The past three years have been the most regressive times for women’s rights, in terms of their reproductive liberty. A study has been conducted in recent years to discover how all these changes are affecting mental health. Clinical and forensic psychologists were asked a series of questions in regards to their professional opinion on what these laws are doing to women’s mental health.
When asked about how abortion restrictions affected her patients, Dr. Laura S. Brown Ph.D. said her patients don’t feel like humans anymore. They feel as if the government sees them as breeding animals. This affects their self-esteem in many ways, especially for rape/sexual abuse victims. Forcefully going through nine months of pregnancy can also take a toll on one’s mental health as well.
With all the pregnancy symptoms one must endure, it’s worth it in the end because you finally have your baby. That feeling only applies to people who actually wanted the baby. For Texas women in 2021, they are being forced to go through a painful unwanted pregnancy or conduct unsafe methods at home to rid themselves of this pregnancy.
The restrictive laws against women’s bodies pose a threat to their well-being. According to the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, 51% of pregnancies in America are accidents. This means that their metaphorical security net has been grabbed from under them. There has been a significant increase in anxiety and panic attacks because of the restrictive laws against women’s bodies. Women from all over the country are rallying together to fight to protect for our reproductive rights, which are ours and ours alone to govern.