the effects of adoption and abortion

The Effect of Abortion and Adoption on the Women of the World
Tokie M Still
Liberty University
Abstract
There are so many different feeling about abortion and adoption. People do not think about the damage that both of these decisions can affect the women whom have made them. There are so many different reasons women give for making the decisions to end their pregnancy or to give a child away. The damage that is done is not just to the mothers and fathers but also to the children. The damage can have a long and lasting effect on everyone’s life in the situation.
The Effect of Abortion and Adoption on the Women of the World

Abortion
Abortions are not always a medical procedure. There are spontaneous abortions. A spontaneous abortion is the other name for a miscarriage. Abortions can be caused by medication, herbs, doctors, and birth defect issues with the fetus. All of these kinds of abortions can cause mental issues in the expectant mother. Counseling is strongly advised before a voluntary abortion and after a spontaneous abortion.

Counseling in abortion clinics
The emotional wellbeing of a girl or woman that has had an abortion can be very rocky. The law has a mandatory waiting period. This requires woman to wait up to 24 hours after a counseling appointment to set up the procedure. Some of the counseling laws allow phone counseling. The laws can be very biased. Some states have a prescribed script that is read to the woman. “They consider these scripts “biased” because they contain information that is designed to frighten and dissuade women from having abortions. These coercive scripts are completely incompatible with the goal of true informed consent (Mueller, Dudley, 1997).” The counselors do not really look at the reasons for the abortion. Even the women that are getting an abortion for medical reasons have to hear this script. Because of the way these clinics are run women do not get the pre-abortion counseling they truly need. If a woman really wants her child and a Doctor tells her that the fetus she is killing her; how does this woman make the decision she needs to make? She would need help from outside sources.

Fawn’s story
Fawn of Ohio was a 24 year old married woman trying to have her first biological child. She was driving down the road one day when her bladder failed and she wet herself. After going to the Doctor she found out that her kidneys were twice the size they should be and growing by the day. Her doctor did not give her a pregnancy test as he should have. Instead he gave her a shot to stop the growth of her kidneys. Unfortunately she was pregnant. The same shot that saved her life, stopped the growth of her baby she wanted so much. Fawn and her husband of 6 months made the decision to terminate the pregnancy. When she went in for the mandatory check-up the clinic did an ultrasound. Fawn was shown the ultrasound. By showing her the fetus she and her husband suffered mental trouble. Remember that this couple were trying to have a child. She received no pre-abortion counseling. When she went in for the procedure she was attacked outside the clinic. No one from the clinic came to her aid. After she terminated the pregnancy she was not offered post-abortion counseling. There are many stories that follow the same lines as Fawn’s story (Unknown, 2014).”

Forced to abort
Abortion laws have changed over and over again. In the 80’s and 90’s it was legal for a parent to force their teen to abort a pregnancy. These teens were not given a choice. Most of them did not get counseling beforehand or after.
Jamie was 14 when she became pregnant the first time. Her parents forced her to end the pregnancy. She had no say in the decision that would affect her life. In her mourning for her unborn child she decided to get pregnant again. She was allowed to keep this child. Jamie morns for her first unborn child to this day. She has also never been offered counseling (Unknown, 2014)

Side effects of abortion
There can be many side effects of abortion. Some of these side effects can be regret, anger, guilt, shame, loss, and depression. These side effects can precipitate suicide, and relationship failure. “Woman who have had an abortion have an 81 percent higher risk of subsequent mental health problems compared to women who have not had an abortion (Coyne, 2011).” “Women who aborted have a 138 percent higher risk of mental health problems compared to women who have given birth (Coyne, 2011).” “Women who aborted have a 55 percent higher risk of mental health problems compared to women with an ‘unplanned’ pregnancy who gave birth (Coyne, 2011).”
A lot of the women that have had abortions do not seek help. Some have blocked out the fact that they even ended a pregnancy. Some hid it from their families so they are afraid to get counseling for fear of being found out.

Adoption
Adoption is when another family raises a child not biologically their child. Some children are only adopted by a step parent. There are many children looking to be adopted in this world. Most of these kids do not have a family. They could be in the welfare system because they were taken from their biological families. They could be orphans; or the children could just be unwanted by their parents. These children need good homes.

The decision to surrender
When an expected mother makes the decision to give up her unborn child there are many things that go through their minds. Who will care for my child? Will my child be taken care of? What will my child grow up to be? These are all questions that can go through the mind of an expectant mother. A peace may come over a pregnant woman knowing that she made the decision to give birth and not abort her child. “She may do her best to go on with her life, believing the adoption “professionals” who advised her and her parents that she would soon get over it and go on with her life. (Unknown, 2008)”

Kelly’s story
Kelly was 17 years old when she became pregnant. She felt that she could not give her unborn child a good home. She decided to give her child up for adoption. Her family helped her make this decision. In truth she was not ready to make the decision. In the 70’s it was not recommended to let the mother see a child she wanted to give up for adoption. On June 14, 1976 she gave birth to a very healthy baby boy. After his birth he was taken straight out of the room. She never laid eyes on him. She did not know where he went or what his name would be. She always wondered if she made the right decision. Even after meeting her first born she wonders if she did the right thing or if she should have kept him with her (Unknown, 2014).

Post-Adoption effects
A birth mother may not show any emotion after giving up a child. With the adoption laws today a birth parent may be told that they can have an open adoption. According to the law there is no open adoption. Guilt is one of the emotions a mother may feel. “These birthparents may believe that their offspring will not understand the reasons for relinquishment and that these offspring will blame and hate their birthparents for rejecting and abandoning them (Baran, Pannor, 1993).”
Some of the side effects of putting a child up for adoption are the same as deciding to have an abortion. Depression can set in very easy. A woman’s body is hormonally run. When a woman is pregnant her hormones get her brain ready to be a mother. If a birth mother gives up her child the brain and body feel the loss. She will morn her child.

Forced to give up a child
In the last 70 years adoption has come a long way. A parent can no longer force their child to give up a baby. In the 50’s to the early 70’s 1.5 million women gave their children up for adoption. They returned home like it never happened. “When my parents sent me to the Sophia Little Home in Cranston, R.I., I was 17 and seven months pregnant by my boyfriend, a 19-year-old sailor. The youngest girl there was 14 and the oldest was 22. I spent the next two months doing arts and crafts. We were told not to tell each other our last names. We never talked about what was going to happen to our bodies. There was no help to prepare us for the grief that was to lie ahead (Horgan, 2006).” A lot of these women are still alive and have had no counseling. They have been fighting with what was forced on them.

Effects of adoption on the child
Adoptees have a lot of their own issues they have to deal with. When a child is given up they end up feeling unwanted. “Adoptees are more likely to have difficulties with drug and alcohol abuse, as well as, eating disorders, attention deficit disorder, infertility, suicide and untimely pregnancies (Bohman, 1979).” Some of these children are told that they are adopted. When they ask about their birth parents they are told they were not planned, or that their mother was too young to keep them. No matter what the reason, the child will feel a deep loss. Even children that are not told that they are adopted can feel that they do not quite fit. There is a connection with a birth parent that just cannot be copied.

Reality sets in
Birth parents that go searching for their children never know what to expect. They have no idea what the adoptees have been told. If they were told that they were not wanted there can be a very angry reunion. All reunions are not quite comfortable situations. Everyone is nervous and everyone is worried about what they might find out.

No set answers
There are no set answers for the women that abort or give up their children. God knows what is in their heart. “Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely (Psalms 139:4, NIV).” The Lord knows everything his flock is going to do before it is done. Before a person is even conceived he knows what that child is going to do in its life. A counselor has to be very careful when dealing with a case involving abortion or adoption.
A counselor that cannot handle a woman that has had an abortion should not try to counsel one. The woman can be very broken. They need to know that God loves them. They need to know that life can be full.
A woman that has put a child up for adoption also needs to know that God loves them. These women wonder their whole life if they did the right thing. They worry about the child they gave up. They search faces of children that would be about the same age, just hoping for a glimpse of themselves in the little faces.
There is no right answer on how to deal with these women. Pray and ask the Lord how to counsel. There needs to be more counselors that specialize in abortion and adoption issues. The counseling these women get in the Planned Parenthood is not enough.

References

Mueller, S., Dudley, S. (1997),Access to Abortion. National Abortion Federation,
Unknown, Fawn (2014), Personal Interview
Unknown, Jamie (2014), Personal Interview
Coyne, J. C. (2011), Negative Mental Health Effects of Abortion. The Skeptical Sleuth,
Unknown (2008), "Unplanned”: Consider the Consequences Before "Giving Up" Your Baby For Adoption.
Unknown, Kelly (2014), Personal Interview
Baran A., Pannor R. (1993), Adoption. The Future of Children, Vol 3, Number 1
Horgan, N. (2006), Forced to Give Up Their Babies. People Magazine
Bohman, M. (1979) "Psychiatric illness among adults adopted as infants". Acta Psychiati Scand.
Psalms 39:4, Bible, NIV

References: Mueller, S., Dudley, S. (1997),Access to Abortion. National Abortion Federation, Unknown, Fawn (2014), Personal Interview Unknown, Jamie (2014), Personal Interview Coyne, J. C. (2011), Negative Mental Health Effects of Abortion. The Skeptical Sleuth, Unknown (2008), "Unplanned”: Consider the Consequences Before "Giving Up" Your Baby For Adoption. Unknown, Kelly (2014), Personal Interview Baran A., Pannor R. (1993), Adoption. The Future of Children, Vol 3, Number 1 Horgan, N. (2006), Forced to Give Up Their Babies. People Magazine Bohman, M. (1979) "Psychiatric illness among adults adopted as infants". Acta Psychiati Scand. Psalms 39:4, Bible, NIV