Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Largest ever study finds abortion increases risk of severe mental health problems by 81%
LifeSiteNews ^ | 9/1/11 | Thaddeus Baklinski

Posted on 09/01/2011 4:08:38 PM PDT by wagglebee

LONDON, UK, September 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new study published today in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that women who underwent an abortion experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems. The study also found that almost 10% of all women’s mental health problems are directly linked to abortion.

Conducted by Priscilla K. Coleman, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, the study was based on an analysis of 22 separate studies and 36 measures of effect, that involved a total of 877,181 participants of whom 163,831 had experienced an abortion. The study took into account pre-existing mental health problems prior to the abortion.

“In order to avoid any allegations of bias,” Dr. Coleman explained, “very stringent inclusion criteria were employed. This means every strong study was included and weaker studies were excluded.

“Specifically, among the rules for inclusion were sample size of 100 or more participants, use of a comparison group, and employment of controls for variables that may confound the effects such as demographics, exposure to violence, prior history of mental health problems, etc.”

This makes Dr. Coleman’s study the most comprehensive of its kind to date.

“Given the methodological limitations of recently published qualitative reviews of abortion and mental health, a quantitative synthesis was deemed necessary to represent more accurately the published literature and to provide clarity to clinicians” Dr. Coleman stated in the report.

She said her research was focused on offering “the largest quantitative estimate of mental health risks associated with abortion available in the world literature.” This, she said, would give health care practitioners “an accurate synopsis of the best available evidence in order to provide women with valid information in order to make informed health care decisions.”

The research revealed that abortion was associated with a 34% increased risk for anxiety disorders; 37% greater risk of depression; 110% greater risk of alcohol abuse and 220% greater risk of marijuana use/abuse.

Abortion was also linked with a 155% greater risk of attempting to commit suicide.

“The strongest subgroup estimates of increased risk occurred when abortion was compared with term pregnancy and when the outcomes pertained to substance use and suicidal behavior,” Dr. Coleman observed.

“Calling into question the conclusions from traditional reviews,” the report concluded, “the results revealed a moderate to highly increased risk of mental health problems after abortion. Consistent with the tenets of evidence-based medicine, this information should inform the delivery of abortion services.”

Commenting on the results of the study, Pro Life Campaign of Ireland spokesperson, Dr. Ruth Cullen said, “These findings are extremely disturbing and completely undermine pro-choice claims that abortion alleviates mental health problems. In fact, the study further proves that the opposite is the case.”

“These findings cannot be ignored,” Dr. Cullen stated. “They raise very serious issues for everyone regardless of which side they are one in the abortion debate. The best interests of women can only be served by an honest and dispassionate appraisal of the facts.”

Dr. Mary L. Davenport, president of the American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists and medical director of Nigeria’s Magnificat Maternal Health Project, said the study, “sheds important light on the mental health of women,” and exposes the “egregious cover-up of abortion complications” that are an aspect of “the abortion distortion.”

“This review, which is larger than any study to date, contradicts the recent and biased and less systematic review by the American Psychological Association, which fails to find a relationship between mental health problems and abortion,” Dr. Davenport wrote today in the American Thinker.

“The new meta-analysis also contradicts the stance of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which has been silent on the mental health impact of abortion in its official publications despite overwhelming evidence over the last two decades of abortion’s adverse effects.”

“By so powerfully linking abortion to mental health problems, the Coleman study helps us comprehend the magnitude of the damage done to entire nations by reckless, permissive abortion policies,” Dr. Davenport concluded.

An abstract of the study titled “Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009” with links to the full text is available on the British Journal of Psychiatry website here.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; moralabsolutes; prolife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-157 next last
To: ROTB; Responsibility2nd; 10thAmendmentGuy; little jeremiah; wagglebee; metmom

When he’s cornered he changes the subject. Or tries.


61 posted on 09/01/2011 8:49:54 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: MestaMachine

How very *progressive* of them! There’s a lot of “modernization” in my camps also. They’re popping up everywhere.

This is the 2nd time you’ve been pinged in as the authority on Judaism at FR. I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful AND renowned sister!


62 posted on 09/01/2011 8:53:02 PM PDT by ROTB (Sans Christian revival, we are government slaves, or nuked by China/Russia when we revolt.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: ROTB

Oi, please! I know some stuff, that’s all.


63 posted on 09/01/2011 9:15:25 PM PDT by MestaMachine (Bovina Sancta!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: MestaMachine; ROTB

Well I don’t know anybody else that I would have asked AND trusted. You were it. :-)


64 posted on 09/01/2011 9:22:35 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: MestaMachine; 10thAmendmentGuy

Thanks for setting that straight Mesta. Anyone who would lie about what God says would lie about anything.


65 posted on 09/02/2011 5:05:54 AM PDT by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Faith

There are two paths to be taken once you’ve intentionally taken the innocent life of your own baby.

Repentence, remorse, begging for mercy from the Lord,

or self-justification, remorse, mental anguish, and mental illness.

I’ve seen both. I know a couple of women in the latter category. They reject God and have spent their lives in political (worldly) causes in order to justify what they did. One dedicated her life to becoming an abortion doctor, and in the words of her organization, “to carry on the necessary work of Dr Tiller”.


66 posted on 09/02/2011 5:18:02 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

“Did God really sssssay....” -Founder of the leftist ideology


67 posted on 09/02/2011 5:22:49 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: 10thAmendmentGuy; Dr. Brian Kopp; trisham; DJ MacWoW; little jeremiah; Coleus; narses; ...
Here's the thing troll, even though SOME of the Bushes claim to be pro-life, their actions have always demonstrated that it's all talk.
68 posted on 09/02/2011 5:26:04 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: MrB

Intentional murder is the ONE thing in Judaism that there can be NO redemption from. In any other crime, you can at least symbolically petition the victim/s for forgiveness...and even if they choose not to forgive you, you have made the attempt and are considered for redemption in the Lord’s eyes. But a person can not petition a dead victim for forgiveness and even if the victim’s family forgives you, you can never make your peace with the soul you deprived of its earthly life. THAT is what justifies the death penalty. If the death penalty is not given, it makes no difference because you WILL die someday and eternal death follow. It is the ONE thing you can never, ever escape.


69 posted on 09/02/2011 5:37:43 AM PDT by MestaMachine (Bovina Sancta!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: MestaMachine
Excellent post!
70 posted on 09/02/2011 6:11:46 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: MestaMachine

You have a very different theology than I do as exposed by this issue. We probably shouldn’t pursue that conflict here.


71 posted on 09/02/2011 6:12:53 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: 10thAmendmentGuy; ROTB; MestaMachine; Dr. Brian Kopp; trisham; DJ MacWoW; little jeremiah; ...
And Orthodox Jewish rabbis generally do support a rape exception. All of them support a life exception. I think I know just a little bit more about the religion than YOU do.

Well troll, I have never claimed to be any sort of expert on Orthodox Judaism, but it seems that you are claiming this as your reason for supporting abortion.

Are YOU claiming to be an Orthodox Jew?

Is it possible that you have misunderstood what the Orthodox rabbis are teaching?

I went back through your posting history and was struck by something that's quite odd:

Now, you claim that you live near Syracuse, NY and I'm not sure what time sundown was last Friday and Saturday, for the sake of this exercise we'll just say it was around 7:00 PM EDT.

Between 7:00 PM last Friday and 7:00 PM last Saturday you made well over 50 posts on FR.

ALL of the observant Jews that I know on FR refrain from posting during the Sabbath. Why were you posting? Are you not an observant Jew or do you think that there is some sort of internet forum "exception" similar to the abortion "exceptions" that you seem to think exist for Orthodox Jews?

72 posted on 09/02/2011 6:27:38 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: 10thAmendmentGuy; wagglebee
My position on this is mainstream Republican.

"You shall not murder." -- Exodus 20:13

Hmmm...no exceptions there.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL MEN are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain UNALIENABLE rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men..." -- The Declaration of Independence

No exceptions there.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to...secure the Blessings of Liberty to...our POSTERITY, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." -- The Preamble, or Statement of Purpose, of the United States Constitution

The word "posterity" is all-inclusive. No exceptions there.

"NO PERSON shall be deprived of life without due process of law." -- The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

No exceptions.

"NO STATE shall deprive ANY PERSON of life without due process of law; nor deny to ANY PERSON within its jurisdiction the EQUAL PROTECTION of the laws." -- The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

That doesn't leave out a single square inch of American jurisdiction, or a single person within it. No exceptions.

So, even if you're right, and it is the "mainstream Republican position," - which is highly doubtful since the GOP platform has contained the Reagan personhood, Fourteenth Amendment plank for the last twenty-seven years - that still doesn't make your position moral, or constitutional, or legal.

James Madison, to James Monroe:

"There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation than the current one that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.... In fact it is only reestablishing under another name and a more specious form, force as the measure of right...."


73 posted on 09/02/2011 6:28:14 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (The GOP elites have already decided for you. Now, eat your peas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: EternalVigilance
Mainstream Republican is REAGAN, just about everyone since he left office has a Rockefeller Republican.
74 posted on 09/02/2011 6:39:53 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: 10thAmendmentGuy; wagglebee
Those who make exceptions are just like King George III, in one critically important respect.

"He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us."

-- the Declaration of Independence

America's modern political elites have also abdicated government here, by declaring entire classes of persons - boys and girls who are not yet born, the infirm, the aged - out of their protection. For forty years, they have waged war against those with the least ability to fight back.

75 posted on 09/02/2011 6:49:55 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (The GOP elites have already decided for you. Now, eat your peas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee; 10thAmendmentGuy; ROTB; MestaMachine; Dr. Brian Kopp; trisham; DJ MacWoW; ...

“Now, you claim that you live near Syracuse, NY and I’m not sure what time sundown was last Friday and Saturday, for the sake of this exercise we’ll just say it was around 7:00 PM EDT. “

Say it ain’t so.....

Some stats on daylight for the Syracuse area....

Astronomy

September 2, 2011 ........Rise:..........Set:

Actual Time..................6:29 AM EDT ......7:37 PM EDT
Civil Twilight...............6:00 AM EDT ......8:06 PM EDT
Nautical Twilight............5:26 AM EDT ......8:41 PM EDT
Astronomical Twilight...4:49 AM EDT ......9:17 PM EDT

Length Of Visible Light:...........14h 05m
Length of Day......................13h 07m
Tomorrow will be 2m 49s shorter.


76 posted on 09/02/2011 6:55:47 AM PDT by metmom (Be the kind of woman that when you wake in the morning, Satan says, "Oh crap. She's UP!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: 10thAmendmentGuy; wagglebee; metmom; BykrBayb; little jeremiah; ROTB

You are pro-death if you advocate the murder of even one innocent child who is not responsible in any way for the crime of rape perpetrated on his mother.

Your hypothetical, concern-troll blatherings about the horror that the mother supposedly feels toward her baby, her own flesh and blood, are speculative at best and self-serving at least.

The second you open your evil trap and say “rape exception,” you label yourself as very much pro-death. The aborted baby is what we call “dead,” and you are for it.

After that, all your arguments and citations are just so much chicken scratch in the wind.


77 posted on 09/02/2011 7:04:49 AM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: metmom
It really doesn't matter what the exact time the sun set last Friday, the troll was posting during the Sabbath and that negates any claim of being an Orthodox Jew.
78 posted on 09/02/2011 7:06:02 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

Just throwing that out there.


79 posted on 09/02/2011 7:10:46 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: TheOldLady; metmom; BykrBayb; little jeremiah; ROTB; trisham; EternalVigilance
I've asked dozens of these rape exception trolls to give me a full list of crimes for which children can be executed for the crimes of their fathers. Nobody has been able to give me a list.

The abortionists have used rape as a red herring for decades because they know that this will elicit the most emotional response from women.

I have a very dear family friend who kept a daughter conceived in rape and loves her completely.

I've also met quite a few women who aborted babies conceived in rape and not a single one of them has indicated that killing the baby made things better, in fact they all say it made it worse.

80 posted on 09/02/2011 7:12:16 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-157 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson