In Marven Durling’s June 1st letter, he states that “many counselors, doctors, and psychiatrists” agree that “a considerable number” of women who have terminated pregnancies have been negatively affected by and regretted their decision. I am curious as to what scientific evidence Mr. Durling has for that claim, or is it yet another anti-choice myth? During years of study and practice of psychotherapy, I never once encountered any such evidence. A quick Google search found that “five years after having an abortion, over 95 percent of the women in a landmark UC San Francisco study said it was the right decision for them.” Further information is available by Googling the UCSF Turnaway study. Even if there are some professionals who claim that abortion negatively affects women, there are also some who support the harmful and now illegal pseudoscientific practice of conversion therapy. Unfortunately, not all professionals follow the science.
Mr. Durling also states that anti-choice groups can’t stop women from terminating a pregnancy. While that is currently the situation in Canada, it is obviously not the case in the U.S., where roughly half of the state legislatures have enacted almost complete abortion bans since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I have no doubt that Canadian anti-choice groups would do the same here if they could. Also, although they cannot force Canadian women to carry pregnancies to term, they rely on covert messaging to scare or guilt them into it, such as by falsely labelling a fetus as an unborn child, using provocative imagery on billboards and signs, or proclaiming that abortion is murder and a mortal sin. The anti-choice movement has also been known to harass women outside abortion clinics and to set up pregnancy counselling clinics, which purport to help women to make their own decisions, yet subtly push their own agenda. In the U.S, anti-choice activists have killed people and bombed abortion clinics. So much for being pro-life.
I would agree with Mr. Durling that we all need to respect and love one another. It is unfortunate that he presaged that suggestion with a statement about women using abortion “as a method of convenience or birth control.” If I were a woman who had opted for a termination, I don’t think I would find that statement loving or respectful. I would be more likely to feel patronized and belittled. For me, the assumptions made in that statement represent the underlying philosophy of the anti-choice movement: women are too helpless and irresponsible to be trusted with full body autonomy.
Penny Robertson,
M.Ed.
(Couns. Psych.)