Posted on 12/12/2005 1:41:38 AM PST by rhema
Oslo, Norway (LifeNews.com) -- Another study has confirmed the fact that women who have abortions suffer from mental anxiety, guilt, shame, and distress years later. Those negative emotional feelings can last as long as five years after the abortion or even longer, the Norwegian study found. The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, in Norway compared 40 women who suffered a miscarriage and 80 women who had abortions. Researchers questioned them 10 days, 6 months, two years and give years after what happened.
The survey found that women who had miscarriages felt more negative emotions shortly after the event compared to women who had abortions. But long-term, women who had abortions experienced significantly more distress and anguish.
Women who had abortions were 10 times more likely to have negative long-term feelings about it compared with women who had miscarriages.
The Oslo University researchers said women who have abortions should be given information telling them of the adverse emotional reaction they will likely have to it down the road.
The study follows on the heels of a comprehensive study in Finland showing that those who have had abortions have higher rates of suicide than women who carry their pregnancies to term.
The comprehensive three-year study of the entire population of women in Finland found that, compared to women who have not been pregnant in the prior year, deaths from suicide, accidents and homicide are 248% higher in the year following an abortion.
The suicide rate among women who had abortions was six times higher than that of women who had given birth in the prior year and double that of women who had miscarriages.
The epidemiological study, published in the European Journal of Public Health, was conducted by Finland's National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health.
Pro-life group said the new Norwegian study confirmed what they have been saying for many years -- namely that women will eventually severely regret their abortion decisions.
Richard Warren, from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, reacting to the new study, agreed that abortion "may bring with it long-standing feelings of anxiety and guilt."
Who needs a study to figure that out?
What other "constitutional right" causes this level of personal devastation?
A good friend of mine had a legal abortion in 1973. She confided soon afterward that she had made a terrible decision.
I've not seen or spoken with her in many years, but feel that she still feels guilt over an event that would scar anyone with a conscience for life.
Didn't I read on FR that the infamous 70 yr. old abortion doctor/contract killer in Kansas gives women a magic shot that keeps them from remembering the murder? Guess they don't have that in Norway.
NO IT DOESN'T!
NO IT DOESN'T!
NO IT DOESN'T!
((plugging ears))
LAAAA LAAAA LAAAA I CAAAAAN'T HEEEEEEAR YOUUUUUUU!
A prayer for your friend, Bump.
/sarcasm
From time to time I catch myself thinking about what our children who were miscarried would be like now. I can't imagine how one who willfully and knowingly had an abortion would feel.
I've known several women who have had abortions and they all seem to have a great deal of regret in later life however, and this is beyond me, they all STILL seem to support a womans right to choose. Flabbergastation!
I know 3 women who have had abortions. They are all haunted by the experience. They think about what their children would have looked like, would have acted like, would have accomplished.
No woman with a soul could have an abortion and not be negatively effected by it the rest of her life.
My fiancé had an abortion years ago before she met me while she was still in high school and really regrets it. Whenever she see's my friends and family with their babies and the joy they bring she ends up crying herself to sleep that night. She gets panic attacks regularly, has issues with anxiety and can't stand to listen to topics related to abortion. She's told no one about the incident, not even her parents. The only reason why I say anything now is because I'm anonymous here. In any case, I'm glad there is a God that forgives her because she hasn't been able to forgive her self.
Thanks, friend.
One more thing about her life. Her husband left her for another woman about 10 years later - a woman with whom he now has two grown children. He was also a friend of mine and very much in need of prayers.
If you know anyone who is struggling with guilt after an Abortion, a friend of mine initiated the Abortion Recovery group in her Catholic Church. Try to find someone who knows about the group or a similar group.
God does forgive and if He forgives, who are we (mere mortals) to refuse that forgiveness? Doesn't mean the consequences disappear, they're just easier to handle when you know you have a Friend holding you close and walking your life journey with you.
Mother Teresa (Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94)
Educate our daughters to be `whole girls' [Barf]
Adults drag kids and their toys into one of our most rancorous battles
JESSICA FLAXMAN
Charlotte Observer, Dec 06, 2005
Leafing through an American Girl Doll catalog with my daughter over Thanksgiving, I was taken aback by how much they cost. This is the first holiday season that American Girl Dolls are relevant for me; last year, my daughter was oblivious to everything except Dora the Explorer.
Not this year. "I want that one," my daughter exclaimed when she spied Kit, the American Girl Doll from World War II. Then she changed her mind. "I want that one," she said, looking hard at Josefina, with her long, black braid pushed to one shoulder.
What to do?
An American Girl Doll costs $87, accessories not included.
That is a lot of money to spend on a doll. I closed the catalog and put it away; she'd have to do without Kit, Josefina and all the rest.
Fans boycott doll
A few days later, though, I read an article in Newsweek magazine called "The Politics of Playtime" that made me reconsider my decision not to buy an American Girl Doll. The article described how this seemingly innocuous, if high-priced, doll was caught up in a controversy that was causing some of its longtime fans to boycott.Why?
Because Mattel, the company that makes the dolls, has partnered with a non-profit group called Girls Inc., an organization committed to girls' education and empowerment. In addition to many other things, Girls Inc. has an open-minded policy toward female sexuality and reproductive rights and, to that end, acknowledges the existence of homosexuality and supports Roe v. Wade.
Girls Inc., according to its Web site, was formerly the Girls Clubs of America. For over 141 years, the group has worked hard to empower girls by addressing what it calls "the whole girl." That means encouraging girls to participate in athletics; excel in math, science and technology; learn money-management skills; and behave with self-respect and confidence. Since 1992, Girls Inc. has donated nearly $2 million in college scholarships to girls who have shown leadership in their teenage years.
Girls Inc.'s investment in educating "the whole girl," including educating her about her reproductive and sexual rights, has inflamed anti-choice groups, who look for any opportunity to tar and feather an individual, organization or company that supports a woman's right to make decisions about her own body.
Keep the kids out of it
I'll admit, it seems silly to me to rally forces against something as apparently benign as the American Girl Doll, but that's because I'm on the side of choice. I realize that the issue of abortion is far from agreed upon. If anti-choice groups believe that angry protests outside American Girl Doll stores is the way to go, there's not much I or anyone else can do to stop them.
Still, I wish we adults could figure out a way to keep our kids out of our most rancorous battles. American Girl Dolls appeal, by and large, to very young girls, not teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, for whom questions of reproductive freedom and sexuality may be more relevant. Little girls and little boys, too, ought to be able to play with their toys without having to join a debate about abortion and sexual orientation that their parents can't resolve.
Images of little girls holding their American Girl Dolls along with placards that read "GIRLS FOR LIFE" outside of American Girl Place in Chicago in November made me both proud of and concerned for them -- these girls may be taking a bold stand against abortion, but they are also still children, not yet old enough to understand the complexity of the debate.
Doll: no, donation: perhaps
In the end, I don't think I'll get my daughter an American Girl Doll this holiday season -- the dolls really are expensive, and she doesn't need something so fancy at such a young age. But I just might make out a check for $87 to Girls Inc. They need more than a portion of another company's profits if they're going to be much good to our daughters.
If I do write that check, I'll write it in support of that important ideal of educating "the whole girl." I want my daughter to be everything her great-grandmothers weren't encouraged or allowed to be -- intellectually curious, physically strong, full of confidence and optimism, able to earn her own money, and free to love whomever she chooses and to make her own decisions about her body.
If she ever finds herself in need of guidance, I hope she'll make her way to a place like Girls Inc., where she'll have access to the real facts about being a real American girl.
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