Editor's note. Please send any comments on any of the three parts to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Among the strongest pillars upholding the continued viability of legalized abortion is the conclusion (as expressed recently by the pro-abortion American Psychological Association) that "There is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women." That was never true, isn't true, and, judging by a raft of recent carefully constructed studies, has less support than ever.

The latest contribution appears online in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. Authored by Priscilla Coleman, Catherine Coyle, Martha Shuping, and Vincent Rue, "Induced abortion and anxiety, mood, and substance abuse disorders: Isolating the effects of abortion in the national comorbidity survey" adds further weight to the seemingly inescapable conclusion that abortion does an undeniable negative impact on women.

The most notable conclusion is,

"The strongest effects based on the attributable risks indicated that abortion is responsible for more than 10% of the population incidence of alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, drug dependence, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and bipolar disorder in the population. Lower percentages were identified for 6 additional diagnoses."

BACKGROUND

The authors begin by listing some of the many reasons answering the question "Does induced abortion carry the potential to adversely affect the psychological well-being of women?" is so difficult. "Despite these obstacles," they explain, "the international literature pertaining to abortion as a predictor of adverse mental health outcomes has grown considerably in the past several decades and the rigor of the published studies has increased."

So what was the purpose of this study? "To examine associations between abortion history and a wide range of anxiety (panic disorder, panic attacks, PTSD, Agoraphobia), mood (bipolar disorder, mania, major depression), and substance abuse disorders (alcohol and drug abuse and dependence) using a nationally representative US sample, the national comorbidity survey." [The NCS is "widely recognized as the first nationally representative survey of mental health in the United States."]

They conclude, "Abortion was found to be related to an increased risk for a variety of mental health problems (panic attacks, panic disorder, agoraphobia, PTSD, bipolar disorder, major depression with and without hierarchy), and substance abuse disorders after statistical controls were instituted for a wide range of personal, situational, and demographic variables. Calculation of population attributable risks indicated that abortion was implicated in between 4.3% and 16.6% of the incidence of these disorders."

Researchers at New Zealand's Otago University compiled the results of a separate study dealing with abortion and mental health. Writing in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry Professor David Fergusson, John Horwood, and Dr. Joseph Boden reported a 30% higher rate of mental health problems among women who had aborted.

The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance use disorders.

The study ("Abortion and mental health disorders: evidence from a 30-year longitudinal study") was of over 500 women born in one city, who were interviewed six times between the ages of 15 and 30.

The trio of researchers estimated that between 1.5% and 5.5% of the overall rate of mental disorders in this group of women could be accounted for by their abortions.

There were two other inter-related considerations. First, "none of the other pregnancy outcomes [other than abortion] were consistently related to significantly increased risks of mental health problems."

Second, the evidence "clearly poses a challenge to the use of psychiatric reasons to justify abortion," Fergusson told the Daily Mail. "There is nothing in this study that would suggest that the termination of pregnancy was associated with lower risks of mental health problems than birth."

Part Two -- "Italian Terri Schiavo" Condemned to Death
Part Three -- More Sympathetic Coverage of Assisted Suicide in Great Britain