Study Links Abortion and Preemies
Women Having Abortions More Likely to Abuse Drugs & Alcohol
Central Figure Behind Effort to Legalize Abortion in Nicaragua Receives 30 year Sentence for Raping Step-Daughter
Abortion Centers Misuse Digoxin
Dangers of Amniocentesis
Slovak High Court Restricts Abortion
Peru Rejects Pro-Abortion UNFPA Treaty on "Rights of Young People"
Post-Abortion Group Worried About American Psychological Association Study
New Web Site Tests Americans' Knowledge on Roe v. Wade Abortion Case…
STUDY LINKS ABORTION AND PREEMIES. Abortions increase the risk of low birth weight in future pregnancies by a factor of three, and of premature birth by a factor of two, according to the largest U.S. study of its kind. The study is hardly perfect; the data is more than 40 years old and doesn't distinguish between medical abortions and "spontaneous abortions," better known as miscarriages.
Yet the report, published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (JECH), shows one of the strongest links yet between miscarriage or abortion on premature birth and low birth weight — major risk factors for infant death or sickness.
What makes the report significant is the size and detail of data.
Some previous, smaller studies on abortion and future birth weight have suffered because researchers were unable to untangle the effects of abortion from, say, the effects of being poor (which also happens to increase a woman's odds of having an abortion).
But the researchers behind the JECH study, which evaluated just over 45,000 single-child live births from 1959 to 1966, were able to adjust for an impressive array of confounding variables, including race, age, weight, height, marital status, occupation, the number of prenatal visits, the number of previous children, smoking and drinking habits, drug habits, infant gender and both parents' education levels.
That kind of rigor makes the new findings particularly important. The study not only found a link between abortion or miscarriage and low birth weight, but it also found that the risk appears to increase with every subsequent miscarriage or abortion.
The accruing risk, says co-author Tilahun Adera at Virginia Commonwealth University, suggests that termination of pregnancy is a true cause of low birth weight and preterm birth rather than a variable associated with such conditions. "It's not just an association," he says. "The risk of premature birth increases with the increasing number of abortions.
"Women who had had one, two or three prior abortions or miscarriages were three, five and nine times more likely, respectively, to have a low-birth-weight child, the data showed. Though it's still not clear why that's so, doctors theorize that the cervix may be weakened by miscarriage or abortion, increasing the risk of preterm birth later on. Or, it could be that uterine adhesions or infections from the terminated pregnancy slow the growth of the fetus in subsequent pregnancies.
Recent major studies from Australia and Canada have also concluded that miscarriages and induced abortions raise the odds of premature birth and low birth weight — but only modestly. (Those studies were able to distinguish women who had miscarried from women who had intentionally ended their pregnancies.)
Many other studies have found no clear link at all. Perhaps that's because different study populations, taken from all over the world, involve different risk factors for premature birth; or it may be simply that the sample sizes in some studies were too small to pick up relatively small differences between women who had had abortions and those who had not.The big question, however, is how well data from the 1960s really represents American women today. Back in the '60s, induced abortions were illegal in the U.S. It's possible that some women in the study had abortions but denied it — even to their doctors — or claimed to have miscarried. That makes the data harder to interpret. Illegal abortion techniques of the day, moreover, were no doubt cruder than abortion procedures today, and they may have caused more permanent damage to the reproductive system.
Indeed, the public-health implications of the JECH study may be more suitable for developing countries, says Adera — places where abortion is still illegal, and where prenatal care may be similar to what was offered in the U.S. half a century ago.
Still, he says, all over the world, "Women need to be informed about these risks."
[18Dec2007, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (JECH); 18Dec, http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1695927,00.html, By Laura Blue, Time]
[ED. NOTE: Click here to find a number of studies that show a link between abortion and premature delivery. While the article above tends to discount the 12/07 report in the JECH, at least 50 studies have shown a significant link between abortion and preterm birth. Women have the right to know the possible consequences of legal abortion.]
PRIOR ABORTION INCREASES RISKS FOR LATER BABIES. Babies born to women with a history of abortion are significantly more likely to be born too early and too small, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The likelihood of low birth weight increases with each prior abortion from three to five to nine times. Similarly, pre-term births occur up to three times more often after three abortions. [Abortion Drastically Increases Risk of Pre-Term and Low-Weight Births, LifeNews.com, 12-27-07, http://www.lifenews.com/nat3546.html; 3Jan08, Abstinence Clearinghouse)
WOMEN HAVING ABORTIONS MORE LIKELY TO ABUSE DRUGS, ALCOHOL STUDY SHOWS
. Women who have abortions are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol compared with those who carry a pregnancy to term, a new Australian study shows.
The results of the study are important given that the American Psychological Association is preparing another review of the literature on how abortion adversely affects women.
The study involved 1,122 women born at Mater hospital in the 1980s who were tracked following their birth.
Kaeleen Dingle, of the University of Queensland, reported the results at a recent meeting of the World Psychiatric Association at a conference in Melbourne.
About one-third of the women in the group had abortions and those who did were three times more likely to abuse hard drugs like heroin or meth than women who were never pregnant or kept their baby.
The women who had abortions were also twice as likely to be an alcoholic or engage in binge drinking and 1.5 times more likely to suffer from depression.
Dingle talked with the Australian Associated Press about the study.
"This is a very interesting but also very controversial finding and it still remains to be seen what exactly the connection is," she said.
"It might be that women who have abortions are also more likely to live a riskier and more abusive lifestyle but there's also some evidence to suggest the procedure itself could put women on that path," Dingle told AAP.
"So these women, from my findings, seem to be definitely more affected in some ways," Dingle concluded.
The results aren't surprising given that other studies have confirmed the mental health problems women suffer following an abortion.
A January 2006 review from the Christchurch Health and Development Study finds women who have abortions are more likely to become severely depressed.
Some 42 percent of the women who had abortions had experienced major depression within the last four years. That's almost double the rate of women who never became pregnant. The risk of anxiety disorders also doubled.
According to the study, women who have abortions were twice as likely to drink alcohol at dangerous levels and three times as likely to be addicted to illegal drugs.
Dr. David Reardon, director of the Springfield, Illinois-based Elliot Institute, says abortion is partly to blame for an increase in considering suicide.
"Given the fact that more than half of all women having abortions are under the age of 25, and more than 20 percent of women having abortions are teenagers, the increased suicide rate among teens and young women is sadly not a surprise," Reardon has previously said.
An Elliot Institute study published in August 2003 edition of the Southern Medical Journal found that women who had abortions were seven times more likely to commit suicide than women who gave birth.
Meanwhile, researchers at Bowling Green State University in 2004 examined data on nearly 11,000 women between the ages of 15 and 34 who had experienced an unintended pregnancy.
Their survey found that women who have abortions of unexpected pregnancies were 30 percent more likely to experience subsequent problems with anxiety than those who don't have one.
Women in the study who had abortions and suffered from general anxiety disorder experienced irritability, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, a pounding or racing heart, or feelings of unreality.
Related: Elliot Institute – http://www.afterabortion.info
[4Dec07, Ertelt, LifeNews.com, Melbourne, Australia, http://www.lifenews.com/int553.html]
RAPIST BEHIND EFFORT TO LEGALIZE ABORTION IN NICARAGUA RECEIVES 30 YEAR SENTENCE. Criminal Convictions against International Pro-Abortion Feminists May be Next. Francisco Fletes Sanchez, who covered up his sexual abuse of his stepdaughter "Rosita" in 2003 with the help of international pro-abortion organizations, has received the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for his crimes.
"Owing to the fact that this person abused the minor in every aspect, both physical and mental, today he is paying for two crimes: the one comitted in Costa Ricca several years ago and the one comitted here in Nicaragua," said the prosecutor. The sentence cannot be appealed according to Nicaraguan law.
Fletes achieved notoriety in 2003 when he cooperated with a coalition of pro-abortion feminist groups in Nicaragua to secure an abortion for his nine year old stepdaughter, whom he falsely claimed had been impregnated by a Costa Rican neighbor while the family was living and working in that country.
The Director for Central America for the international organization Ipas helped Fletes escape Costa Rica, knowing that he was under investigation for the rape. Although doctors in both Costa Rica and Nicaragua denied that an abortion was necessary to protect the health of Rosita, Nicaragua's "Women's Network Against Violence" carried out an abortion with the help of three anonymous doctors.
Fletes became a campaigner for the international pro-abortion movement, flying to Chile in 2003 to advocate decriminalization there. His efforts failed.
Today's ruling may be a prelude to more criminal convictions stemming from the case. Charges have been filed against several member's of the Network for their role in obtaining an abortion for "Rosita" (a pseudonym used by the media to protect the girl's identity). The abortion prevented authorities from identifying Fletes as the perpetrator.
The most prominent member of the Network charged with the crime is Marta Maria Blandon, is the Director for Central America for the international pro-abortion agency Ipas. Blandon admitted publicly in an interview in 2003 that she knew Fletes was under investigation by Costa Rican authorities when she helped him to achieve his goal of escaping to Nicaragua.
Evidence also exists that other members of the Network, which continued to support Fletes, his wife, and stepdaughter with free housing, knew that he was the real father of the child and conspired to cover up the crime. Fletes continued to rape his daughter for four more years, and ultimately fathered a second child, who was not aborted. When the media discovered the child, Fletes confessed to the rape, resulting ultimately in today's sentence. [21Nov07, M.C. Hoffman, Managua, LifeSiteNews.com]
ABORTION CENTERS MISUSE DIGOXIN. The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban made it clear that abortionists cannot mostly deliver an unborn child before doing the abortion. So, to get around this ban, abortionists are killing the baby with digoxin first and delivering the dead child's body second.
Digoxin is widely used in the treatment of various heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and congestive heart failure. But abortionists admitted to the Detroit News in various interviews that they are misusing the drug in off-label use to do the second-trimester abortions.
In addition, Boston Medical Center has begun using the injections for later-term surgical abortions. The drug is administered with a long needle inserted into the abdomen and it has normal side effects such as nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. However, the drug can also cause premature delvery and there is a risk of infection.
Staff members at the hospitals inject the digoxin drug into the bodies of the unborn children at 18-20 weeks' gestation to ensure the baby is dead beforehand.
Researchers at Yale University studied the use of the drug and were surprised to see that women in the study who took digoxin died more frequently (33%) than women who took a dummy pill (29%). They calculated that digoxin increased the risk of death in women by 23%. [LifeNews.com 13Aug07, and 6Sept07; HLA Action News, Fall 2007]
DANGERS OF AMNIOCENTESIS. Dr. Hylton Meire, the retired physician and author of texts on ultrasound, calculates that for every 50 children with Down's syndrome successfully identified and killed by abortion, 160 non-affected babies are lost by miscarriage after the test.
In obstetrics, it is now standard practice to offer pregnant women the non-invasive test that measures the fluid at the back of the child's neck. Combined with the age of the mother, the test results in a number taken to indicate the possibility that the child has Down's. If the number is high enough, the mother is offered an amniocentesis, a test in which a needle is inserted into the abdomen and a sample of amniotic fluid is drawn off and analyzed.
With about one in every 1000 children conceived having Down's syndrome, and with amniocentesis carrying a 1 in 200 risk of miscarriage, Dr. Meire, wrote in the Journal Ultrasound that if all pregnant women took the amniocentesis test as many as 3,200 healthy babies could die by miscarriage every year.
There are about 30,000 amniocentesis tests done every year in the UK. In North America, earlier this year, both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada has recommended that all pregnant women, not just those over 35, should be screened, including with amniocentesis. [LifeSiteNews.com 21Aug07; HLA Action News, Fall 2007]
SLOVAK HIGH COURT RESTRICTS ABORTION. Right to life now protected from 12 weeks, formerly 24 weeks. Judges of the constitutional court ruled yesterday that allowing abortions until 24 weeks gestation "did not comply with the constitution," but that a basic 12-week deadline for abortion was in line with the "prevailing practice of relevant European legislation." The court said that it "did not try to answer philosophical, moral or ethical questions" but only sought to decide about the compliance of existing abortion rules with the constitution.
Daniel Lipsic of the Slovakian Christian Democratic political party submitted a request to the courts to ban abortions six years ago, but the case was delayed due to the shortage of constitutional court judges. Abortion was made legal in 1958 in Slovakia, then part of the Czechoslovak Republic, under the Communist rule of Russia. Article 15 of the country's new 1992 constitution, however, safeguards the right to life including the life of the unborn.
Though the court ruled against the request to ban abortion, the limits now placed on abortion may be seen as another victory for the Pro Life cause in this country.
In early September, 2007, LifeSiteNews reported on the show-the-truth billboard campaign launched by Pravo Na Zivot (Right To Life), an initiative of the Centre for Bioethical Reform (CBR Europe) in Slovakia. This campaign was so successful that it compelled the country's Health Ministry to rescind a law that forced all hospitals to provide abortions.
Pro Life advocates are now working on a proposal that would give hospital staff the right to refuse to do abortions on religious grounds, based on "recognizing the freedom of conscience in the protection and promotion of values intrinsic to the meaning of human life."
Demographically, Slovakia, a nation of 5 million, cannot afford to lose any more of its future generations, and there is hope in the findings of studies that show the number of abortions has gone down by more than 70 percent since the collapse of communism.
Zora Bútorová, graduate of Comenius University in Bratislava, author of numerous studies and articles on political culture and value orientations in post-Communist Slovakia, and currently resident scholar of the Slovak Institute for Public Affairs said, "the rapid decrease in the number of abortions shows that since 1989 the sense of responsibility of both women and men on this issue has increased considerably."
Related articles:
500 Graphic Abortion Billboards Go Up in Slovakia Marking 50th Anniversary of Legalization
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/sep/07090706.html
Slovak Health Ministry Revokes Hospital Abortion Law in Face of Effective "Right-to-Life" Campaign
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/sep/07092503.html)
SLOVAK DEMOCRATS LAUNCH CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE AGAINST ABORTION
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/apr/03041008.html
Slovak Speaker Refuses to Sign Bill Liberalizing Abortion, President Won't Sign Without Speaker
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/jul/03071003.html
EUROPEAN YOUTH ALLIANCE DECLARES RESPECT FOR LIFE
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2001/dec/01121204.html
[5Dec07, Thaddeus Baklinski, Bratislava, Slovakia, LifeSiteNews.com]
PERU REJECTS PRO-ABORTION, PRO-HOMOSEXUAL UNFPA TREATY ON "RIGHTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE". Five nations have ratified Spanish-Portuguese Treaty, 10 others moving towards ratification.
The Peruvian national Congress, in full session, refused to ratify the pro-homosexual "Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Young People," on Thursday of last week, citing concerns that it would legalize "homosexual marriage" in the country.
The convention's text, which was formulated under the auspices of the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) and signed in 2005 by representatives of numerous Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, contains vague language on the right of 15-24 year-olds to determine their own "identity" and "image" as well as the right to create a family.
"This convention establishes the liberty of sexual choice for creating families, while our constitution protects marriage between a man and a woman and not between people of the same sex," said the president of Peru's Justice Commission, an organ of the national Congress, after the vote.
The offending portion of the treaty is Article 5, which outlines the "principle of non-discrimination" and states that "the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized for young people in the present Convention does not admit any discrimination founded on…sexual orientation…or any other personal condition or circumstance experienced by young people that could be invoked to establish discrimination that affects the equality of rights and opportunities they enjoy."
However, the convention also contains numerous other provisions objectionable to defenders of human life and family.
Article 23 asserts that youth have the "right to a sexual education", and states that "sex education will be given at all educat
ional levels and will promote responsible conduct in the exercise of sexuality, oriented to total acceptance and identity as well as the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV (AIDS), undesired pregnancies, and sexual abuse or violence."
Article 25 declares that young people have the "right to health," which includes "the right to privacy and with respect to health services personnel in particular, in that which relates to sexual and reproductive health". The term "sexual and reproductive health" is commonly understood by international agencies to refer to abortion.
So far, the treaty has been ratified by the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Spain. Ten others are moving towards ratification, including Bolivia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Alonoso Igna, the head of "Human Rights" at the Homosexual Movement of Lima, acknowledged that the treaty's defeat in Peru was a setback for his organization's cause, complaining that "there exists a somewhat retrograde thinking about what constitute rights. It's another snub, and another sign of the discrimination that we suffer. Peru has signed on to so many international human rights treaties, but in this type of case it doesn't comply."
[3Dec07, M.C. Hoffman, Lima, LifeSiteNews.com]
POST ABORTION GROUP CONCERNED ABOUT AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION STUDY. A leading organization that speaks up for women who regret their abortions says the American Psychological Association should accept the legitimate negative mental health issues abortions have caused millions of women. The psychological group is slated to begin a new review of abortion and emotional issues.
Georgette Forney, the head of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign is concerned about a new study the APA is beginning that could affect the way mental health professionals look at abortion's aftermath. "The APA has created a task force to review all the existing research regarding the negative psychological consequences following abortion," Forney says in an email LifeNews.com received. "Based on their evaluation of the data, they will release a report that will influence their members and the media for years to come," Forney explained.
Silent No More is sponsoring a letter-writing campaign and urging women who have been emotionally scarred by abortion to make their views heard to APA officials. [4Dec07, DC, LifeNews.com]
NEW WEBSITE TESTS AMERICANS' KNOWLEDGE ON ROE v. WADE CASE. As the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision to allow unlimited abortions approaches, a coalition of pro-life groups have unveiled a new web site testing Americans' knowledge of the landmark case. They hope the site will dispel myths in the mainstream media that the case allowed only first-trimester abortions. Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, and the Alliance Defense Fund law firm are behind the web site. With RoeIQ, the groups hope to help move public opinion closer towards overturning Roe v. Wade and its companion case Doe v. Bolton that, together, made abortion on demand a reality. "The pro-abortion mantra is that the public supports Roe," Michael Johnson, ADF's senior legal counsel said about the web site. "That presumption is on shaky ground." RoeIQ asks respondents questions such as when abortions are allowed under the cases, whether abortion would become illegal if Roe is reversed, how many abortions occur annually and whether parents can be involved in their teenage daughter's abortion decision. [5Dec07, DC, LifeNews.com]