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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Not trying to cause friction, B4...just wanting to understand where you're coming from. Thanks.
ping and a tearful bump
Bump!
BTW, if abortion is really "baby killing" why not another Civil War? Were black slaves more worthy than today's babies? Is slavery worse than "murder"? Should we not go to war and destroy our country trying to force all our women to carry all conceptions to term?
</sarcasm>
You obviously haven't read it!
You did not read hers! Do you think your studies from Denmark or the CDC trump her studies? They did not contradict them in any way. Nor would they be deemed more valid even if on point.
Further, it does not take a study to realize that the TRUE mortality rate from abortions is over 50%, just a conscience.
What about Alan Keyes? In his case it would be a matter of getting it by the decision-makers at MSNBC.
I have no idea where her study was validated by peer review. It sounds like an advocacy group (de Veber Institute) to me. Not data is given, just a conclusion.
I posted raw data and let the reader draw their own conclusion.
Notice I am not one who uses "abortion" during discussion of this subject. I don't want it to be perfumed, flowered or softened. I want the actual corpse laying on the table for everyone to view. This is what should be shown to anyone who is even considering killing their own baby. Abortions would come to a screeching halt.
Talk to the older women raised on farms, ask them what they know about death and you will get some gory stories about how they had to kill a horse that broke a leg or kill a family of coyotes that was attacking their cattle when the husband was off to war. Then ask, "Why do you recall ever detail of that story?" You would be amazed at how simple their answers are. "I was just so thankful that I wasn't killing a person and I couldn't stand the thought of leaving that animal to die in pain" was one answer given to me.
but correlation is not causation.
we need the medical community to be honest with women about the risks involved, as well as the alternatives.
all the studies need to be examined to see if indeed there is a link. at least the deveber study provides a possible cause via the estrogen levels.
using bad science to to push an agenda is a trick of the enviromental whacko lobby, and should be avoided, even if the cause is just.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/671041/posts
I don't know if you meant this as a serious or rhetorical question, but it is a serious question.
In hindsight, the Civil War should not have been waged since the institution of slavery could have been eliminated through peaceful means, as in England. The number of soldiers who died in the war was probably far greater than the number of slaves that probably would have died under slavery.
Just War theory demands that force be used only when non-violent means will not suffice.
A literal war against abortion at this point probably would not meet this criterion. A second principle of just war requires that the use of force have a reasonable likelihood of success. It is doubtful whether a literal war against abortion would meet this criterion either. Finally, non-combatants should be immune from deliberate attack. This also would also be difficult to accomplish.
A very reasoned and excellent response. You made several very good points.
I just get very frustrated with terms such as "baby killing" and "murder" and "studies" with an obvious prior agenda. That stuff just indulges the "righteous"; turns off the majority and makes the situation worse.
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