I'm not sure that's true- about giving up the child. I've met quite a few women (at least 10) who gave up children, and they wonder constantly about their children, and should they try to find them, is their child trying to find them, etc. It seems to cause quite a bit of emotional trauma. Abortion is, at least, closure. I don't ask about abortion, because in 3d it just isn't one of those subjects I like to bring up- since it is fundamentally, like religion, a potentially relationship destabilizing topic. But one woman who I know very well would have definitely had an abortion had they been available. She found having the child very emotionally scarring, and never managed to get over it (and never had any more children, or managed to have a long term relationship after the birth).
I think it would be hard to prove which is more emotionally scarring.
Ah- I found some interesting studies on that:
Emotional Reactions to Adoption
The psychological responses to abortion are far less serious than those experienced by women bringing their unwanted pregnancy to term and relinquishing the child for adoption (Sachdev, 1993).
While first-trimester abortion does not affect most women adversely, and nearly all women assimilate the abortion experience by six months to one year after the procedure (Sachdev, 1993), one study indicates that 95 percent of birth mothers report grief and loss after they have signed their consent to adoption, and two-thirds continued to experience these feelings five to 15 years after relinquishment (Sachdev, 1989).
Of pregnant women who considered other options before choosing abortion, none considered having a baby and giving it up for adoption. Nearly all of the women believed that relinquishing a baby would cause even greater emotional trauma than abortion. They believed they would develop a deep emotional attachment to the baby that would be extremely painful to sever (Sachdev, 1993). |
