response to tara stroll

For a column that claims to be advocating the right to an informed choice, Tara Stroll’s argument for Right to Know laws could not have been more one-sided. While information about adoption agencies and pregnancy care centers is valuable for a woman who has chosen to have a baby and give it up for adoption, women who have already decided to have an abortion should not be forced to face belittlement and criticism from people who visibly disapprove of their very difficult decision to have an abortion. After one of my friends made it clear to the women’s clinic in the Midwest that she was putting her confidence in them to help her find a close abortion provider, it was Right to Know laws that subjected her to a plea to have a sonogram and put off her abortion so she could reconsider. Right to Know laws attempt to shame and pressure women into giving up their freedom of choice, and as in the case with my friend, (who was told to wait longer for her abortion, which makes the procedure more complicated) women are often given harmful advice. The column claims that there is a link between breast cancer and abortions which few women know about and that because of this, parental notification laws are essential. Perhaps knowledge of this link is not widespread because it is not true. You think that information should be provided from the government in an unbiased manner? Well then why don’t we disregard Tara’s outdated studies conducted by openly anti-choice institutions and look at a study done last year by the National Cancer Institute (an arm of the federal government) that says that abortion does NOT increase the risk of breast cancer. As far as parental notification laws are concerned, enforcement of these laws severely limit reproductive choices for minors. While accurate statistics are not available because of the nature of the deaths, parental notification and consent laws have killed a number of women under 18 who had to resort to an unsafe illegal abortion because they did not feel they could tell a parent. Tara says that parents who would disapprove of abortions would “still appreciate being informed so that they could take proper care of their daughter afterwards.” This is completely ignoring the needs of girls who either are not in contact with their parents, live in abusive homes, or are impregnated as a result of incest. Not every girl grows up in a home with a parent who she can confide in, and in most cases if she felt comfortable telling a parent about her abortion she would do it regardless of notification laws. I have so many problems with the biased studies conducted to show abortion causes depression that I do not even know where to begin. First off (to put it in non-technical terms), the bodies of women who have abortions are going crazy with hormones while they are still pregnant, and for a matter of time after their pregnancies are terminated. Frequently, women are given additional hormones to take after their abortion to return to a normal cycle. Depression that women feel immediately after an abortion is often related to this hormonal imbalance, as with many pregnancies. Ever hear of Post-Partum Depression? Also, the study that was conducted with a control on age, race, and income showing that the women who have had abortions are more likely to suffer from depression than women who had not leaves out one very important factor. We are not told if all of these women in the study are also dealing with a pregnancy, let alone an unwanted pregnancy. I can only assume they are not. Regardless of whether a woman is sure of her choice, I do acknowledge that having an abortion can be a traumatic experience and possibly lead to depression. This being said, a more relevant study would show the rates of depression in women who have had an abortion vs. depression in women who also experienced unwanted pregnancies and chose differently. Let’s face it, once a woman is already pregnant, even Right to Know laws won’t help her go back before she is stuck with having to make a disconcerting choice. Tara also says that this information should come from the state government, which she calls neutral, which is funny because I can not think of a single state neutral on the topic of reproductive rights. Given the same facts, I’m sure “neutral” Massachusetts and “neutral” Alabama would proceed differently concerning Right to Know laws. Finally, if Right to Know laws would truly provide unbiased information for women dealing with unplanned pregnancies, would they also provide statistics of the number of women who suffer from depression after giving up their babies to adoption? How about the number of women who cannot provide for their children because they were coerced into having a baby based on intimidating, false information? I’m just trying to let women make informed choices.

Arielle Altman COM 2007 BU Women’s Center Treasurer

**p.s- sorry if this sent twice, my internet is acting up**