EFFECTS OF ABORTON—INTRODUCTION

EFFECTS OF ABORTON—INTRODUCTION The adverse effect of legal abortion on
women we see more and more coming to the
forefront as a particularly important human
rights issue. Issues such as the abortion-
breast cancer link, the abortion-depression
link, the abortion-suicide links are now receiving widespread
coverage. Women who have had an abortion are now
"silent no more". More women in the UK,
USA, Canada, Australia and Ireland are
speaking out and taking legal action against
abortion clinics and referral agencies, putting
down a marker that the days of these agencies are numbered. "People do
not understand that there are
thousands of serious physical complications
from abortion every year this country". -
Dr.Bernard Nathanson, M.D., Ob/Gyn. Former
abortion doctor in USA. "We are a group of women in Ireland who
are finding healing after abortion. In this
handbook we are setting forth what we have
learnt from our experience, in order to help
other women who have suffered as we
have". (Women Hurt by Abortion, Cork, 1988). According to the
organisation, "hurt by
abortion" refers to all the damaging
consequences of abortion in their lives. The
group realised that the longer it was since an
individual had an abortion the more
extensively and deeply their lives had been affected by it. One of the
purposes of their
organisation was that everyone understood
"the full price women pay for abortion". What is the Meaning of the Word
"Abortion"? It is important to be clear by what is meant
by abortion in today's context. Abortion is the deliberate and direct killing,
by whatever means it is carried out, of a
human being in the initial phase of his or her
existence, at any time from conception to
birth. Abortion is not to be confused with essential
medical treatment to save the mother's life
that results in the death of her baby. There is
a clear difference between essential medical
treatment during pregnancy, and the direct
targeting of the life of the unborn baby. CONSEQUENCES OF ABORTION:
The immediate consequence of abortion is the
risk of damage to a woman's reproductive
organs and her future ability to have
children. The hurtful consequences – Post-Abortion
Syndrome (PAS), may be emotional, physical,
psychological, social, moral, or medical. Post-Abortion Syndrome
(PAS). The psychological damage, today known as
Post-Abortion Syndrome, is all too real for
many women. The consequences are long
lasting and destructive When an individual undergoes an abortion
she has a high stress reaction to the
experience. Yet all too often her emotional
pain is denied at the abortion clinic,
minimised by partners and families, mis-
diagnosed or trivialised by helping professions and ignored by society in
general. She can experience shock or horror, she can
experience a sense of loss and grief, and she
can be filled with remorse, grief and guilt.
These emotions are often repressed and
denied. In the short term emotions are
numbed. But at this stage she will begin to develop post-abortion
syndrome or PAS, and
her behaviour can begin to change
profoundly. Symptoms tend to fall into a number of
general areas: - Denial and repression of emotions. - Avoidance
patterns which can lead to
isolation. - Emotional numbness. - Violence or aggression towards themselves
or others. - Psychosomatic symptoms – bodily signs of
continuing stress: 1. Sleep problems – insomnia, nightmares,
and "hearing" a baby crying. 2. Back pain, abdominal cramps, and skin
irritations, non-hormonal PMT. 3. Sexual difficulties – cervical pain, frigidity
etc. 4. Eating disorders –excessive weight gain or
loss, anorexia, bulimia. 5. Trouble with relationships and intimacy in
general. 6. Self-punishing and self-degrading
behaviours (promiscuity, entering abusive
relationships, becoming accident-prone). 7. Preoccupation with the
abortion child,
resulting in anniversary reactions- stress,
tension, etc. 8. Many women suffer from depression, turn
to drugs or alcohol, and have recurring
thoughts of suicide. 9. Trauma – because an unborn baby has
been destroyed. There is no doubt that a psychological price is
paid. The trauma may sink into the
woman's unconscious but it is not harmless
and casual. Not only that but research has
shown the negative effect the abortion had
on the behaviour of children of mothers who had abortions. Do All
Women Suffer as a Result of
Abortion? When a woman becomes pregnant she
experience hormonal, biological and
psychological changes. If she chooses
abortion she goes against her deepest
instincts. It is reasonable to expect that all
women, to different degrees, will suffer as a result of abortion. As
well as the psychological effects listed
above there are physical and medical effects
such as: Exhaustion, perforated womb, intense pain,
cervical incompetence, endometriosis, pelvic
inflammatory diseases, haemorrhaging,
shock, abdominal damage, headaches, breast
cancer and even death. Subsequent pregnancies are more often
affected following abortion and this would
represent a particularly significant
complication. These complications would
include premature labour and delivery (and
with the associated dangers to mother and child); ectopic pregnancies;
complicated
labour; sterility; sexual libido decreased;
irregularities in the menstrual cycle. There are also other aspects that are not
often mentioned publicly. What about the
women who are crippled by abortion. We
doubt very much if they go back to the
abortion clinic in England to report it. They go
to their family doctor, the hospital or the morgue. If they die of
infection or internal
haemorrhaging, this is not attributed to
abortion. The cause of death will be listed as
peritonitis or internal haemorrhaging, rather
than abortion. Abortion, Depression and Suicide Numerous studies
reveal that women who
have had an abortion experience a high
incidence of depression, stress, low self-
esteem, suicidal feelings and various form of
substance abuse. Vincent M.Rue, "The
Psychological Realities of Induced Abortion", Post-Abortion Aftermath:
A Comprehensive
Consideration, Michael T.Mannion, Ed., London,
1994, p.543. In fact a five-year study shows that 25% of
women who have had abortions sought out
psychiatric care, versus 3% of women who
have not had abortions. Report on the
Committee on the Operation of the Abortion
Law, Ottawa, 1977, p.321. A World Health Organisation report concluded
that the termination of pregnancy might
precipitate serious psychiatric problems in a
susceptible individual. Recent studies have
shown that serious mental disorders arise
often in women with previous emotional problems; thus the very women for whom
abortion is considered to be justified on
psychiatric grounds are the ones who have
the highest risk of post abortion psychiatric
disorders. The Elliot Institute, a US based international
organisation that deals with the effects of
abortion has drawn our attention to three
studies published as recently as 2002 linking
abortion to higher rates of clinical depression
and suicide. The first of the three, published in the
prestigious British Medical Journal (2002;
24:151-2), found that women who women
who have abortions are at significantly
greater risk of clinical depression than
women who carry their unintended pregnancies to term. The second
study, from the American Journal
of Orthopsychiatry (2002; 72(1): 141-52),
reveals that abortion was most strongly
associated with higher rates of subsequent
treatment for neurotic depression, bipolar
disorder, adjustment reactions, and schizophrenic disorders. n the
third study (ibid. 2002; 95(8): 834-841),
researchers discovered that women who had
abortions were almost twice as likely to die
in the following two years. They also
discovered that the higher mortality rate of
aborting women persisted over at least eight years. A similar study of
all women in Finland found
that compared to non-pregnant women and
delivering women, women who had
abortions were 3.7 and 6.5 times
(respectively) more likely to commit suicide
within one year. LONG TERM AGONY. Abortion does not cure any physical disease
or mental disorder. It's a short-term
escape that leads to long-term agony.
Women, who have had an abortion, as we
have shown, suffer terrible guilt and grief,
and the psychological damage often lasts a lifetime. Many women are physically
damaged, and cannot have children again.
Some women even die in the process, and the
baby always dies. What if there is a risk of suicide ---? In the
public hearings on abortion before the
All-Party Committee in 2002, psychiatrists
agreed that pregnancy makes suicide very,
very rare, while those who had an abortion
were much more likely to experience
suicidal thoughts. They agreed that abortion is not the appropriate
treatment for
depression or threatened suicide. Dr.Patricia Casey, Professor of Psychiatry at
University College Dublin, (National
University of Ireland), stated in 1992 that
pregnant women are six times less likely to
commit suicide than non-pregnant women. Referring to the girl at the
centre of the case
she said in 1999: "She was photographed on
her return (from England), smiling and saying
how happy she was. She has since been
hospitalised for psychiatric disorders". A shocking proof that abortion does not
work. Abortion is not a Psychiatric Issue, say Irish
experts: "The fact is, as the Royal College of
Psychiatrists has made plain, "there are no
absolute psychiatric indications for
termination of pregnancy" - that is to say,
there are no psychiatric conditions for which
abortion is the only answer." (Quoted from the full text of the
statement, of which Prof
Patricia Casey was a signatory, Irish Times,
February 14, 2002). According to an official statement of the
World Health Organisation (WHO), "The
very women for whom legal abortion is
considered justified on psychiatric grounds
are the ones who have the highest risk of
post-abortion psychiatric disorders". What About Victims of Rape?
Experts insist therefore that abortion is not
the appropriate treatment of depression or
rape. However unprepared a woman may feel she
is to have her child, however tragic she feels
the circumstances of her pregnancy are,
abortion is a short-term escape. It may bring
her immediate relief but it leads to long-term
agony, not to mention the death of an unborn baby. Abortion does not
heal the woman or undo
the rape. Abortion is nothing else than a
further violation of a violated woman and an
attack on another human being. Punish the
rapist not the innocent unborn baby. What if abortion is necessary to save the
life of the mother? This is a very common argument used. But
what do the experts say? "As obstetricians and gynaecologists we
affirm that there are no medical
circumstances justifying direct abortion, that
is, circumstances in which the life of a mother
may only be saved by directly terminating
the life of her unborn child." This is the joint opinion of the four leading
experts in Ireland: Professor John Bonnar, Head of the Dept. of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Trinity College,
Dublin; Kieran O'Driscoll, Professor of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University
College, Dublin; Eamonn O'Dwyer,
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University College, Galway; and Julia
Vaughan, Consultant Obstetrician and
Gynaecologist. It is an opinion shared and supported by the
Irish Medical Council and the Irish Medical
Organisation. And Dr.C.Everett Koop, the former Surgeon
General of the United States, says that
"protection of the life of the mother as an
excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In
my thirty six years in paediatric surgery I
have never known one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the
mother's life ---". With more than 36,000 births per annum
between them, the three Dublin maternity
hospitals had only three deaths of pregnant
patients in the past four years. All three died
of complications caused by heart disease.
Pregnancy did not cause or aggravate their conditions and abortion
would not have
saved the life of any of these expecting
mothers. THE ABC LINK — Abortion Doubles Breast
Cancer Risk Research going back to 1957 in many
countries where abortion is legal has shown
a clear connection between abortion and
breast cancer, again an illness that has risen
sharply since abortion was legalised. Even more recently the link between
abortion and breast cancer has been
highlighted in a number of major studies.
Even doctors who had previously rejected
the link have now revised their views. Dr Thomas Stuttaford, The Times
newspaper's medical correspondent has
recently written: "Breast cancer is
diagnosed in 33,000 women in Britain each
year; of these, an unusually high proportion
had an abortion before eventually starting a family. Such women are up
to four times
more likely to develop breast cancer". The
Times, May 17, 2001. In a recent landmark study, Abortion and
Other Pregnancy-Related Risk Factors in
Female Breast Cancer (London, 2001),
scientists have shown that women who have
had an abortion are up to twice as likely to
suffer from breast cancer. In the first study of its kind in Britain,
researchers said the
risk of breast cancer is significantly
increased if a woman has undergone an
abortion. The study, undertaken by Dr Patrick Carroll
which looked at breast cancer and abortion
rates in Britain, Finland, Sweden and the
Czech Republic, draws a direct link between
rising cases of breast cancer and an increase
in abortion since it was legalised. The research suggests that up to 50 percent
of breast cancer cases in England and Wales
over the next 26 years will be "attributable
to abortion". Launching the study Professor Joel Brind of
New York's City University and director of
the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute in New
York, pointed out it was intellectually
watertight. Know Your ABC's! Professor Brind said: "Women are at risk
and they do not really know about it. They
certainly don't seem to be finding out about it
from the National Health Service". "This
implicates a risk factor that is a matter of
choice", Brind explained. "Simply undergoing an abortion once
measurably increases the risk of breast
cancer. We are talking about thousands of
cases of breast cancer over the next twenty
years. This is a very sobering statistic". THE REALITY OF THE ABORTION
INDUSTRY. An absolute "sham" is the only way to
describe counselling process offered by
abortion clinics and those who are their
agents in Ireland. They are not interested in
the girls and women as persons, and who
come to them with unwanted pregnancies. They are only interested in
despatching them
as quickly as possible to the clinics in the U.K.
or elsewhere where thousands of unborn
babies are brutally slaughtered. The abortion industry is has come under
increasing scrutiny in the media. In Britain,
The People Newspaper (01/11/'92),
reported the traumatic story of a young
woman who underwent an abortion at the
British Pregnancy Advisory Services Clinic in Liverpool, only to give
birth to her
supposedly aborted baby 48 hours later. The
woman said that she held the tiny baby in
her hands before collapsing in distress.
"I'll never forget holding that tiny thing –
I felt like I was playing God. I was hysterical", she told reporters. The woman
claims that she had wanted to keep the baby
but counsellors "pressurised" her into
believing that "termination would be best"
after she told them the baby's father had
left them. The People's medical expert, Michael Van
Straten said, "I am horrified at what this
lady has been through. She will require long-
term counselling". British Woman Loses Kidney in Botched
Legal Abortion. Unborn Baby Dies A woman received horrific internal injuries
when a consultant gynaecologist from
Birmingham attempted an abortion he was
not capable of performing, the UK General
Medical Council (GMC) was told in March 2003.
Andrew Gbinigie ruptured the patient's womb during the abortion, and
pulled out her right
fallopian tube and ovary, and her urethra –
the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder. Only after he had
removed a piece of bowel
did he realise something was wrong and
called for help from staff at Birmingham's
Calthorpe Clinic,Vivian Robinson, the QC
representing the GMC, told the hearing. The woman was rushed to a hospital for
specialist treatment and her life was saved,
although one of her kidneys had to be
removed. Robinson told the committee that Gbinigie's
problems began on his very first day at the
Calthorpe Clinic when, during his morning
duties, he left parts of unborn babies inside
three women during abortions and these had
to be removed. Lower level staff became concerned about
the consultant's capabilities and told senior
staff, who had a meeting with him at
lunchtime. But Gbinigie reassured the senior
staff he was capable of performing abortions
where the unborn child was more than 15 weeks old. Robinson said
Gbinigie's first abortion in the
afternoon was the abortion of a 20-week-old
unborn baby. The hearing was told the consultant removed
a piece of white human tissue other staff did
not recognise, and a long piece of cord with a
loop on both ends. "He then pulled down what appeared to be
some bowel", Robinson told the hearing.
Staff were shocked and asked if it was the
bowel and he said he was not sure, the QC
added. Robinson said that Gbinigie realised
what he had done and the patient was taken to Birmingham Women's
Hospital. He added that, when the women's abdomen
was opened, the "cavity was full of blood
and floating on top was a 20-week-old foetus,
largely intact apart from a missing arm and a
missing leg". The woman has since recovered from her
injuries. "ABORTIONS ARE SAFE"? Abortion is never "safe" for the baby in
the womb. And the safety of the mother is
questionable as many women suffer terribly
afterwards – physically and mentally, as we
have shown in some of the points above. First of all abortion hurts,
as it is a direct
interference with the woman's body as
well as interference with Nature.
Immediately after an abortion, many women
report a feeling of relief, and that is all the
abortionists want you to hear beforehand. But you won't hear of the guilt and
depression that frequently follows. Abortion clinics and referral centres
advertise in their literature that having an
abortion is a practically painless, safe and
easy procedure, carried out by a professional
team who really care about women's
needs. That is the claim. The reality differs
dramatically as evidence of increasing
malpractice legal cases grow steadily,
confirming the belief that abortionists and
their staff hold no value on life, be it the
unborn child or the mother. Horrifically, we are recently hearing verified
stories of the dead-baby industry in England. There is no safety in an
abortion, and no
peace of mind.