ProChoice.com
Abortion... When is it safe?
No medical procedure is 100% safe so the answer is never Completely,and less safe than many procedures. To be 100% safe don't have one.
Risks are:
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The below information provides scientific and other documentation that legal abortion, contrary to popular opinion, doesn't help women but hurts them severely and/or kills them.
There are approximately 350 entries linked to below showing how abortion hurts women.
Word-searching can be done by key words. Examples are "infection", "hemorrhage", "chlamydia", "trauma", and "breast cancer". Search without matching case.
In addition, you can also search for categories of how abortion hurts women. These are the categories:
Physical effects, cancer
physical effects, death
physical effects, smoking, drinking, and/or drugs
physical effects, general
physical effects, later complications
general
psychological
suicide
Because many sources are quoted several times, they would take up too much space unless abbreviated. Thus, they have abbreviations.
Abbreviations:
NAIRVSC is Strahan, Newsletter of Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change. NAIRVSC is available from NRL Educational Trust Fund, 419 7th Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20004, 202 626-8800. MAB is Thomas W. Strahan, ed., "Major Articles and Books Concerning the Detrimental Effects of Abortion" (Charlottesville, VA: The Rutherford Institute, December 1993).
ABSNM is David C. Reardon, Aborted Women: Silent No More (Wheaton, IL: Good News, Crossways Books; Chicago: Loyola University Press). Reardon's address and phone number are Elliot Institute, P.O. Box 7348, Springfield, IL 92791; 217 525 8202
PSSFA is Anne C. Speckhard, "The Psycho-Social Aspects of Stress Following Abortion," (Sheed and Ward: Kansas City, 1987).
Saltenberger means Ann Saltenberger, Every Woman Has a Right to Know the Dangers of Legal Abortion, (Glassboro, NJ: Air- Plus Enterprises, 1982).
TAP is Pamela Zekman & Pamela Warrick, "The Abortion Profiteers: Nurse to Aide: Fake That Pulse!" Chicago Sun-Times, November 1978, quoted in Saltenberger, 168-170.
JAMA is Journal of the American Medical Association.
Other notes about citations:
When quotes extend beyond one paragraph, the source is given at the end of the last paragraph.
If a paragraph includes information from several sources, citations are given at the various places within the paragraph. Those not at the end are placed in parentheses.
If you feel you have been injured by an abortion and might want to take legal action, call
American Rights Coalition at 800 634 2224.
Now the actual material on abortion hurting women begins.
A Planned Parenthood brochure entitled PLAN YOUR CHILDREN for Health and Happiness says, "An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it."
Suicide
001) "According to a 1986 study by researchers at the University of Minnesota, a teenage girl is 10 times more likely to attempt suicide if she had an abortion in the last six months than is a comparable teenage girl who has not had an abortion."
002) "In a study of 71 women at the Medical College of Ohio in a post abortion support who had poorly assimilated the abortion experience, among women with multiple abortions 50% made post abortion suicide attempts compared with 16% post abortion suicide attempts among women with a history of a single abortion." K. Franco, et al., "Psychological Profile of Dysphoric Women Postabortion," J. of the American Medical Women's Association, July-August 1989, 113, quoted in Strahan, NAIRVSC, Winter
1993, 4.
003) "Other times, the suicidal impulses result from years of repression, depression, and lost self-esteem.
A 1987 study of women who suffered from post-abortion trauma found that 60 percent had experienced suicidal ideation, 28 percent had attempted suicide, and 18 percent had attempted suicide more than once. Often several years after the event." David C. Reardon, "The Abortion/Suicide Connection."
004) "Sixty-five percent of the subjects [in author's own study] reported having suicidal thoughts as a reaction to the abortion experience, and 31 percent of the subjects made suicide attempts." PSSFA, 57.
005) "What of post-abortion suicide? . . .
006) Post-abortion suicide is slowly growing into a rather frightening phenomenon. Suiciders Anonymous (M. Uchtman, Ohio Director of Suiciders Anonymous, Report to the Cincinnati City Council, 1 September 1981, quoted in Willke, Abortion: Questions & Answers, 126.) is a national fellowship patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous. It tries to help those who have attempted suicide.
Suiciders Anonymous, in a 35-month period in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, reported counseling 5,620 members. These people were described as, 'those suffering in-depth, deep depression, anxiety, stress, and fears they cannot overcome, those who have attempted suicide, often several times, and failed, and those who are considering taking that final desperate step.' Of these 5,260 people: 4,000 were women, 1,800 had abortions, of whom 1,400 were between 15-24 years old.
007) In her report, M. Uchtman (Suiciders Anonymous), said it in a way which makes it clearly understandable:
'AFTER YEARS OF LISTENING TO THEIR STORIES, WE KNOW THERE ARE THOUSANDS MORE OUT THERE BEING BRAVE. BY HOLDING A TIGHT REIGN ON THEIR EMOTIONS, THEY TUCK ALL THAT UNEXPRESSED EMOTION AND UNSHARED EXPERIENCE DEEP DOWN INSIDE THEMSELVES, WHERE IT KEEPS GROWING, LIKE A PRESSURED TUMOR
OF PAIN.'
008) Of all the emotions they experienced during the abortion crisis, none brings more pain and distress than the one they now know and identify five to ten times more than any other feelings. These women always tell us the same thing. 'Oh,... I am evil. I have to be evil to have done this thing. I feel so alone, so forsaken.'
009) Panic and distress grips them after an abortion, because the feelings are allowed to remain shadowy, ominous, ghost-like. They are shapes dancing around the edges of their consciousness. They commonly postpone the moment of truth as long as possible. But when the subconscious throws it forward, they go through mental hell! Even at age 87, the critical moment comes when the chilling reality overwhelms them and cold reality numbs their spirit and casts them into those dark 'pits' of despair and pain!
010) They fantasize that the 'cancer' will disappear. But it cannot! So feelings cannot be denied and repressed without doing violence to every other area of their living. And of all those they touch! It is vital that parents are prepared!
Here are the two questions they always ask us:
WILL THIS PAIN NEVER DIE? HOW MANY YEARS DOES IT TAKE TO GET OVER THIS PAIN?
011) Many women purposely keep the pain alive by never forgiving the spouse or mate after the decision. He rejects her, leaving her to live in the pits alone, in the depths and in deep depression!
012) They become more and more depersonalized, superficial, and artificial. Suicide is now more desirable for them than a lifetime of false pretense and hopelessness."
013) "Suicide Attempts: Adolescents from dysfunctional homes or those who have run away from home have been found to have significantly elevated incidence of suicide attempts following abortion. Also, women who repeat abortion have a higher rate of suicide attempts than women with one abortion, according to a survey of women in a patient-led post-abortion support group." MAB, ii-v.
014) "Women reporting multiple abortions had more often considered suicide and scored higher on borderline personality pathology and depression. Some 40% of the 71 women studied reported anniversary reactions. None of the women aborting sought psychotherapy after the procedure." K. Franco, M. Tamburrino, N. Campbell and S. Jurs, "Dysphoric Reactions in Women after Abortion," J. of the American Medical Women's Association, July/August 1989, 113.
015) "Pregnant women are only one-third as likely to commit suicide as other women in their age group, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Cornell University Medical College. The study checked every known case of suicide among women aged 10 to 44 in New York city from 1990 to 1993. Of the 315 suicides reported, only six were pregnant women. communique, 7 February 1997.
016) In a study of 9,192 deaths of women aged 15 to 49 years of which 1,347 were suicides during the one-year period following the end of the pregnancy, "The mean annual suicide rate was 11.3 per 100,000. The suicide rate associated with birth was significantly lower (5.9) and the rates associated with miscarriage (18.1) and induced abortion (34.7) were significantly higher than in the population." In several paragraphs, the study points out: 1) Those that give birth have one-half the suicide risk of all
the women combined, and 2) Those who have induced abortion are have 5.9 times the risk of those who give birth. (Mika Gissler, Elina Hemminki, Jouko Lonnqvist, "Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987 - 94: register linkage study," BMJ, 7 (December 1996): 1431-1434.) The study also said, "The stated reasons for the abortion in suicide cases did not differ from those for all abortions; over 80% were performed because of social reasons. In our data on suicide no abortion was performed for fetal abnormality." (Same source.)
017) "Pregnant women commit suicide at much lower rates than women of child-bearing age who are not pregnant, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Peter M. Marzuk, M.D. et al. wrote that "this finding would be intriguing because it may suggest that pregnancy could be a model for exploring protective factors against suicide in women in general. 'Peter M. Marzuk, M.D. et al., "Lower Risk of Suicide During Pregnancy," American Journal of Psychiatry, January 1997, 122.
018) This study (Mika Gissler, "Abortion and suicide risk," British Medical Journal, No. 7070.) rates in Finland for women aged 15 to 49: For those who have given birth: 5.9 Average: 11.3 For those who have miscarried: 18.1 For those who have aborted: 34.7
Thus, those who aborted had nearly 6 times the suicide rate. Among all women aged 15 to 49, suicide represented 15% of all deaths. Mika Gissler, "Abortion and suicide risk," British Medical Journal, No. 7070.
019) "A new Elliot Institute study has found that women who have had abortions are more likely to commit suicide than those who have given birth. The study examined Medi-Cal records for more than 173,000 low-income California women who had abortions or gave birth in 1989. Linking these records to death certificates, the researchers found that women who had state-funded abortions were 2.6 times more likely to die of suicide compared to women who delivered their babies. The average annual suicide rate per 100,000 women was 3.0 for delivering women, compared to 7.8 for aborting women. The national average suicide rate for women between the ages of 15 and 44 is 5.2 per 100,000 women. This shows that aborted women have a higher suicide rate than women in general, while giving birth actually reduces women's suicide risk.
'The data clearly shows what we have long suspected: that abortion is harmful rather than helpful to women,' said Elliot Institute director Dr. David Reardon, one of several researchers working on the study.
Reardon said that the Elliot Institute study built on previous research from other countries that found higher death rates among post-abortive women. A study of all women in Finland, for example, found that women who had abortions were three-and-a-half times more likely to die within the next year as women who carried their pregnancies to term." "Suicide Rate Higher After Abortion, Study Shows,"
The Post-Abortion Review, April-June 2001, 6.
020) Comment by Life Research Institute: Approximately one-third of pro-life activist women have had at least one abortion. (Nola Jones, personal observation of, 1991.) Perhaps the above explains why they became pro-life activists.
After reading the above you should have a clear understanding that abortion is an unique procedure, in that, it is the only 'medical procedure' that gives special protection to those who perform it. Making those who profit from abortion safer and legally protected from the problems documented above.. This clearly defines for all, what it means to keep abortion safe and legal. As an industry, it operates with very little regulation or scrutiny and is continually lobbying for less.
If you like to be operated on in 3rd
world countries
but pay a civilized world price, this is for you.
Unlike bias industry claims, (that abortion is safer
than child birth,) according to a (non politically motivated) study
in finland, a woman is 4 times more likely to die within 1 year of an
abortion than childbirth.
(More
Information)
Suggested Links:
Overview of some risks sighting sources
Information from an attorney proving findings
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