conuly

Abortion can have harmful psychological effects, but what people who mention that tend to ignore is that women who have abortions are pregnant. This means they have only a handful of options. They can get an abortion or they can carry on with the pregnancy. The pregnancy may or may not come to term. If it does not, then you have a loss of pregnancy, a miscarriage, or a still birth, depending on when and what sort of problem occurs. These also have harmful psychological effects. If the pregnancy results in a baby, then that also can result in harmful psychological effects. Best info I can find is that aborting a baby is both lower in physical risk and psychological risk to the mother than a closed adoption or keeping an unwanted child. I am not aware of info comparing open adoptions, and I really want that researched. I think in many cases an open adoption can be a very good option.

When people in advice ask about what to do with a possible unplanned pregnancy, I try to make sure they are aware of their range of options. And that if they choose to have an abortion, they should do so as soon as possible, because an earlier abortion is easier (probably in all ways, especially psychologically) than a later one. Again, not something people tend to mention, they tend to treat all abortions as equivalent. Although I support immediately trying to make sure you have folic acid in your diet and talking to a doctor about prenatal care, because as long as you are still making up your mind and you might carry a baby to term, you should do what you can to support the health of the potential child, so you have the best options you can get.

But if you want to purely talk about the well being of the woman, abortion is probably the way to go. But it does depend on the specifics. A lot will depend on the woman's attitude toward the pregnancy and to abortion. You can't just make a one size fits all determination.

I really do like open adoption though. I think it's a very good option for many people, and we need to make sure it is presented as an option.