Post-Abortion Syndrome and Men: Evaluating the Evidence

• In Event: 512 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Masculinities, Boundary Work, and Sexual Identities

Abstract

This study assessed the scientific accuracy of anti-abortion claims about men and post-abortion syndrome by comparing activists’ claims with peer-reviewed studies. We performed primary data analysis of anti-abortion activists’ claims regarding men and abortion and compared these findings with secondary data analysis of all known published research articles on the same topic. An exhaustive search of the anti-abortion movement’s materials on men and post-abortion syndrome were analyzed to determine the content and scope of post-abortion claims related to men. Forty-one peer-reviewed articles representing 31 unique samples on the effects of abortion on men were analyzed and evaluated for representativeness and generalizability of findings and compared to activists’ claims. Activists’ claims that abortion is psychologically crippling to men are unsupported by the scientific research, indicating men’s reactions to abortion are nuanced but not pathological. Activists’ claims are misleading and not founded on scientific evidence yet are gaining traction in political discourse and abortion policy.

Author

• Kimberly Kelly, Mississippi State University