Sleep Disorders Increase After Abortion

Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood U.S. Supreme Court Decision Unanimous!

Congressional Committee Investigates RU 486 Abortion Drug & the FDA Response

Even Pro-Abortion Senator Wants this Abortionist's License Suspended

Dozens of Fetuses Found in Ravine in Romania

Abortions in Spain Rise by 72% in 10 Years

Anguish of Abortion is Worse Than Miscarriage...

SLEEP DISORDERS INCREASE AFTER ABORTION. Study of 56,284 May Link Sleep Problems to Abortion Trauma.  A new study published in Sleep, the official journal of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, has found that women who experienced abortion were more likely to be treated for sleep disorders or disturbances compared to women who gave birth.

The researchers, David Reardon of the Springfield, Ill.-based Elliot Institute and Priscilla Coleman of the University of Bowling Green, examined medical records for 56,284 low-income women in California who gave birth or underwent an abortion in the first six months of 1989. Researchers examined data for medical treatment for these women from July 1988 to June 1994 and excluded women who had been treated for sleep disturbances or disorders in the 12 to 18 months prior to abortion or delivery.

The findings showed that, up to four years following abortion or delivery, women who underwent abortions were more likely to be treated for sleep disorders following an induced abortion compared to a birth. The difference was greatest during the first 180 days after the end of the pregnancy, when aborting women were approximately twice as likely to seek treatment for sleep disorders.  Significant differences between aborting and child bearing women persisted for three years.

Numerous studies have shown that trauma victims will often experience sleep difficulties.  The authors believe their findings support a growing consensus that some women may have traumatic reactions to abortion.

A recent study published in the Medical Science Monitor in 2004, found that 65% percent of American women studied experienced multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which they attributed to their abortions, and over 14 percent reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of abortion induced PTSD. That study also found that 23% of the women reported sleeping difficulties they attributed to their abortions and 30% reported nightmares.

According to Reardon, a co-author of both studies, the prior study was limited by its reliance on women's self reported symptoms. "This new record-based study examines actual treatment rates for sleep disorders which have been confirmed by the treating physicians and it also has the advantage of employing an appropriate control group."

Reardon pointed out that the new study was limited by the fact that the authors did not have access to data on sleep disorders among women who had not been pregnant. He said more research is needed to see if women who have abortions are more likely to experience specific symptoms of sleep disturbance and whether those symptoms may be markers for PTSD and other psychiatric reactions.

Other recent studies have found that women with a history of abortion are subsequently at increased risk for depression, generalized anxiety disorder, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies, poor bonding with and parenting of later children, and psychiatric hospitalization.

Reardon and Coleman encourage mental health care providers to regularly inquire about prior pregnancy loss.  Doing so, Reardon says, will "give women permission" to discus unresolved grief issues and may thereby improve treatment of sleep disorders, anxiety, and other psychiatric problems linked to abortion.

Sources:

DC Reardon and PK Coleman, “Relative Treatment Rates for Sleep Disorders and Sleep Disturbances Following Abortion and Childbirth: A Prospective Record Based-Study,” Sleep 29(1):105-106, 2006.

VM Rue et. al., “Induced abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian women,” Medical Science Monitor 10:SR5-16, 2004.
[ Springfield, IL, 25 January 2006, www.afterabortion.info/news]

AYOTTE U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION UNANIMOUS! The U.S. Supreme Court 18January06 handed down a 9-0 ruling in the vitally important case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood.

In this case, Planned Parenthood challenged a New Hampshire law that required abortionists to give parents of minor girls at least 48 hours notice prior to doing an abortion.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in what will likely be her last opinion as a member of the Supreme Court, wrote for the unanimous court. "We hold that invalidating the statute entirely is not always necessary or justified..." In this instance, the Court stepped back from a radical ruling that would be truly horrifying.

Planned Parenthood demanded unrestricted access to minors. They wanted to shut out parents entirely from a daughter's decision that cannot help but have profound physical or psychological consequences.

Remember this: Planned Parenthood is the most radically anti-parent organization in the world.

Fortunately, our Supreme Court stepped back from the abyss. This is an important victory. It comes on the eve of the vote to confirm Judge Samuel Alito as Justice O'Connor's replacement. Just as important, I must point out what the Court in this case did not do. O'Connor specifically said: "We do not revisit our abortion precedents today." [FRC, 18Jan05]

[Ed. It seems interesting that this important decision came down just 4 days before the 33nd anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions (both 7-2 decisions) which legalized abortion on demand in the USA in 1973.]

CONGRESSIONAL CMTE INVESTIGATES RU 486 ABORTION DRUG, FDA RESPONSE. A Congressional subcommittee has begun a major investigation into the safety of the dangerous abortion drug RU 486. The drugs have killed four women in California from lethal bacterial infections and caused sometimes severe complications for more than 675 other women.

The committee sent a letter on December 21 to acting FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach asking questions about the agency's own look into medical problems associated with the abortion drug.

The committee wants to know why it took so long for the drug's maker, Danco Laboratories, to add the risk of bacterial infection to the drug's warning label. The letter, authored by pro-life Rep. Mark Souder, an Indiana Republican, seeks physician, autopsy, and other records so that the subcommittee can conduct its own review, and asks about the off-label regimens often used with mifepristone.

Souder's interest in the off label use of the abortion drug comes after Planned Parenthood came under criticism for instructing women to disregard the FDA recommendation to use the second part of the abortion drug orally. The abortion business often instructs women to use the abortion drug vaginally, and that deviation from FDA protocols likely contributed to the 4 women developing the lethal infections. [LifeNews.com, 26Dec05]

EVEN PRO-ABORTION SENATOR WANTS ABORTIONIST’S LICENSE SUSPENDED. Senator Barbara Boxer, “known for her rabidly pro-abortion views”, has demanded that the Osteopathic Medical Board of California immediately suspend the license of abortionist Laurence Reich.

In a strongly worded letter, Boxer referred to a recent CNN report about Reich that detailed Reich's criminal past as a sexual predator, but failed to mention that he is an abortionist. "I never thought I would agree with Barbara Boxer on anything, but I whole-heartedly support her demand for the immediate suspension of abortionist Laurence Reich's license in the interest of public safety," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

"If someone like Sen. Boxer can see that this abortionist is a danger to the community, you know he must be a very dangerous man."
Operation Rescue reported 31Oct05, that Reich, a frequent focus of Operation Rescue demonstrations, had been convicted of sexually molesting his patients in 2002, but 3 years later the Osteopathic Medical Board still had not decided upon appropriate discipline. Reich had previously been convicted of sexually abusing his patients in incidents stemming back to the 1970s and was placed on 10 years probation, which was completed in 1994.

Reich is listed as the "medical director" for a small chain of Southern California abortion mills called Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy which, according to owner Bertha Bugarin, targets women in the Hispanic community.

"We believe that Reich has found that the Hispanic Community is the perfect stalking grounds for his sexual attacks," [OR spokesperson] Cheryl Sullenger, who has followed Reich's career and lodged complaints against him. "Women who may be in the U.S. illegally are especially vulnerable to exploitation because they are less likely to report a man like him to the authorities. We applaud Senator Boxer's efforts to stop Reich from further exploiting women." [LifeSiteNews.com, 20Dec05  PANORAMA CITY, CA]

GERMAN CONSERVATIVES UNITE IN PLAN TO OUTLAW LATE-TERM ABORTIONS– The Christian Democratic Union and Christian Socialist Union have jointly announced plans to change current abortion laws, making it illegal to obtain an abortion after 23 weeks into a pregnancy.

Johannes Singhammer, the parties’ spokesman for women’s affairs, said plans would “change the scandalous practice in Germany,” in an interview with the Munchner Merkur, Bavarian daily press.
“No sensible human being can remain calm when a child, which could live, is aborted shortly before its birth, just because it is handicapped, “ Singhammer said. “We must urgently rethink the value of life.”
The draft banning late-term abortion may be presented to the German parliament as early as next year.

Although in theory German law protects the life of the unborn, in practice abortion is available at any time during pregnancy, under a law allowing abortion when the mother’s life is threatened. Abortion is technically illegal in the country, but abortions are not punished, regardless of when they occur in the pregnancy (see Abortion Laws in Germany at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Germany).

In 2004 Germany offered an alternative to abortion or abandonment by introducing “drop hatches” in hospitals of several cities, which allow mothers of unwanted babies to leave them safely and anonymously inside the hatch, where an alarm alerts hospital workers of the child’s presence [http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/feb/04021606.html; LifeSiteNews.com, 20Dec05, By Gudrun Schultz]

DOZENS OF FETUSES FOUND IN RAVINE IN ROMANIA. Police in northeast Romania have found dozens of fetuses abandoned in a ravine near Gropnita. "The [fetuses] seem to have been conserved in formaldehyde since they do not smell like cadavers," police official Georgel Grumeza from the town of Iasi said.

The fetuses were found near the village of Gropnita. Fragments of human skulls were also found in the same place. The macabre discovery was made by a shepherd who said he had seen "cadavers of babies on the ground while others were stuffed in a plastic bag." Investigators said the fetuses were from 10-40 centimetres (four to 16 inches) long and "seemed to have come from a research laboratory." [15Dec05, http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/15/051215153315.mac48jw1.html; Medifax]

ABORTIONS IN SPAIN RISE BY 72% IN 10 YEARS. The figure remains low by European standards, the country's health ministry said. In 2004, the total reached 84,985, up by 6.5 percent on 2003 (79,788), & 72 percent on 1995 (49,367). For women aged 15-44, the rate per thousand was 8.94 in 2004 compared with 8.77 in 2003.

But Health Minister Elena Salgado, taking the 2002 figure, said that Spain's figure was lower than that of Germany (15.35 percent), Finland (16.41 percent), France (18.34 percent), Denmark (18.9 percent), Italy (20.46 percent), Britain (22.82 percent) and Sweden (25.63 percent).

The great majority (86.7 percent) of abortions were carried out in private clinics, while 9.7 percent were carried out in private hospitals and 3.6 percent in public hospitals. The intervention in the first weeks of pregnancy costs between 300 and 400 euros in a private clinic.

Abortion was decriminalised in Spain in 1985 for certain cases: after rape, in the case of malformation of the foetus and if the pregnancy represents a threat to the physical or mental health of the woman. The report said 95.7 percent of abortions were carried out for the last reason. [AFP 2005, 27Dec05, http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/27/051227182908.unrgpfgk.html; N Valko, RN, 28Dec05]

'ANGUISH OF ABORTION IS WORSE THAN MISCARRIAGE'.Women who have an abortion can suffer mental distress, anxiety, guilt and shame at least five years afterwards, Norwegian researchers say today.

The University of Oslo study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, in Norway compared 40 women who suffered a miscarriage and 80 women who had abortions. Researchers questioned them 10 days, 6 months, 2 years and 5 years after the event.

The survey found that women who had miscarriages felt more negative emotions shortly after the event compared to women who had abortions. But long-term, women who had abortions experienced significantly more distress and anguish.

Women who had abortions were 10 times more likely to have negative long-term feelings about abortion compared with women who had miscarriages.

The study measured the extent of intrusive thoughts, feelings and flashbacks about the end of pregnancy. The researchers also assessed how much women avoided thinking or talking about the event. They found that after 10 days, 47.5 per cent of women who had miscarried suffered from mental distress compared with 30 per cent of the abortion group.

The proportion of women who had a miscarriage suffering distress fell to 22.5 per cent at six months and 2.6 per cent at two years and five years. However, levels of distress remained high in the abortion group, falling to 25.7 per cent at six months and 18 per cent at two years, but rising to 20 per cent at five years.

The women in the abortion group also had high levels of anxiety, guilt, shame and relief.

Anna Pringle [pro-life charity Life] said the research confirmed that abortion can cause "massive" emotional suffering. "We believe it is time that the Government acknowledges the fact that abortion carries with it psychological risks that can affect women long after the actual event," she said.

ichard Warren [Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists] agreed that abortion "may bring with it long-standing feelings of anxiety and guilt".

The Oslo University researchers said women who have abortions should be given information telling them of the adverse emotional reaction they will likely have to it down the road.

The study follows on the heels of a comprehensive study in Finland showing that those who have had abortions have higher rates of suicide than women who carry their pregnancies to term. The comprehensive, record-based study of the entire population of women in Finland found that, compared to women who have not been pregnant in the prior year, deaths from suicide, accidents and homicide are 248% higher in the year following an abortion. The suicide rate among women who had abortions was six times higher than that of women who had given birth in the prior year a