological After- Effects of Abortion
Author: Joyce Arthur
Main Idea: Mental trauma caused by abortions is not a reality, but the inaccurate information portrayed by anti-choice supporters.
Summary
· Mental trauma as a result of abortion has been a highly controversial topic.
· Anti abortionist have attributed depression, rage, social and sexual dysfunction, severe and long-lasting guilt” as some of the consequences women deal with as a result of abortion.
· Studies have refuted the charge of any mental trauma in women post –abortion.
· Some psychiatrist studies and anti-choice groups tend to group women who have abortions as victims or deviant-the former are those who are compelled into abortion and the other who undergoes abortion nonchalantly.
· Reviews from Science and American Journal of Psychiatry assessed that though psychological disorders do occur after abortion, they are not severe and not long lasting.
· In conclusion, recognizing that a certain group of women who have undergone or plan to undergo abortion will need additional counseling, is a major fact in drastically reducing the negative impact of anti-choice supporters misrepresentation of facts.
3 Important Facts:
1.There are psychological consequences to abortion but they are short- term and not severe.
2. People who were denied abortion bore long-term resentment and their unwanted children were likely to have emotional scars
3. With proper counseling, the people who have undergone abortion can deal with the damage done by anti-choice rhetoric.
Bias/ Faulty Reasoning: It is an article written by a pro- choice supporter and is very opinionated. Although she has many references and statistics, she is not a psychiatrist and therefore not qualified to judge a medical condition.
New Terms/Concepts:
1. Volatile- explosive
2. Deviant- not following the normal
Bibliography: http://www.abortionaccess.info/abortiongrief.htm way of life
Article 2
Divya Unni
Mrs. Bailey
AP Government- 7th
01 October 2010
Article #2 Summary
Title: Arguments for Pro-Choice Abortions
Author: Debopriya Bose
Main Idea: This article is analyzing the pros and cons of getting an abortion and that it is a woman’s right to get an abortion.
Summary:
*Pro-life supporters claim that abortion is tampering with life which is a gift from God. They feel that life begins with conception and abortion is equivalent to murder. They also attribute psychological consequences to having an abortion.
*Pro-Choice movement believes in the dignity and autonomy of women. They believe that a woman should have the right to continue or end her pregnancy. Refusing to give a woman the right to her body is denying her the most basic freedom.
*Another point the pro-choice supporters make is that if life in every form should be considered important, then how is the unborn fetus more important than that of the woman who would have to raise the unplanned child?
*An important abortion fact is that most of them take place in the first trimester when the fetus is completely dependent on the mother and therefore should not be considered a different being but as part of the mother.
*Teenagers are not ready to become parents, a minor mother is not equipped to deal with the psychological and physical consequences of an unwanted pregnancy.
*Making abortion illegal gives does not solve the problem of unwanted pregnancies but only forces it into the shadows, into unregulated and possibly unsafe places. This increases the risk of infections, injuries, and deaths.
*A profound pro-choice point is that victims of rape and incest have to deal with the additional mental anguish of the burden of having a child that was conceived through the violent act.
*It is important to weigh the pros and cons of abortion before making a decision. Pro-choice supporters do not promote abortion, rather they believe in the women’s right to control decisions relating to her body and life.
*It is up to the individual to decide whether she is able to give the life she is bringing into the world all the basic necessities that is the right of every human .
3 Important Facts:
1. Control over a woman’s body is essential to her civil rights.
2. There are different theories on where life begins, so laws against abortion would unjustly impose one theory on all.
3. Most abortions are done in the first trimester and this is safe.
Bias/ Faulty Reasoning: The person who wrote this was pro-choice and the writing is slanted in that direction. The article does not contain many statistics and the facts or statistics used are not cited, so the reader does not know if the information is reliable
New Terms/ Concepts:
1. Post-abortion syndrome- According to anti-choice people, women who have had abortions go through depression, rage and have a strong sense of guilt.
Bibliography: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/arguments-for-pro-choice-abortions.html
Article 1
Divya Unni
Mrs. Bailey
AP Government-7th
01 October 2010
Article #1 Summary
Title: When the Anti-Choice choose
Author: Joyce Arthur
Main Idea: The anti-choice people are hypocrites. They do not practice what they preach; they are against abortion yet get abortions.
Summary
*Abortion is a very private choice. How do anti-choice supporters deal with an unwanted pregnancy?
*Anti-choice protesters vehemently oppose abortion in public but do not think twice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy of theirs or their loved ones. According to a clinic administrator in Alberta, a woman recovering from an abortion declared loudly that abortion should be made illegal despite the fact that it was her 2nd abortion within the last few months.
*A physician in Colorado had to deal with a woman who was getting an abortion in spite of thinking that abortion was murder, she a murderer for getting one and the doctor was committing a crime by doing the procedure.
*A physician in New York had a patient who came from South Carolina to get an abortion, as she didn’t want the members of her church group to discover that she had an abortion.
*A 1994/95 survey of nearly 10,000 abortion patients indicated that 18% of them were born again or Evangelical Christians. The survey also showed Catholic women have an abortion rate 29% higher than Protestant women.
*Anti-Choice women feel that their desire for an abortion is different – unlike others-though they undergo an abortion for similar reasons. They decline counseling, want to furtively enter through the back door and desire a room away from others. They do not want to sit in the room with others who they think are “garbage” and have “loose morals”. They are roused to anger if the other patients laugh or talk, because the feel this validates the belief that they are getting abortions for their selfish purposes.
*An anti- abortion organization – Life Dynamics Inc- specializes in malpractice suits aimed at abortion providers. Their clients are women who are guilt-stricken over their decision to abort, anti-abortionists or the ones unsure about their decision to have an abortion. The stigma of getting an abortion forces these women to vent their frustration on someone namely the physician who performed the abortion.
*There are some exceptions to the badly behaved anti-choice patient. Some of them come to terms with their decision and even become pro-choice or at least more accepting of others desiring an abortion. An anti-choice Louisiana patient wrote a thank you letter to the clinic and owned up to being a hypocrite.
*A doctor from a northwestern state divulged a story of a pro-life woman who after her abortion received counseling from Planned Parenthood. It taught her to accept and forgive herself, thereby making her more tolerant. She later went on to work in an abortion clinic where her experience was an asset.
3 Important Facts:
1. In 1981, almost 25% of women who had abortions thought they were wrong.
2. Catholic women have a higher abortion rate than Protestant women, about 29% higher.
3. According to a Planned Parent handbook about half of all abortions are for women who claim to be devout Christians.
Bias/ Faulty Reasoning: This article is from a pro-choice website which will contain articles that are more slanted in their favor. Also, the statistics are not very accurate since the majority are from the 1980s.
New Terms/Concepts
1. Contraindication- something that makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable
Bibliography: http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/anti-tales.shtml
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