197703
Abortion
POSITION STATEMENT
Approved by the Board of Trustees, December 10, 1977
Approved by the Assembly, October 15, 1978
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"Policy documents are approved by the APA Assembly and Board of Trustees… These are …position statements that define APA official policy on specific subjects…" -- APA Operations Manual. |
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This final draft was drawn up by a subcommittee1 appointed by the Reference Committee to collate an Area I Action Paper and information provided by the Committee on Women, the Council on National Affairs, the Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families, and the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.
The emotional consequences of unwanted pregnancy on parents and their offspring may lead to long-standing life distress and disability, and the children of unwanted pregnancies are at high risk for abuse, neglect, mental illness, and deprivation of the quality of life. Pregnancy that results from undue coercion, rape, or incest creates even greater potential distress or disability in the child and the parents. The adolescent most vulnerable to early pregnancy is the product of adverse sociocultural conditions involving poverty, discrimination, and family disorganization, and statistics indicate that the resulting pregnancy is laden with medical complications which threaten the well-being of mother and fetus. The delivery that ensues from teenage pregnancy is prone to prematurity and major threats to the health of mother and child, and the resulting newborns have a higher percentage of birth defects, developmental difficulties, and a poorer life and health expectancy than the average for our society. Such children are often not released for adoption and thus get caught in the web of foster care and welfare systems, possibly entering lifetimes of dependency and costly social interventions. The tendency of this pattern to pass from generation to generation is very marked and thus serves to perpetuate a cycle of social and educational failure, mental and physical illness, and serious delinquency.
Because of these considerations, and in the interest of public welfare, the American Psychiatric Association
1) opposes all constitutional amendments, legislation, and regulations curtailing family planning and abortion services to any segment of the population; 2) reaffirms its position that abortion is a medical procedure in which physicians should respect the patient's right to freedom of choice - psychiatrists may be called on as consultants to the patient or physician in those cases in which the patient or physician requests such consultation to expand mutual appreciation of motivation and consequences; and 3) affirms that the freedom to act to interrupt pregnancy must be considered a mental health imperative with major social and mental health implications.
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1The subcommittee included Edward H. Futterman, M.D., chairperson of the Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families; James M. Stubblebine, M.D., chairperson of the Council on Mental Health Services; Harold M. Visotsky, M.D., chairperson of the Council on National Affairs (1975-1978); Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., staff liaison; and Jay Cutler, staff legal counsel.