Just so you know, the picture is of a pelvic exam. Not an abortion in progress.
Ok, I admit it. The abortion phenomenon is an interesting aspect of evolutionary biology. I don't know if abortion is actively researched as a part of E.B. but I'm treating it like it is. After all, abortion patients seem to experience first hand nature's desire to have humans breed whether they want to or not. This is very different from people that go out of their way to have children. The difference is between conscious human will in creating life and unconscious, natural desire in procreation.
Let's face it. People can express love and emotional closeness in many ways that don't run risk of pregnancy. Whether you want to get pregnant or not, it may well happen if you have sex. You cant separate the potential for pregnancy from having sex. On a subconscious level, two people have decided that the other person is good baby making material. Why would you sleep with someone if, on some level, the thought of having a baby with them is completely repugnant? People you love but don't have sex with are called friends and family.
You probably cant find a person out there that hasn't taken a side on abortion. God knows, you search the internet for solid facts on the subject and you more likely find people screaming their opinions. Clearly, any woman that has an abortion will likely have a totally different experience than another woman. Its hard to say if more women feel sadness or relief after ending a pregnancy. Probably a lot of emotions, but what is the overall feeling?
Thats what I wondered after hearing about Post Abortion Stress Syndrome (PASS). Some say its very common, some say its a myth. Either way, the question is being asked "Do women care about their aborted fetuses?" From an evolutionary view point, when is the fetus worth keeping alive? When does the mother begin bonding with the fetus?
Even those women that seem to handle it well appreciate support from clinic staff and friends. That's the findings of a 1997 study that measured one hundred womens assessments of satisfaction with their abortion, as measured by surveys taken an hour after the procedure. Most of the women were single (82%), were college students (52%) and the pregnancies were in the first trimester 95% of the time. Their average age was 24.2 years.
Many of the women (56%) said they were "very satisfied" with the experience, 31% were "moderately satisfied" and 12% were unsure. One third reported that their emotional and physical health as fair or poor after the operation. The thing that made the difference is the preparation before the procedure. Those that were adequately explained to about how long, how painful and how the procedure would be expressed the most satisfaction. Satisfaction was highest among women that had a friend or boyfriend with them as support. The report suggested the importance of pre-procedure counseling and social support.
Another, more grisly study asked women before the abortion if they would be willing to look at the product of conception after the abortion. Of those that agreed to look (28.7%), eighty one percent of them did not find that it made the experience more difficult emotionally. However, it is important to note that older women, or women that already had children, were less likely to look and found it more difficult when they did.
What I gather from this is that if PASS is as common as abortion opponents say it is, the reactions to the procedure and the reactions to seeing the products on conception would have been much more negative. That's not to say that the syndrome doesn't happen. After all, one third of the women claimed to feel emotionally "fair or poor" after their abortions and the vast majority of women did not want to look at the fetus. I would guess that the women without the social support, without the pre-abortion counseling or already had children may be more likely to develop PASS than other women. This shows that stress after an abortion is more of a social nature than an biological one. Nature seems willing to let a woman move on.
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9094215
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19913153
http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/testimony5009-1.htm
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