New Study Finds Abortion Risks Higher Than Expected

The de Veber Institute ^ | April 23, 2002 | The de Veber Institute

[Saundra Duffy]

New Study Finds Abortion Risks Higher Than Expected

Toronto, CA -- Abortion complications are seriously underreported, leaving women who undergo abortion largely unaware of the range of physical and psychological risks they face, according to a new study by a Canadian bioethics institute.

Breast cancer, pelvic infection, infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, and subsequent premature births - with higher rates of children born with cerebral palsy - were found to be associated with abortion in a comprehensive review of the world medical literature. Abortion complications were not limited to physical health. While abortion is often regarded as a cure for the depression and stress of a crisis pregnancy, the study found that women are more likely to commit suicide after abortion than after giving birth to a child.

Current abortion rates of 114,000 in Canada and 1.4 million in the U.S. underscore the magnitude of this potential public health issue.

"In the absence of this knowledge, how can a woman give her informed consent to an abortion?" asks Ian Gentles, history professor at York University in Toronto, and one of the authors of the study entitled Women's Health after Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence, published by the deVeber Institute, a nonprofit bioethics and social research group based in Toronto. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory University professor of humanities and women's studies, calls the findings "compelling", and says the study "makes overwhelmingly clear [that] women who seek abortions in the United States and Canada are not even told of the risks they are running."

The study calls for a more accountable system of risk assessment where research data accurately reflect the true risks of abortion to their future health and fertility.

Key abortion risks

An extensive review of the world medical literature reveals abortion is associated with:

* Suicide risk

A woman's risk of suicide is up to 6 times higher after abortion than after giving birth to a child, according to three large worldwide studies.

Gissler M et al. Suicides after pregnancy in Finland 1987-94: register linkage study. British Medical Journal 1996 Dec. 7;313(7070):1431-4.

* Breast cancer

27 worldwide studies, including 13 U.S. studies, show the risk caused by the unprotected internal estrogen exposure a woman receives after an abortion. A young woman who aborts her first pregnancy nearly doubles her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.

Daling JR et al. Risk of breast cancer among young women: relationship to induced abortion. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1994 Nov(2);86(21):1584-92.

* Immediate complications

Pain, bleeding, infection, perforated uterus, and occasional death occur at rates higher than usually reported. True rates are often underestimated by inadequate hospital diagnostic coding.

Heisterberg L, Kringelbach M. Early complications after induced first-trimester abortion. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandanavica,1987;66(3):201-4.

* Infertility, prematurity, cerebral palsy

P> Subsequent infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, and premature delivery of subsequent children - which increases the risk of cerebral palsy 38 times in the earliest premature babies.

Escobar GJ et al. Outcome among surviving very low birthweight infants: a meta-analysis. Archives of Disease in Childhood 1991;66:204-211.

To order the study from the deVeber Institute visit the website: http://deveber.org/publications2.html#launch

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[history_matters]

God bless you in your work to save women and their babies! Indeed, your efforts help to save us all, because God will not allow us to engage in such butchery for ever. Eventually his judgment and chastisement will come to our nation if we don't repent. Again, Saundra, God bless you!

[concerned about politics]

Any woman who would kill her baby doesn't needs breasts!

GOOD POINT!

[history_matters]

BIG TIME BUMP!

[homeschool mama]

hmmm..I understand your passion on this sensitive subject. Perhaps you could consider the woman who has aborted but changed her life afterwards, still experiences the outcome of abortion to her own body and accepts it..but her heart is changed completely..and forgiven. Would that lend a certain kindness toward such a woman?

[B4Ranch]

Then start fighting at the source of the problem, not half way up the tree. Get the UN out of America.

[mombonn]

What a wonderful picture! Thanks.

[kidd]

The women I know who have had abortions have this on their mind nearly all the time, even 10-15 years after. Some of them have some really shocking dreams. They are frequently along the line of: they are on a playground, or a park, or some other pleasant place. The child that they aborted is there, at the age they would have been had they not been killed. The child always has a name and calls the mother "mom" or "mommy". There is always a clear picture of what the child looks like. The child in the dream will take their mother's hand and ask why they were aborted - after the mother gives her explanation, the child might say that they forgive their mother.

Pretty hard to have recurring dreams like that and not be affected. I would think that those without a strong faith in God would have difficulty in dealing with such dreams - thus the higher suicide rate.

[Cicero]

Feminists have shown time and again that they will sacrifice the interests of women whenever they go up against causes that they consider more important, such as the unlimited right to abortion. That's basically why NOW didn't care that clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick. As long as clinton supported the unlimited right to abortion and sexual perversion, he was perfectly safe from criticism.

Abortion is like a huge corpse or demonic monster in the living room. You can pretend to ignore it, but as long as it is there, it inevitably perverts and destroys everything else.

[twigs]

HSM, you raise an excellent and much-needed point! I went to college with several women who I later discovered had had abortions, much to their later regret and heartache. They had a very hard time learning to forgive themselves and living at peace in our evangelistic Christian community. Both finally made their way, but it was SO difficult. When I pointed this out during a pro-life demonstration, our pastor showed me the sign he had made: God forgives. We need to remember this. My heart goes out to the women who made these unfortunate decisions and now must pay the consequences.

[homeschool mama]

***God forgives. We need to remember this. My heart goes out to the women who made these unfortunate decisions and now must pay the consequences. ***

How right you are, twigs.

[Domestic Church]

How do we get the Fox cable news to pick this up? Seriously, if enough of us sent this URL over to them might they pick it up? This needs to be in the news.

[B4Ranch]

Rape or medical evidence that your child is going to be born deformed is the only two reasons I even consider abortion a possible solution to an ugly, heart wrenching difficulty. If a woman is so troubled by the reminder of the rape that is growing in her stomach that she is considering suicide, then I agree abortion is necessary. I do not want the AMA experimenting with deformed human babies in hopes that they can get more government money, our money, to further this type of reseach. The AMA is not concerned with the health of the patient, this I know for a fact, just look at their pain medication policies. They are constantly searching for new avenues to gather funds to increase their power base. This is their one goal and only goal.

[Saundra Duffy]

"Queen of victory & freedom" - LOL!!!!!!!!

[Saundra Duffy]

If she doesn't hear about the dangers, "it's her problem."

That is exactly the filth that Planned Parenthood spews. Exactly. You hit the nail right on the head, FReeper pal.

[Saundra Duffy]

The abortion industry has blood on its hands. You're right.

[Aquinasfan]

Great info. Thanks!

[Saundra Duffy]

Oh, B4, be careful. You can't believe any woman would kill her own children. Remember, we're living in the last days, pal. Women who have had abortions are to be pitied, not judged so harshly. You are right to be outraged but have mercy on these women; they know not what they do. For victory & freedom!!!

[Saundra Duffy]

I would think that those without a strong faith in God would have difficulty in dealing with such dreams - thus the higher suicide rate.

Your post made me cry.

[ppaul]

Thanks for posting this.
BOOKMARKED
BUMP

[jlogajan]

Live birth is at least 8 times more dangerous to the mother's life than abortion

Breast cancer / abortion link debunked in largest study ever

Published in 1997, a study from Denmark indicates no increased risk for women who had abortions when they analyzed medical histories of more than 1.5 million women. This larger more comprehensive study is persuasive because it does not rely upon interviews. Data came from Denmark's national health records, thereby eliminating the possibility of "recall bias." The study showed that even women who had two or more abortions were no more likely than those who never had an abortion to develop breast cancer.

Suicides are less for women all ages now than before the legalization of abortion.

Suicides in the US per year per 100,000 population. 

                  1950 1960 1970 1980 1985 1990 1996 1997 1998 
Male,   all ages  17.3 16.6 17.3 18.0 18.8 19.0 18.0 17.4 17.2 
Female, all ages   4.9  5.0  6.8  5.4  4.9  4.5  4.0  4.1  4.0 

Suicides are up for younger women, but up further for younger men.

Suicides by youth by year by gender, USA. 

              1970  1975  1980  1985  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  
White males 
   Ages 10-14  1.1   1.4   1.4   2.5   2.3   2.4   2.6   2.4   2.5  
   Ages 15-19  9.4  12.9  15.0  17.1  19.3  19.1  18.4  18.5  18.7  
White females 
   Ages 10-14  0.3   0.4   0.3   0.9   0.9   0.8   1.1   1.0   1.0  
   Ages 15-19  2.9   3.1   3.3   4.1   4.0   4.2   3.7   4.2   3.5

All data from CDC.