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This report lists older studies from the 1980s listing the adverse effects of abortion on women.

 

…What Makes People Think She's Emotionally Ready to Abort One?

Behind every abortion decision there is a woman.

In the furious search to justify abortion many people have tried to say that this procedure is safer than childbirth.. This simply is not true. [Record based studies from Sweden and California have shown that abortion is 2-3 times more dangerous than childbirth.]

The fact is that the psychological dangers of abortion far surpass the psychological changes of childbirth and the physical comparisons are uneven.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." According to this definition, it is clear that the medical procedure of elective abortion, the deliberate disruption of a normal biological process, does not promote or protect the health or the patient.

Dr. Vincent Rue, one of the nation's leading Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS) therapists, has reviewed approximately 239 studies (one which contained a sample group of 97,000 women) on the psychological effects of abortion. He has conclusively demonstrated that there is a greater risk for psychiatric hospitalization and or psychological damage to women who undergo abortion procedures compared to women who deliver their children.

These studies show that anywhere from six percent to 55 percent of aborted women suffer from PAS.

Because of the denial that is so common with PAS, wictims may suffer from 5 to 10 years or more before they realize that their past abortion experience is the root cause of their current problems.

There are two myths society promotes that contribute to public tolerance of abortion and promote PAS among aborted women.

The first involves denial of a death experience: the false belief that what is destroyed is not a human being with significant worth.

The second myth is the idea that abortion is a "cost free" answer and a rational solution to a problem pregnancy.

Terry Selby [leading PAS therapist] says the syndrome involves 3 basic issues.

The first is the mother's unresolved grief resulting from the death of her child.

The second issue is the denial that she, the mother, is personally responsibli for the death of her child.

The third issue involves the realization that the aborted woman was abused by the abortion industry. 

The more difficult it is for women to deal with these three issues, the harder their lives become…

These women often become wrapped up in a process of self-destructive behavior. They also may place themselves in positions that promote personal harm…

These women will be the first to tell you that abortion is not a "free" choice but rather a choice with a great price.

The 'great privilege' of abortion becomes a tool for manipulation, exploitation and discrimination. Legal abortion has made it easier for men to sexually exploit women: "…men are free to manipulate women into abortions so as to free themselves of unwanted commitments…thus the abortion 'choice' is just one more arena in which men condition their love and respect on the basis of women's obedience to their desires."(1)

The abortion mentality also de-sexes women by disregarding the very thing that distinquishes them from men: the unique capacity to bear children — a privilege which no man can duplicate. Abortion has taken away much of the worth that our society once placed upon children, and by doing so, has also devalued the role of mother.

The abortion decision is lonely and shallow, a quick solution to relieve society of any unnecessary costs and commitments, and is built on the lie of "greater freedom for women":
"Finally, while feminists have won women the right to both family and career, the abortion mentality tells women that they must sacrifice one for the other. Women have bought the lie that unplanned children ruin their lives…This mentality assumes that women are restricted by the limits of their careers, their finances, or their education. The abortion mentality says that women are not strong enough to survive an unplanned pregnancy much less to raise an unwanted child…Just as in the traditional, male dominated social order, the abortion mentality dictates to women what they cannot do, what they cannot handle."(1)

An abortionist only tells the patient what he thinks she should know.

This is the only medical procedure where the physician and his staff have "a consititutional right" to withhold information about the risks and possible after-effects of the procedure. This practice of withholding information in order to minimize natural uncomfortable feelings of fear and doubt was made a constitutional right in the Supreme Court's 1983 Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health decision and later upheld in Thornburd v. ACOG.

Accurate information about risks and consequences of abortion is routinely denied to women seeking abortions:

— There has been a major effort to cover up the morbidity and mortality rates of legal abortion. The courts have made this exceptionally easy as there is no legal requirement to report deaths resulting from abortions.

— Reported figures reveal about 10 percent of immediate physical complications following legal abortions due to the fact that most women do not return to the abortionists, but see their private physician instead.

— Long-term reproductive dangers occur in 20-50 percent of women, with teenagers and women who abort their first pregnancy being the group with the highest risk for long term fertili

ty complications.

— Psychiatric and emotional complications following abortion have been denied by concluding that post-abortion psychological complications that do not require hospitalization are insignificant.

— 90 percent of aborted women suffer moderate to severe psychiatric stress, 10 percent are hospitalized, 1-2 percent are unable to work, and the suicide risk is nine times greater than that of non-aborted women.

— Post abortion stress increases the probability that a woman will later become involved in a pattern of child abuse.(1)

One of the biggest dangers aborted women face today is the denial of Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS) among society and the medical profession.

A doctor can significantly increase his patient's PAS symptoms by assuring her that the problem does not exist.

One of the worst things that can be told to a PAS sufferer is that she must ignore her feelings and put the abortion behind her. True healing will begin only when the woman faces the reality of her decision. Then the grieving process can begin. The woman needs to talk about her experience and seek the help and support of other women who have had abortions.

Post Anortion Syndrome will continue to increase until aborted women can break the pattern of denial and expose the lies that have manipulated them.

The women in this nation are being issued a Right to Choose without first being ensured of their Right to Know.

Education must begin and women must demand their Right to Know. The manipulation must stop.

References
1. Reardon, D, Aborted Women Silent No More (1987), Loyola Press.

2. Koerbel P, Abortion's Second Victim (1986) Victor Books.

3. Mall, David, Watts W, M.D.: The Psychological Aspects of Abortion (1979) University Publications of America Inc.

4. Time Magazine, 6June1988, p. 37

5. Mcall, K, M.D.: Ritual Mourning for Unresolved Grief After Abortion, Southern Medical Journal, July 1987: 80(7): 817-821.

6. Biro, F, M.D., Widley, L, MSN: Acute and Long-Term Consequences of Adolescents Who Choose Abortions, Pediatric Annals, October 1986; 15(10): 667-673.

7. Cohen, L, MA, Roth, S, PhD: Coping with Abortion, Journal of Human Stress, Fall 1984; 10(3): 140-145.

8. Buwhler, J, M.D., Schulz, K, MBA, Grimes D, M.D.: The risk of serious complications from induced abortion: Do personal characteristics make a difference? American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, September 1985; 153(1): 14-19.

9. Burnhill, M: Risk Management in Pregnancy Termination, Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, March 1986; 13(1): 145-155.
[Fall 1988, LifeSupport, Georgia Nurses for Life, Inc.]