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Revealed: how an abortion puts the next baby at risk
News Telegraph ^ | 05/15/2005 | Michael Day

Posted on 05/20/2005 1:17:24 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh?

Having an abortion almost doubles a woman's risk of giving birth dangerously early in a later pregnancy, according to research that will provoke fresh debate over the most controversial of all medical procedures.

A French study of 2,837 births - the first to investigate the link between terminations and extremely premature births - found that mothers who had previously had an abortion were 1.7 times more likely to give birth to a baby at less than 28 weeks' gestation. Many babies born this early die soon after birth, and a large number who survive suffer serious disability.

Peter Bowen-Simpkins: 'termination may have late complications' The research leader, Dr Caroline Moreau, an epidemiologist at the Hôpital de Bicêtre in Paris, said the results of the study, which appear in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, provided conclusive evidence of a link between induced abortion and subsequent pre-term births.

Last night anti-abortion campaigners seized on the evidence to demand that all women seeking a termination be warned, routinely, that they are jeopardising the well-being of future babies. A series of earlier, smaller studies had failed to provide clear evidence of a link and so women currently opting for an abortion are not warned of the risk.

Dr Moreau said: "Clearly there is a link. The results suggest that induced abortion can damage the cervix in some way that makes a premature birth more likely in subsequent pregnancies."

Her study compared the medical histories of 2,219 women with babies born at less than 34 weeks with another 618 who had given birth at full term. Overall, women who had had an abortion were 40 per cent more likely to have a very pre-term delivery (less than 33 weeks) than those without such a history. The risk of an extremely premature baby - one born at less than 28 weeks - was raised even more sharply, by 70 per cent. Abortion appeared to increase the risk of most major causes of premature birth, including premature rupture of membranes, incorrect position of the foetus on the placenta and spontaneous early labour. The only common cause of premature birth not linked to abortion was high blood pressure.

Mr Peter Bowen-Simpkins, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a consultant obstetrician at the Sancta Maria Hospital in Swansea, said the study revealed that abortion might not be as safe as previously supposed. "This study shows that surgical termination of pregnancies may have late complications and may not be without risk," he said.

About 185,000 women have abortions in Britain each year, for social or medical reasons, and last night anti-abortion campaigners seized upon the new study as evidence that the risks have been underplayed.

Jack Scarisbrick, the chairman of the campaign group Life, said: ''We have been saying for years that surgical abortion inevitably increases the risk of later problems. It seems that the abortion procedure carries with it risks that women will know nothing about until they become pregnant with a 'wanted' child later on."

About 80,000 babies in the UK and Ireland are born prematurely each year; 17,000 of these need intensive care.

A spokesman for Marie Stopes International, which is the largest provider of abortions outside the NHS, said that women seeking terminations were not told of increased risks of premature births "because so far, they have not been established".


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; preemies; risks; statistics
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To: Got a right to Life? . . Huh?
I can't tell if you are serious or playing Devil's advocate with sarcasm.

Look at the picture directly above the text of my post.

21 posted on 05/20/2005 10:02:31 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Andrew Heyward's got to go!)
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To: needsomereason
I don't think abortion is wrong in 100% cases, though I don't think it should be used as a form of birth control.

Safe, legal, rare? Pick any two. Anyone promoting the legality of abortion is promoting abortion. You can't promote the legality of abortion without dissembling on the fact that it is murder. Once you convince people it isn't murder, there is no reason to restrict its frequency or say it shouldn't be used as birth control.

I know people with Down's Syndrome. That anyone can fathom or justify murdering them because of it is incomprehensible to me.

I still remember seeing my first daughter's heartbeat on the ultrasound at just a few weeks. This morning she woke up and climbed into my lap while I was in a phone meeting. People who can clinically separate those two are psychopaths, dark hearted people for whom there is no good or blessing. They only know the desires of their dark, evil hearts.

22 posted on 05/20/2005 10:08:27 AM PDT by hopespringseternal (</i>)
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To: needsomereason

Even babies with Down's Syndrome deserve to come into this world. It's not their fault they have it. And there is worse in this world than having a child with Down's Syndrome. My younger brother has trisomy 9. Is his life worth less than mine because he's severely handicapped? No. Thank goodness my mother decided to bring him into this world. My brother has taught me more about patience and compassion than any other person. Handicapped people are just as special as "normal" people.


23 posted on 05/20/2005 10:20:01 AM PDT by Luna (Lobbing the Holy Hand Grenade at Liberalism)
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To: sharktrager
Revealed: Search is your friend

You are right. I typically search for an article before I post it. In my zeal to inform, I forgot to look for the other posted stories. Question: would the 253+ views and the 20 replies have appeared on the other thread? I have to assume that my thread served the same purpose as the other threads. The posts, however, would probably be more valuable on a single thread.

24 posted on 05/20/2005 10:21:12 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh? (Abortion kills more Americans every year than we have lost in all U.S. wars combined!)
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To: TigersEye
Great informative post! As I've said many times, abortion is a homicidal means to cover up the natural consequences of a procreational sex act.

In fact, aborting mothers have at least one thing in common with pedophiles who kill their victims. Both kill a child to protect themselves from the consequences of their sexual acts.

25 posted on 05/20/2005 10:44:20 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh? (Abortion kills more Americans every year than we have lost in all U.S. wars combined!)
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To: Delphinium
She went into a severe depression, . . . .[because all of the other babies she had aborted . .]

It must be bitter sweet for her to finally have a child she loves and wants, while knowing exactly what she has taken from her other children.

For those who have made that tragic choice: know that there can be healing and forgiveness after abortion. Admitting that abortion is wrong and pledging "never again" is the shortest path toward forgiving yourself.

26 posted on 05/20/2005 11:01:10 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh? (Abortion kills more Americans every year than we have lost in all U.S. wars combined!)
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To: needsomereason
I consider myself to be largely pro-choice . . .

You really do needsomereason! I'm sorry. I could not resist. No hard feelings, I hope. ;~)

I am confidant that those who hold pro-choice predilections will somehow come to protect the means by which they were given life. My optimism is based on the vast human capacity to recognize fairness, hypocrisy, and the empathy that has given them life. The only way around that evolution is to deny reason and hold onto the very dark and evil notion that women can exercise a "legal right" to kill her offspring for her own of convenience. Such beliefs cannot survive the momentum of truth and reason over time.

27 posted on 05/20/2005 11:55:52 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh? (Aborting mothers, like pedophiles, kill children to avoid the consequences of their sex acts.)
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Comment #28 Removed by Moderator

To: needsomereason
Seems you can't win either way.

Indeed. Abortion is legal and that's not ever going to change. It just angers me that women kill their unborn babies as a way to NOT pay for the consequences of their behavior. Pure selfishness.

29 posted on 05/20/2005 3:43:09 PM PDT by Luna (Lobbing the Holy Hand Grenade at Liberalism)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Got a right to Life? . . Huh?

The cheapening of sex as it has plunged from the pinnacle of marriage down to the dregs of dogging in the gutter, has something to do with it. As the tree is cheapened so is its fruit.


31 posted on 05/21/2005 1:46:14 AM PDT by The Red Zone (Florida, the sun-shame state and Georgia, the rotten peach, and Illinois the chicken injun.)
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To: needsomereason

OK, I'll bite. Under what circumstances is it OK to kill another human being without the benefit of a trial if your own life is not threatened?


32 posted on 05/21/2005 3:37:13 AM PDT by libertylover (Liberal: A blatant liar who likes to spend other people's money.)
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Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: needsomereason
I'm not a big fan of women dying on kitchen tables in back-alley abortions either.

The logic in this says "since murder is riskier for the murderer when it's illegal I'll accept making murder legal." So I just have to ask; why limit it to pre-natal victims? Of course that question has been partially answered by the increased acceptance and widened criterium for euthanasia but why stop there? I need a reason to find the limiting factor in your logic. Is it inability to hire a lawyer?

34 posted on 05/22/2005 7:47:02 PM PDT by TigersEye ("It's a Republic if you can keep it." - B. Franklin)
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: The Red Zone
The cheapening of sex as it has plunged from the pinnacle of marriage down to the dregs of dogging in the gutter, has something to do with it.

What does the liberal free sex ideology cost us? The costs are manifold and include 1.4 million human lives per year, a pandemic of STDs, and growing instability in the family.

Ask yourself these questions. Which political party is more likely to tell you that sin, as explained in the bible, has no costs? Who is most likely to proclaim that any moral lessons found in the bible have no place in schools, government, or public life?

36 posted on 05/23/2005 4:07:02 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh? (Aborting mothers, like pedophiles, kill children to avoid the consequences of their sex acts.)
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To: needsomereason
. . . what circumstances it is permissible to abort a pregnancy[?]

94% of the 1.4 million abortions preformed every year are purely elective, (i.e. for reasons other then the health of the mother or baby, rape or incest). Lets all agree that some legal restrictions should be enacted to limit some of the 1.3 million human lives destroyed in the name of convenience.

37 posted on 05/23/2005 4:17:05 AM PDT by Got a right to Life? . . Huh? (Aborting mothers, like pedophiles, kill children to avoid the consequences of their sex acts.)
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To: Got a right to Life? . . Huh?
ABORTION

One Dead, One Wounded!

38 posted on 05/23/2005 4:22:22 AM PDT by patriot_wes (papal infallibility - a proud tradition since 1869)
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Comment #39 Removed by Moderator

To: needsomereason

I didn't ask you for agreement though did I? I asked you to explain your logic.


40 posted on 05/23/2005 1:36:09 PM PDT by TigersEye ("It's a Republic if you can keep it." - B. Franklin)
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