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 ABORTIONISTS 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 womens 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 mothers 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 childs 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 w
omen 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 and double that of women who had miscarriages.
The epidemiological study, published in the European Journal of Public Health, was conducted by Finland’s National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health.
Pro-life group said the new Norwegian study confirmed what they have been saying for many years — namely that women will eventually severely regret their abortion decisions. [12Dec05, Oslo, Norway, LifeNews.com http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/12/wabor12.xml]
ILLINOIS ABORTIONS REACH 31 YEAR LOW, CONTINUE STRONG DECLINE. The number of abortions in Illinois has reached a 31 year low and continues to decline steadily. The latest figures from the state health department show 41,577 abortions in 2004, a two percent decrease from the 42,228 that were done in 2003. In 1973, 32,760 abortions were performed in Illinois, and the number has never been that low since. Now, 2004 marks the second lowest total since that year when the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision ushering in an era of virtually unlimited abortions.
As with previous years, more than half of all abortions in Illinois took place in Chicago’s Cook County. According to the latest report, 92 percent of the abortions were performed on state residents and 75 percent were on women who were not married at the time. Just under 60 percent of the women who had abortions were between the ages of 18 and 29 while almost 7 percent were 15-17. [LifeNews.com, 26Dec05]
WISCONSIN GOVERNOR VETOES ABORTION-PAIN BILL. Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday vetoed a bill that would have forced doctors to tell women seeking abortions after their fifth month of pregnancy that their fetuses could suffer pain.
Doyle, a Democrat, said there is no evidence conclusively proving when a fetus can feel pain. The Republican-controlled Legislature should not be allowed to decide scientific fact, he said. [msnbc.com, 6Jan06; http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp?http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap01-06-215219.asp?t=apnew&vts=1620062214]
[Ed. We hope someone will inform Gov. Doyle of the many excellent scientificstudies that have been conducted worldwide which show clear evidence of fetal pain. Here is an examplary quote:
“The highest density of pain receptors per square inch of skin in human development occurs in utero from 20 to 30 weeks gestation. During this period, the epidermis is still very thin, leaving nerve fibers closer to the surface of the skin than in older neonates and adult Thus, a fetus at 20-32 weeks of gestation would experience a much more intense pain than older infants or children or adults ” [emphasis added][expert testimony provided to the Northern District of the US District Court in CA [15Apr04], Dr. Sunny Anand [Dir, Pain Neurobiology Lab, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research]
MS’s LAST ABORTION BUSINESS WAITING ON STATE CERTIFICATION. The last abortion business in Mississippi is waiting on state officials to approve its certification as a licensed ambulatory surgical center.
Lawmakers there approved a measure seeking to protect women from botched abortions by strengthening safety requirements. If the abortion facility doesn’t obtain the certification, it would be prevented from doing abortions after the first trimester.
More than 3,000 women visit the Women’s Health Organization annually but the abortion business plans to do everything it can to get a license. “We have no intention of leaving and we intend to continue to provide the services that we’re providing,” Susan Hill, president of the North Carolina-based parent company told AP. “It won’t be easy, but we’re staying.” If the abortion center fails to get a license from the state it could find itself again in front of a federal judge. [LifeNews.com, 26Dec05]
CHINA’S “PREGNANT GUERILLAS” PAY THE PRICE FOR A 2ND CHILD. Having a baby boy is a cause for celebration among rural Chinese families, but the birth of Hu Jiapeng to a family in Hunan province illustrates the enormous human cost it involved.
The babys father Hu Houwen, 26, was fired by the Liuyang Municipal Bureau of Communication and fined 45,000 yuan (C$6,400) after the birth. His 300 colleagues also each lost 1,000 yuan (C$142).
My boss, the director of the bureau, even lost his qualification to run for vice mayor of Liuyang city after my sons birth. He was accused of neglect of duty because he failed to stop me from having a second child. According to the regulations of Hunan Provincial Family Planning Commission, leaders of all government organs are responsible for ensuring the implementation of the one-child policy. Failure to do so means lost promotions and no bonuses.
But Hu does not regret the action he and his wife, Zhang Yulan, have taken. Compared with my wife, all the losses are nothing, he said. Zhang, 26, is a typical pregnant guerilla, the mainland term for women who contravene the one-child policy.
She almost lost her life while on the run from a forced abortion. Her trials began after an ultrasound revealed she was carrying a boy. To be the wife of a farmer family, I have the responsibility to give birth to a boy, she said.
To hide her pregnancy from Hunan officials, Zhang left her family to live in a string of farmers homes for 5 months. But at 8 months, she was caught and sent to Liuyang Peoples Hospital for a forced abortion. In order to save my boy, I fled from the operation table and ran away alone with my potbelly and bare feet when my family raised a ruckus at the hospital, she said.
To avoid being recaptured, I gave birth one month early through Caesarean section in a small clinic because no hospital in Hunan would have dared to accept me. The couple also lost their party memberships after the birth of their son. Tests to reveal the gender of an embryo are banned on the mainland but remain popular, with many farmer families having the tests carried out in secret at a cost of hundreds of yuan.
Under the one child policy, in force since the mid1970s, couples in urban areas are allowed only one child. Farmers can have a second child, four years later, if their first child is a girl. According to the United Nations, the mainlands population would be 100 million greater if the policy had not been adopted.
Another 26 year old couple, Tang Jian and Liu Guixiang in Hunan, were victims of the 1-child policy. Liu was forced to abort her 8-month old fetus by local family planning officials when she was also caught hiding in Jiangxi. We are entitled to have a second child because our first child is a girl. But my wife was pregnant when my daughter was only three years old, not four, Tang said. Liu said that the medical officials would only stop an abortion if an expectant mother was in labor. Peking University Population Research Institute professor Lu Jiehua said it was illegal for the Liuyang officials to interfere in the pregnancy at such a late stage. [http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/1022.html, 22Dec05, N. Valko RN]
CHINA CONSIDERS AMENDMENT 1-CHILD FORCED ABORTION LAW. Responding to problems associated with its coercive family planning laws allowing just o
ne child per couple, China is considering some reforms aimed at curbing the gender imbalance that has resulted.
An amendment to the criminal law on having two children is in the works in China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. Members of the legislature debated the idea Saturday.
Officials worried that some parts of China are seeing a lopsided gander balance because girls babies are either aborted or become victims of infanticide because rural Chinese prefer boys. The ratio of boys to girls in some parts of China is as high as 1.19 to 1.
The amendment would put forward fines and prison sentences for people who help someone in selecting the sex of the unborn child and targets those who use ultrasounds to determine the baby’s gender before birth. China’s population control programs have been the source of controversy for years because they involve forced abortions, sterilizations, fines, and imprisonment for those who violate the one-child law or their families. [Beijing, China, LifeNews.com, 26Dec05]
84,218 AUSTRALIAN BABIES ABORTED IN 2004. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics also showed that the abortion rate has jumped by 151% since a tally in 2000, when 7.8 of 1,000 women ended their pregnancies in abortion; in 2003, 11.8 out of every 1,000 women had an abortion, while in 2004 the number was 19.7 per 1,000. Year 2000 and 2003 data was incomplete, however, because before now data on induced abortion was not available on a routine basis Australia-wide.
The relative abortion rate is highest for 20 to 24 year-olds, at 32.7 per 1,000 women. Abortions committed at private abortuaries accounted for 76% of all procedures. The most commonly reported abortion procedure was suction curettage of uterus, which comprised 85.7% of abortions; 94.6 % of all Australian abortions were committed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. [T. Vanderheyden, LifeSiteNews.com, 14Dec05]
PLANNED PARENTHOOD STOPPING SURGICAL ABORTION BUSINESS IN MISSOULA. According to a published report in the Billings Gazette, Planned Parenthood of Montana has decided to stop offering surgical abortions at its Missoula office, starting February 1. They will still offer medical (RU-486) abortions. Planned Parenthood committed 312 abortions at its Missoula facility last year.
[Wednesday STOPP Report, 25 January 2006]
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