Mental Health is for Babies and Parents, Too
For years, Governor J.B. Pritzker has made mental health a top priority. His recent partnership with the federal government promises to bring “new dedicated resources” to the state, and an August 2021 mental health insurance mandate took effect earlier this month.
The governor and I disagree on many policies, but I’m glad he cares so much about mental health. I’m 64 years old, and it was only a few years ago that I began to understand how early-childhood traumas impacted my life. And for millions of people, disastrous COVID-19 pandemic policies and widespread drug addiction have made their mental health worse.
Unfortunately, Pritzker’s policies have ignored the mental health of a large demographic of Illinoisans: unborn children and their parents.
The governor isn’t just a supporter of abortion, which denies children the chance to have positive mental health. He made it a top re-election issue; he called a special legislative assembly to ensure abortion access, and even made sure felons have easier access to abortion. He did all of this even though Illinois has no serious restrictions on abortion, which means that Planned Parenthood of Illinois has the resources and legal opportunity to launch mobile “clinics” to bring the horrors and discrimination of abortion to other states.
The humanity of the unborn is not my opinion as a nurse, a mother, or a Catholic; the science showing that each person is unique at fertilization is clear. A California abortionist recently acknowledged the humanity of unborn children when she described congratulating a colleague on her 15-week pregnancy, then performing an abortion on a 15-week pregnant woman. Clearly, this doctor has the same blind spots as the governor and tens of millions of other Americans – acknowledging a child’s humanity only under some circumstances.
Abortion denies babies the chance to have any positive mental health. It also often has negative effects on parents’ health. A new study by the abortion healing group Support After Abortion showed that fully one in three women struggle mentally or emotionally after an abortion, which means that Pritzker’s policies risks increasing the number of families struggling with mental health issues.
The Support After Abortion study is just the latest proof that women shouldn’t celebrate abortion. The Guttmacher Institute’s famed 2005 survey showed that most women have abortions due to panic and fear, and the abortion industry’s widely-cited Turnaway Study showed that 5% of women hand-picked by the industry for the survey suffer after-abortion regret.
Panic, fear, regret – these are the foundations not of liberation and social equality, but rather of shame and devastation. This harm isn’t limited to women – men, too, are hurt by abortion. Studies cited by a self-described “pro-choice” mental health therapist and professor show that men suffer “disenfranchised grief” and other negative outcomes even though Guttmacher and Support After Abortion found that most men are not involved in the abortion decision,
Opposing abortion isn’t just about social issues; it’s also about social justice, something which Pritzker highlighted when he announced the federal mental health partnership. Abortion has huge racial disparities. The state doesn’t release race-specific numbers, but Kaiser Family Foundation reports that black Americans have abortions at three times their population ratio, Hispanics have abortions 10% more often than their population ratio, and whites have abortions 50% lower than their population ratio.
Nothing that causes this much damage to people, families, and society can be considered “healthcare.” And yet, Governor Pritzker and our state’s public health agencies have made sure that the greatest mental health disparity in Illinois – the war on babies and the neglect of their families – continues unabated.
Barbara Hoare is an LPN and a mother of nine children.
