According to the TimesOnline March 16:
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Women may be at risk of mental health breakdowns if they have abortions, a medical royal college has warned. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says women should not be allowed to have an abortion until they are counselled on the possible risk to their mental health.
This overturns the consensus that has stood for decades that the risk to mental health of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy outweighs the risks of living with the possible regrets of having an abortion….


The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends updating abortion information leaflets to include details of the risks of depression. “Consent cannot be informed without the provision of adequate and appropriate information,” it says.
Several studies, including research published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in 2006, concluded that abortion in young women might be associated with risks of mental health problems.

This report is problematic for other side. Guttmacher used RCPsych’s old report to substantiate its claims that abortion does not negatively impact a mother’s mental health.
Will Guttmacher amend its study? I’ll answer that. No. It will either quietly delete reference to the outdated RCPsych report or ignore the new one.
crazy.jpgBut that was just an aside. Earlier ths year the Los Angeles Times attributed a remarkable statement to the president of the American Psychiatric Association, Nada Stotland:

It may be, she said, that women who have abortions are more emotionally unstable in the first place.

Stotland, a lesbian feminist and member of the Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, was trying to make the case that any mother demonstrating mental health problems following abortions had them all the time. She was nuts to begin with.
Nada should then agree pregnant mothers be informed of the mental health risks. Stotland should actually encourage mental health sceening, no?
[HT: readers Laura Loo, seaof7, and Lisa J.]

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