THIRTY YEARS LATER:

EVIDENCE THAT ABORTION DOES REAL DAMAGE TO WOMEN

By Wanda Franz, Ph.D.
NRLC President

Thirty years after Roe v. Wade, many people, including researchers and psychologists, are still in denial about the negative effects of abortion.

Fortunately, there is now a growing body of research that contradicts the conventional wisdom that abortion, by comparison, is safer for the mother than childbirth and that there are no negative psychological effects from abortion. In the last year alone, four new studies have been published.

These studies are particularly noteworthy because of the excellent research methods used.

Each of the four makes use of very large samples of established sets of data, gathered by government entities. Moreover, the researchers did not rely on obtaining accurate reports from the women themselves, but instead used objective statistics culled from government files. Taken together, these studies provide new insights into the negative effects of abortion across a number of areas.

The first of these studies to counter the conventional wisdom, published in the August issue of the Southern Medical Journal, examined "Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women." Researchers David C. Reardon, Philip G. Ney, Fritz Scheuren, Jesse Cougle, Priscilla K. Coleman, and Thomas W. Strahan analyzed data from California Medicaid records for 1989, using a method called "record-linkage." They matched the 173,279 women who had either an induced abortion or gave birth in 1989 to subsequent death certificates for the period 1989 to 1997.

They found that in the first two years following their abortions women were nearly twice as likely to die as women who carried their child to term. This elevated mortality risk persisted for the entire eight years under study.

Their examination further revealed that over that eight-year period, the women who aborted, compared to those giving birth, had a 154 percent higher risk of death from suicide, an 82 percent higher risk of death from accidents, and a 44 percent higher risk of death from natural causes. For the first year following an abortion, aborting women were 252 percent more likely to die compared to women who delivered their babies, and 76 percent more likely to die compared to women who had not been pregnant.

When the specific causes of death were examined, two findings stand out. One is that abortion increases the risk of dying from AIDS and of dying from cardiovascular disease.

The authors point out that previous research has demonstrated that women who have abortions also have a higher rate of drug abuse, which would put them at higher risk of getting AIDS. This study confirms that the negative effects of increased drug abuse leading to illness and death are associated with abortion.

The unexpected finding of increases in cardiovascular disease, and subsequent death, may be explained by previous studies that examined the behaviors of women following abortion.

Cardiac disease is associated with psychological problems, especially depression, which have been found to occur in women following abortion. In addition, cardiac disease is associated with alcohol consumption and smoking, and both of these behaviors have been found to increase following abortion.

The second study is "State-Funded Abortions Versus Deliveries: A Comparison of Outpatient Mental Health Claims Over 4 Years." This made use of the same data as the first study in order to examine mental health claims that followed a state-funded abortion versus state-funded childbirth. Since the claim is often made that only those women who have mental health problems prior to having an abortion actually have problems following abortion, the study eliminated women who had made claims for mental health care prior to the pregnancy event.

The study, recently published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, by Priscilla Coleman, Vincent Rue, David Reardon, and Jesse Cougle, analyzed the mental health claims of 56,849 women in the California Medicaid program for the four years following an abortion or a birth. They found that the overall rate of mental health claims was 17% higher for the women who aborted than those women who gave birth.

Within 90 days after the pregnancy, the abortion group had 63% more claims than the birth group. In subsequent time periods, the abortion group had a higher percentage of claims of 42% (180 days), 30% (one year), and 16% (two years). The aborting women had a greater need for mental health care, which persisted for two years following the abortion.

The third study, published by Priscilla Coleman, David Reardon, Vincent Rue, and Jesse Cougle, appeared in the January 2003 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and was based on data from a sample of 607 women obtained from the National Pregnancy and Health Survey.

The study "History of Induced Abortion in Relation to Substance Use During Subsequent Pregnancies Carried to Term" found that, compared to women who gave birth, women who had an induced abortion were significantly more likely to use marijuana, various illicit drugs, and alcohol during their next pregnancy.

It was found that unmarried women and those with higher income were more likely to use illicit drugs and marijuana during a subsequent pregnancy, while whites were more likely to use alcohol. There was no effect on the use of cigarettes.

The authors conclude that these results reflect previous research findings that suggest women who've had abortions are suffering from post-abortion problems that include increases in risk-taking and a need to use substances to help them to handle emotional stress.

The fourth study made use of the data found in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Published by Priscilla Coleman, David Reardon, and Jesse Cougle in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, "The Quality of the Caregiving Environment and Child Developmental Outcomes Associated with Maternal History of Abortion Using the NLSY Data" examined the impact of abortion on children born after their mother had either aborted or given birth.

Since women who have had abortions may be suffering from grief, this may impact their relationships with subsequent children. The sample consisted of 4,844 women.

For children in the age category 1-4, the study found that women with previous abortions provided lower levels of emotional support than women who had given birth to children. For the age group 5-9 years, children of mothers with previous abortions were more apt to have behavior problems than those of mothers who had previously given birth.

Individually and collectively these studies challenge the false consensus that says that there are no negative effects from abortion. Quite the contrary: Abortion appears to lead to increases in death, emotional stress, drug abuse, and poorer relationships with subsequent children. Thirty years later, it is time for us to face the hard truths. Abortion is lethal for unborn children and bad for women and their subsequent children.