ABORTION RISKS
New Study Finds Abortion Risks Higher Than Expected
Toronto,
CA -- Abortion complications are seriously underreported, leaving women who
undergo abortion largely unaware of the range of physical and psychological
risks they face, according to a new study by a Canadian bioethics institute.
Breast
cancer, pelvic infection, infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, and
subsequent premature births - with higher rates of children born with cerebral
palsy - were found to be associated with abortion in a comprehensive review of
the world medical literature. Abortion complications were not limited to
physical health. While abortion is often regarded as a cure for the depression
and stress of a crisis pregnancy, the study found that women are more likely to
commit suicide after abortion than after giving birth to a child.
Current
abortion rates of 114,000 in Canada and 1.4 million in the U.S. underscore the
magnitude of this potential public health issue.
"
In the absence of this knowledge, how can a woman give her informed consent to
an abortion?" asks Ian Gentles, history professor at York University in
Toronto, and one of the authors of the study entitled Women's Health after
Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence, published by the deVeber
Institute, a nonprofit bioethics and social research group based in Toronto.
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory University professor of humanities and
women's studies, calls the findings "compelling", and says the study
"makes overwhelmingly clear [that] women who seek abortions in the United
States and Canada are not even told of the risks they are running."
The
study calls for a more accountable system of risk assessment where research data
accurately reflect the true risks of abortion to their future health and
fertility.
Key
abortion risks
An
extensive review of the world medical literature reveals abortion is associated
with:
*
Suicide risk
A
woman's risk of suicide is up to 6 times higher after abortion than after giving
birth to a child, according to three large worldwide studies.
Gissler
M et al. Suicides after pregnancy
in Finland 1987-94: register linkage study. British Medical Journal 1996 Dec. 7;313(7070):1431-4.
* Breast cancer
27
worldwide studies, including 13 U.S. studies, show the risk caused by the
unprotected internal estrogen exposure a woman receives after an abortion.
A young woman who aborts her first pregnancy nearly doubles her lifetime
risk of developing breast cancer.
Daling
JR et al. Risk of breast cancer among young women: relationship to induced
abortion. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1994 Nov(2);86(21):1584-92.
* Immediate complications
Pain,
bleeding, infection, perforated uterus, and occasional death occur at rates
higher than usually reported. True rates are often underestimated by inadequate
hospital diagnostic coding.
Heisterberg
L, Kringelbach M. Early complications after induced first-trimester abortion.
Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandanavica,1987;66(3):201-4.
* Infertility, prematurity, cerebral palsy
Subsequent
infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, and premature delivery of
subsequent children - which increases the risk of cerebral palsy 38 times in the
earliest premature babies.
Escobar
GJ et al. Outcome among surviving very low birthweight infants: a meta-analysis.
Archives of Disease in Childhood 1991;66:204-211.
To
order the study from the deVeber Institute visit the website: http://deveber.org/publications2.html#launch