It's very confusing. While a good Finnish study from 1996 months ago was conclusive that there is a strong correlation between teen suicides, women's suicides and abortion, the numbers do not correspond with Reardon's.
Here is the study: BMJ Journal
The Finnish study found this:
Table 3--Proportion of all suicides in women that were related to pregnancy and risk per
pregnancy by age in Finland, 1987-94
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Age group
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Detail 15-19 24-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-49 Total
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All suicides in women 60 120 147 187 248 585 1347
No (%) of suicides related
to pregnancy* 6 (10.0) 10 (8.3) 21 (14.3) 13 (7.0) 19 (7.7) 4 (0.6) 73 (5.4)
No of ended pregnancies* 30 198 126 919 228 440 171 146 81 001 27 868 667 572
Suicides per 100 000
ended pregnancies* 19.9 7.9 9.2 7.5 23.5 14.4 10.9
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*Births, abortions, and miscarriages. |
Table 4--Odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for suicide after birth, abortion, or miscarriage compared with general suicide rate specific for age
by age group in Finland, 1987-94
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Age group
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Detail 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 >/=40 Total
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Birth 2.87 (1.02 to 8.04) 0.11 (0.01 to 0.82) 0.52 (0.18 to 1.49) 0.34 (0.11 to 1.03) 1.03 (0.51 to 2.09) 0.76 (0.39 to 1.49) 0.52 (0.19 to 1.41)
Abortion 4.51 (1.69 to 12.03) 3.39 (1.65 to 6.97) 4.76 (2.41 to 9.38) 1.87 (0.94 to 3.73) 4.84 (2.79 to 8.41) * 3.08 (1.57 to 6.03)
Miscarriage 2.33 (1.09 to 4.97) 2.25 (1.07 to 4.72) 1.97 (0.99 to 3.90) 1.21 (0.61 to 2.38) 2.01 (1.17 to 3.44) 1.61 (0.70 to 3.38)
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*No suicides. |
Suicide stats from Scandanavian countries must also be viewed with the understanding that those countries have higher rates than most. You show that even there the rates are not as high as this article claims.