The state of Nebraska faces a situation most parents can’t comprehend. At last count 34 children, ranging in age from 20 months to 17 years, have been left at Nebraska hospitals under the auspices of a vaguely written “Safe Haven” law.
The American Psychological Association report finding no increased risk of mental health problems post-abortion should put the fiction that women can’t be trusted to make healthy decisions for themselves to rest.
“Protecting” the mental health of women is the latest front in the abortion debate; The state of South Dakota’s second abortion ban attempt; The Oregonian responds to Secretary Leavitt; New England Journal of Medicine reviews PEPFAR five years after inception.
The right to abortion and access to safe abortion care has been extraordinarily politicized in the US (and elsewhere) for decades now and women’s physical and psychological needs have been caught in the cross-fire. A new book places those needs front and center.
