“Abortion causes depression” is a scientifically testable claim. Science tested the claim and said that yes, young people who have abortions are more depressed than the general population, but not more so than young women who carry pregnancies to term. Therefore it is teen pregnancy, not abortion, that is the cause of the depression. Unless there is some group of girls I don’t know about who have had abortions without being pregnant I think the results are pretty easy to understand.
Yes, and more than one study (and I do apologize for not being able to locate them at the moment) has acknowledged the depression caused by teen pregnancy and by teen marriage.
I agree with post 22 and post 30. I know it’s going to “depress” everyone to hear this, but the problem with focusing on the supposed life-long dramatic psychological effects of abortion is that it can be counter-argued based on conflicting data, such as an equal number of anecdotes to anyone who says “everybody I know,” etc. I know several women who have had abortions (who are not practicing Catholics; that perhaps would be an important control element in a more sophisticated study of a wider sample, which may further break down into believers/non-believers; Christians/non-Christians, etc.) None of these acquaintances of mine have had residual guilt, depression, destroyed lives, “going off the deep end,” or anything like that. However, all of them, including the most educated, “liberated,” sophisticated of them had
residual regret that they were even in that position to have made that choice. IOW, it was the inappropriate & irresponsible practice of extra-marital sex that even put them in that position. The remorse they had was over bad choices which necessitated a crisis decision.
I.m.o., and I know that most of you will not agree with me, the focus for the general public (not CAF) should be on the bad consequences of bad decisions. These are the kinds of campaigns that have worked in efforts like reducing teen drinking, reducing smoking (all ages, nationwide), avoiding group pressure to engage in illegal activities (street drugs, bullying, but much more), etc. They are all awareness campaigns, relying partly on personal (but believable) testimony, providing facts, and using reason/logic. Hysteria (or an overly emotional approach) generally doesn’t succeed because it is less credible than other approaches.
For example, the sentence “abortion doesn’t cause depression” is just as testable as the reverse, if your sample is broad enough and includes people from diverse backgrounds. However, listening to Cristalina Evert contrast her self-image when she was having teen sex, with her self-image since married, is very powerful. Not just because of the facts she presents, but because of her delivery. She shows very powerfully how much healing she needed, how much pain she put herself through, how deep down even as a teen she subconsciously realized she was making excuses for her live-for-the-moment behavior. She’s extremely convincing. Were I a teen considering being sexually active, she would have me.
Not much good can come from out-of-wedlock consensual sex unless you were engaged in any case, and, well, you’re just starting your family immediately. If you weren’t planning on marrying, you can give the baby up for adoption, but if you think that that decision is always without trauma – and its own guilt and depression – then you are naive. I know enough about adoption to know that it brings its own internal & sometimes external conflict, and is frankly overly romanticized these days.
Teenage pregancy compounds the above problems because of the combination of immaturity and economic challenge, not to mention practically ruining your life for a good 18 years, and whether or not you get married (another layer of problems in itself), because early parenthood can delay or permanently prevent economic solvency on the part of both parents.
How do you spell out-of-wedlock sex? S-T-U-P-I-D, that’s how. Most of the choices that most people end up with are not desirable choices, if that sex results in pregnancy.
I also think that anyone interested in really getting to the heart of the problem should really mine the newer studies that have revealed how more than half of young women (including past the teen years) feel pressured by men & society to be sexually active, routinely, as an aspect of dating. Women feel that the choice is actually not really theirs to make (a silly thought); that it is being made for them,
and that that social reality depresses them. It’s as if sex has become a marketing tool (‘you’re of no value unless you have sex with me’), owned by men and the society which supports exploitative male behavior (“ownership” of women’s bodies, by men) – which when you think about it is anything but liberated or liberating: it’s a throw-back to the eras of women as the property or extension of men. Let me tell you that we women do feel that in order to remain in the market for dating, we have to commit to the market for sex.
About 15 years ago there was a segment on some broadcast newsmagazine which discussed the Chastity Movement among American women. Part of it anticipated the very new research which is only a few months old now: that is, single women in the story were feeling that sex was both too high a price they were having to pay for dates, and also that genital intimacy was being substituted for truer, more complete & more respectful intimacy. I haven’t heard much about the movement since then, but the newer study makes this an optimum time to renew it.
