“Denying abortion to women with unplanned pregnancies leads women and children, who are human resources for driving the nation’s future, to face physical, mental, and social health problems, have a poor quality of life, become a burden to the nation, and result in economic loss and obstacles to the country’s development.”
Dr. Ruangkit Sirikanchanakul said
and exchanged studies and information from abroad. Dr. David A. Grimes wrote a research study
in the year 2015 on “Denial of Abortion: Consequences for Mother and Child”
Abortion is considered a solution for unplanned pregnancies, but when this solution is denied, unavailable, or difficult to access, ultimately, women have to give birth even though they are not ready to raise a child. What will happen after that? There is empirical evidence showing that children grow up with quality when they are loved and wanted.On the contrary…children born from unpreparedness and unwantedness often have an increased risk of committing offenses as they grow up.
Additionally, a study in Washington found that children born to teenage mothers are 11 times more likely to commit offenses than the general population. In cases where there is a lack of oxygen during birth and emergency treatment is required, it was found that…there is a correlation with the child growing up to become a criminal.
Another study in Gothenburg, Sweden, followed children born to women with unplanned pregnancies who could not have an abortion until these children grew up to the age of 35 years, compared to children of the same gender born in the same hospital found that of the 197 women denied abortion, 68 ended up having an abortion elsewhere, confirming that they no longer wanted to be pregnant. For the group that was unprepared but had to continue the pregnancy until birth and were followed until the children grew up, there were 66 males and 54 females. The continuous follow-up results found that
- There was more than 2 times the rate of psychiatric hospital admissions
- There were more than 2 times the rate of offenses
- There were more than 3 times the rate of criminal offenses
- Alcohol addiction was more than 50%
- There was more than 6 times the need for state assistance between the ages of 16 – 21 years
- There were more than 2 times the learning difficulties
In addition to the effects on children as they grow up there are also effects on mothers who have to give birth and raise children in an unprepared state, as follows:
- 1 in 3 women denied abortion feel resentment, disappointment, dissatisfaction, and harbor these feelings for a long time for giving birth to a child they did not want
- There are psychological issues in accepting the child born
- Half of the women studied experience emotional stress and require periodic therapy
- 1 in 4 have mental illness and constant stress
- There is anxiety and a feeling of being a bad person, worthless
- Most require various forms of assistance from the state
- Unable to work fully, do not have full-time jobs, leading to poverty
- In the group that decided to give their child to others, it was found that there was severe grief, requiring hospitalization for severe psychiatric disorders
By Dr. Ruangkit Sirikanchanakul, RSA network coordinator