"For decades, the cultural battle over abortion has been about what goes on inside a woman's womb. But more and more, the focus is shifting to what goes on inside her head."
     From "New Front in Abortion Battle," which appeared in the August 12 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

It's been known in pro-life circles for a long time that the notoriously abortion-friendly American Psychological Association was taking another look at its position on mental health and abortion. In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, reporter Stephanie Simon tells us that the APA will be making the report public at its annual conference this week in Boston.

As Simon notes, the APA pulled its fact sheet on the topic two years ago "for updating." Question is should anyone expect a change from the APA's long-standing conclusion (to quote Simon) "that abortion has no negative mental-health consequences for most women"? Well, if you recall that "the psychologists' group and the separate American Psychiatric Association say it is crucial for women's mental health that they have access to safe, legal abortions," odds of the APA coming up with a less one-sided conclusion are very long indeed.

Not surprising drafts have leaked out. There is some of the usual to-ing and fro-ing ("some women," "teenagers," etc.) but what counts is what Simon describes as "The brisk conclusion paragraph on a recent draft," which "focuses on adult women seeking elective abortions in the first trimester of an unwanted pregnancy -- which covers the majority of abortions."  So what is "the takeaway message"? That these women "have no greater risk of mental-health problems," according to Simon.

For the most part, but not always, Simon takes an "on the one hand" but "on the other hand" approach.  For example, she argues that the findings someone offers on the association between abortion and mental health problems will break down along "ideological lines."

In other words, pro-lifers will find that many women are emotionally and psychologically hurt by their abortion while pro-abortionists will conclude such responses are few and more a function of a prior emotional difficulty than the abortion itself.

Reading the story you would think that the newer studies demonstrating that women are hurt by their abortion suffer from the same shortcomings found in research done years ago. That simply is not true.

The newer work is much more rigorous, involves larger samples of women, and is published in peer-review publications. The irony is that it is the deniers who routinely indulge in baldface attempts to preclude evidence that shows women suffer following an abortion. The "flawed science" is found in the work of those who say abortion does not exact a price.

No doubt the American Psychological Association will pooh-pooh the mental health impact of abortion. But the simple fact--that abortion kills babies and hurts women--is a truth that cannot be denied forever.