I’m am absolutely pro-life and that is about the most idiotic think I have ever heard.
If it’s there really is a statistical correlation, then what is so idiotic about it? It seems to me, if the claim is true, then stating it is a non-issue. So, the only issue is if the claim is untrue. The article quotes one source to make that argument:
“The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists told the paper there was no scientific evidence to suggest an abortion could make women more likely to abuse a child.”
That sounds like a pretty pat answer to me, rather than the result of any actual research into the matter. I found it hard to believe that someone would say there is a statistical correlation if they hadn’t seen a study that talked about a statistical correlation, so I tried to find those studies. I found an interview with a Dr. Philip Ney, a child psychologist who has been doing research into this issue. He says:
“Sadly enough, statistically speaking and I have to say this very carefully, statistically speaking women who have had abortions are less likely to bond to their children, and therefore these children are more likely to be abused and neglected. Also, women who were abused and neglected as children are more likely to have abortions. And I can tell you that wherever I have said this, in whatever kind of an audience, people have become really quite upset, sometimes very angry. But I think I can say that having done the research now over a number of years and published a number of papers, that that is a statistically significant connection.”
http://www.priestsforlife.org/media/interviewney.htm
I also located another article here:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PROLENC/ENCYC041.HTM
which has a section titled “The Mechanisms of Child Abuse” based on Dr. Ney’s research. That article cites the following studies by Ney:
Philip G. Ney, M.D., Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Royal Jubilee Hospital. “Abortion and Child Abuse: Which is Cause, Which is Effect?” Paper presented at a conference entitled “Psychological Aspects of Abortion.” sponsored on October 31 and November 1, 1978, by the Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois. Also see Philip G. Ney, M.D. “Is Elective Abortion a Cause of Child Abuse?” Sexual Medicine Today, June 1980. Reprinted in the Fall 1980 Human Life Review, pages 115 to 117.
In all fairness, the clinic counselor said “abuse,” and it was the reporter who suggested “sexual abuse,” which seemed to confuse the counselor for a moment, but to which she then agreed.
I have read before that rates of physical abuse are higher among mothers who have had abortions, possibly because of the situation that led them to have the abortion (often an abusive boyfriend or some other dysfunctional family situation, such as incest leading to pregnancy) or possibly, as the counselor suggested, because abortion makes people more likely to no longer regard children as special and to be protected.
The interview was a set up and they were just looking for something they could say to make the counselors look weird.