Posted on 04/24/2002 8:27:48 AM PDT by 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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That's the very point of this thread. They have no idea. According to the left, it's just a blob that needs to be removed. After the bill is paid, it doesn't matter. Pretty sickening, isn't it?
The far left will never go for it, but as more women die, become infertile, develop breast cancer, and commit suicide, eventually they won't be able to silence them.
Pray for the turning of the hearts and minds of the American public on this tragedy. Remember, few people who are pro-life every become pro-abortion; overwhelmingly, those who think of themselves as "pro-choice" convert to the pro-life view in much larger numbers.
I have known more than one medic in Viet Nam who was against killing and never carried a weapon on the combat line. That is the type of person I will give unlimited respect to without thinking if his relgion is foolish because it's not mine.
Intentional killing of a healthy baby is wrong and always will be in my book. Period, so stop asking for sympathy from me. That's as foolish as asking a rape victim to feel love to the animal who raped her. I have seen to many corpses to start changing my mind this late in life.
I'll let you decide. [Scroll down and click on images.]
You obviously haven't read it!
How sad - and stupid - that it will have to come to that.
What a pity.
MANY pro-life supporters are women who have had abortions themselves. Should they all get breast cancer and die? Many of them were deliberately misinformed by the pro-abortion propaganda that persuaded them their babies were not babies yet and that it was "okay" to end a pregnancy that hadn't "really started" yet...Many of them were very young. Only later did they realize the magnitude of what they had done and the scope of the lies they'd believed.
No woman "deserves" breast cancer.
This kind of harshness keeps many suffering women silent when their hearts long to cry out and warn other women against the choice they themselves made in the face of enormous misinformation. The abortion industry WANTS us to ignore or vilify these women and keep the abortion/breast cancer research out of the spotlight. If pro-life people can be counted on to say that women who have had abortions DESERVE breast cancer, this takes the abortion industry off the hook. If WE shame these women, we take a weapon out of our own arsenal to use against those who would still claim abortion is a harmless procedure.
A better approach would be one of forgiveness toward these often heartbroken women and a hope that by reaching out to them, their painful stories will come out, loud and clear. A woman who has had an abortion has first-hand knowledge of the evil it actually is. A woman who has had an abortion and later develops breast cancer has an even greater knowledge and even more reason to argue against the pro-abortionists. Should they be shut out and their voices extinguished?
Perhaps when these one-time pro-choice women are encouraged to raise their voices with pro-life advocates, their combined shouts may finally drown out the noisy call for "reproductive rights". Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
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