Editor’s Note: The National Abortion Federation offers mental and physical checkups for women faced with nonviable pregnancies. If you are contemplating suicide, seeking financial assistance to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion, or simply want to speak to someone regarding your abortion rights, please call 1-800-772-9100 or 202-667-5881.
A prospective mother experiences many joyous events during her pregnancy: selecting the baby’s name, shopping for newborn clothes, and guessing who the baby may look like or whose attitude the child will emulate once it makes its grand debut into the world.
However, what happens once a medical professional has determined that the fetus is nonviable or that the baby, if born, would suffer immense pain from the slightest touch, due to a skin condition like Epidermolysis bullosa, for the rest of its life?
Abortion and childbirth can be emotional processes for any woman. In 2017, JAMA Psychiatry conducted a research study concluding that denying a woman the right to an abortion causes damaging and potentially irreversible effects to the mother’s mental and physical health.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, left, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, right, praised a federal judge’s April 7, 2023, order to reverse the FDA’s nationwide approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. Photo courtesy AG Lynn Fitch
The overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, caused a shift in both the religious and secular world as we know it. Democratic liberals define this moment as a disgrace and an infringement upon women’s rights, while conservative Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was televised saying, “This is the best news of our lifetime. This is a great victory for God.”
In April 2023, two of Mississippi’s women conservative leaders, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Attorney General Lynn Fitch, rejoiced when they found out that a Texas judge could block the Food and Drug Administration from approving access of abortion pills, like mifepristone, nationwide unless a higher-ranking court appealed the decision. Mifepristone, when taken within the first 63 days after a woman becomes pregnant, is roughly 97% effective, even during the second trimester.
Women’s Mental Health