Abortion and the Female/Male View - Essay Example

But that is generally followed by considerable amount of numbness concerning the whole issue. Apart from the physical health complications involving abortion there are many mental illness that tend to accompany the female undergoing abortion. Women who have undergone post-abortion counseling report over 100 major reactions to abortion. Among the most frequently reported are: depression, loss of self-esteem, self-destructive behavior, sleep disorders, memory loss, sexual dysfunction, chronic problems with relationships, dramatic personality changes, anxiety attacks, guilt and remorse, difficulty grieving, increased tendency toward violence, chronic crying, difficulty concentrating, flashbacks, loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities and people, and difficulty bonding with later children.

(Reardon 1987) Male partners who actually care about their partners try their best to support them by ‘being there’ but their silence is often misunderstood as apathy and indifference towards the plight of female in case there are considerable social problems involved with the birth of the child which may be illegitimate. Shostak describes male abortion pain as the loss of fatherhood and a "wound you cannot see or feel, but it exists" Shostak found: The prejudiced society views the male as the one who doesn’t care about abortion because he is not the one who actually gives birth to the child and hcnce can’t empathize with the female.

But this is not really true as there are studies reflecting contradicting views to the one stated. For instance, a study in Kenya among 466 males between 18 and 22 years of age indicates that most (78.6%)of the respondents disapproved of abortion. Even when the respondents were questioned on various circumstances to justify abortion more than half (56.2%) indicated no approval of abortion. On probing still at third (30.7%) of the respondents did not indicate any circumstance for approval. The circumstance that drew the