One mental health professional's search for reproductive and bodily autonomy

Psychologists Role Psychologists play a pivotal role in the legal change as is relates to both human and criminal behaviors. According to Woody and Forrest (2022), psychology coupled with the law have consistently inspired positive social change. An example of this, “Brown v. Board of Education (1954) renowned psychologists, including Mamie Phipps Clark, Kenneth Clark, and Isidor Chein, among others, challenged racial segregation in schools” (Woody & Forrest, 2022). Another way that psychologists have provoked social change within the legal system is through applied research (Woody & Forrest, 2022).  Impact of Rulings on Women’s Bodily Autonomy on Crime Rates As it relates to my topic of interest, a women’s right to bodily and reproductive autonomy, the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade has the potential to increase crime rates. According to McGovern (2022), “there is a significant risk that in many states abortion will be criminalized for pregnant people and those who help...

Morison (2021) states that the reproductive justice framework provides psychologists with an “effective lens” to view the “gendered power dynamics and sociopolitical complexities shaping people's reproductive lives and experiences.” Psychologists can aid communities in accessing information and services, education, providing information on sexual exploitation and violence, and they can contribute to the research on both social and economic deprivation (Morison, 2021, p. 4) As mental health professionals who are obligated to comply with certain ethical guidelines set out by the American Psychological Association (APA), we are advocates, allies, and activists for social change (Melton, 2018).    References Melton, M. L. (2018). Ally, activist, advocate: Addressing role complexities for the multiculturally competent psychologist. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 49(1), 83–89. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000175  Morison, T. (2021). Reproductive justice: A radic...

Psychology plays a pivotal role in our responsibility to women to be their allies, advocates, and an activist for their rights. The field of psychology is obligated to society to become involved in “public policy to inform social practices” and use this scientific and professionally acquired knowledge to advocate for better human conditions (Melton, 2018). Melton (2018) also suggests that psychologists are ethically bound by the APA’s ethical guidelines to “protect civil and human rights” and offer aid to society in “developing informed judgments and choices concerning human behavior.” One solution that Psychologists have to address the growing problem of inequality for bodily autonomy is the adoption and promotion of the “Reproductive and Sexual Health Equity” framework, which seeks to meet “people's reproductive and sexual health needs, with explicit attention to structural influences on health and health care and grounded in a desire to achieve the highest level of health for al...

Psychology’s Historical Role Historically, the role psychology has played in the battle for bodily and reproductive inequality hasn’t been the most uplifting journey, particularly for nonbinary individuals. According to Turban (2020), early research focused on answering questions such as “what determines someone’s gender identity,” a question that is subjective and assumes that one can or needs to be fixed. In 1993, psychologists were pathologizing transgendered individuals, diagnosing them with “gender identity disorder.” More recently, studies have asked if parents and caregivers could be blamed for their children’s struggle with gender identity. These snafus resulted in a handful of conversion-type “therapies” attempting to make the transgendered cisgender. Discrimination Following a similar theme that I have written about over the past six weeks, the issue of bodily and reproductive autonomy is something that I have grown rather passionate about. Expanding my knowledge on the subje...

Women of color are among the disadvantaged populations that are at a disproportionately higher risk of pregnancy-related deaths before the overturned decision, now it is estimated that these rates will rise to over 20% (Gostin, 2022). Despite this decision affecting all women, women of color have added barriers affecting their reproductive health, such as “immigration status, ability, gender identity, carceral status, sexual orientation, and age” and unequal access to reproductive health care (Ross, 2017).  Other concerns that affect women of color include “systematic sterilization of women of color and immigrants, punitive welfare policies, environmental racism, race-based immigration policies, homophobia, and mass incarceration -- all of which have affected marginalized communities' abilities to make decisions about their reproduction, sexuality, and overall well-being” (“Women of Color Want Reproductive Justice, Not Just Abortion Rights. - Document - Gale in Context: Opposing Vi...

While women across the country woke up on June 25th, 2022, with fewer rights to their bodies than the day previously, women from underserved populations will have additional barriers that they will face. The Hyde amendment of 1976 and the limited coverage under Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) of 1996 make it so that women from lower socioeconomic status (SES) are unable to get abortions while subsequently being limited in what child’s needs can be provided with assistance (Hyatt et al., 2022). This leaves women from low SESs with limited resources to provide for a child they are all but forced to give birth to.  The psychological effects of being forced to birth a child they aren’t ready for, no matter the circumstances surrounding conception, vary. An extreme, though real, example of this is in a July 2, 2022, news report out of Ohio of a 10-year-old little girl who was six weeks and three days pregnant after being raped by a family member and denied an abortion due ...

How do we conceptualize the question of what, if any, are the psychological and physical implications of recent court decisions on women’s reproductive rights and their right to bodily autonomy through a theoretical lens? The injustices women face regarding their bodily autonomy can be best explained from the Reproductive Justice lens. According to the founders of the Reproductive Justice framework, “the definition of reproductive justice goes beyond the pro-choice/pro-life debate and has three primary principles: (1) the right not to have a child; (2) the right to have a child; and (3) the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments. In addition, reproductive justice demands sexual autonomy and gender freedom for every human being” (Ross & Solinger, 2017, p. 9). This framework inherently impedes the status quo and seeks to imagine “better futures through radical forms of resistance and critique” (Ross, 2017, p. 292).      Morison (2021) states that the ...

     Research plays a pivotal role in our responsibility to women to be their allies, advocates, and an activist for their rights. As psychologists, we are obligated to society to become involved in“public policy to inform social practices” and use this scientific and professionally acquired knowledge to advocate for better human conditions (Melton, 2018). Melton (2018) also suggests that psychologists are ethically bound by the APA’s ethical guidelines to “protect civil and human rights” and offer aid to society in “developing informed judgments and choices concerning human behavior.      In the case of a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, Jozkowski et al. (2019), even before Texas enacted the Heartbeat Act, recognized the implications of overturning Roe v. Wade. The study conducted by Jozkowski and colleagues (2019) sought to comprehensively examine and understand people’s knowledge and sentiments of Roe versus Wade. They found that most people knew that t...

At the forefront of the fight for rights for gender equality lies a women’s movement seeking rights to bodily autonomy, predominantly their right to independent control of reproductive options. Embedded deep within this issue, women continue to fight for the right to make informed choices about their bodies, which some sources claim to be universally valued (allAfrica.com, 2021). While this is not a new topic of debate, it is one that has re-emerged. From the Comstock Act in 1873, which prevented the U.S. Postal Service from mailing contraceptives while also giving the U.S.P.S authority to confiscate any birth control found in the mail, to Margaret Sanger’s conviction that was eventually overturned for opening a birth control clinic in 1916 and 1918, respectively, to the more recently overturned 1973 court decision of Roe versus Wade, which argued the constitutionality of a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy by abortion (Baker et al., 2020; Roe v. Wade, 1973).  This court decis...

     This issue is of particular interest to me as I am a biological female whose reproductive organs remain intact; I have numerous others within my personal and professional life who will be affected by the proposed and enacted changes to women’s reproductive rights. While the current changes are only regarding abortions. Where does the line become drawn as to how far to revert women’s rights? How long until we are criminalized for having a miscarriage or going to another state which offers legal abortions and returning to their home state only to be met with legal ramifications? The questions about the consequences of overturning Roe v. Wade and the already enacted Texas “Heartbeat Act” is unending and terrify me about what the future holds for current generations of women and those who have yet to be born.