Last weekend, the New York Times Magazine’s cover story asked, “Is There a Post-Abortion Syndrome?” In the beginning of the story, the author clearly answers the question by pointing to all of the scientific evidence indicating no such syndrome exists. Yet, the story goes on and on and on (and then on some more) about one woman’s quest to indoctrinate female prisoners who have had abortions about the horrible damage the abortion has done to their psyches. If the syndrome doesn’t exist, why give her story so much attention?
A proponent of post-abortion syndrome described the movement’s strategy when it puts out flawed studies on the subject: “Even if pro-abortionists got five paragraphs explaining that abortion is safe and we got only one line saying it’s dangerous, the seed of doubt is planted.”
Isn’t this exactly what the Times has done with this story? Actually, it’s worse: the Times has given the one line equivalent to the science and the five paragraph equivalent to the woman pushing the flawed anti-abortion message.
– David S. Cohen
Agreed. Not only was this story just patently ridiculous (in the fourth paragraph the post-abortion counselor claims that abortion is responsible for the drug war. I debunk that beyond laughable statement here: http://abirdandabottle.com/2007/01/21/whoppers-from-the-times/), but the Times also legitimates the claims that abortion is responsible for all the bad in the world by giving it so much space. And not only that, but on the anniversary of Roe! This is the second year in a row that the Times has misstepped with it’s Roe anniversary coverage. Last year they had a whole op-ed page full of columns about abortion rights. But not a single one of them was penned by a woman!
It would be wrong to claim that abortion is never hard for people or that it never causes emotional pain. But by giving so much space — and the cover! — to an article like this suggests that there must be something to what these anti-abortion activists say. And no matter how well the article debunks that myth (in this case, middlingly), not only has a seed been planted, but maybe even a whole orchard.
I have been practicing psychotherapy for 20 years and have seen dozens and dozens of women and girls, many of whom had abortions. In all that time, I think I encountered only one woman–maybe two, if I thought about it–who had failed to work through the experience, and that was because she had had multiple abortions.
The majority of women, by the time they make the decision to have the procedure, have already gone through the difficult emotions. To imply that women have life-long issues because of abortion is simply ridiculous.