Hey folks,
Here is something you will most likely not see in the Mainstream Media. Two new studies just released proves that Abortion DOES have a negative effect on the mental wellness of the Woman involved.This is something that I've talked about in the past. I have told the story of a couple of Women I know that have had abortions and they regret this VERY much. I have told the story of my friend Jen that just broke down one night. I asked her what was the matter, and after a bit of prying, she opened up and told me that she was just thinking "what if." Then she proceed to tell me her story. I ended up holding her for about an hour after while she cried. I had no idea that she had an abortion.
Now over the years, I have seen Doctors come out and say that there is no effect on the Woman at all. Pure and unadulterated BUNK! I know different from experience. When I tried, and still to this day, when I try, to discuss this issue, there is no shortage of Pro-Choice Sheep that argue "You're not a Doctor. I'll listen to them." Of course you also get, "You're not a Woman, so you have no right to say anything about it." Well, now we have the "Experts" saying what I have been talking about for years. Two new studies out this week add to the body of research evidence clearly showing again that abortion is associated with increased risk of adverse mental health effects. The two studies were published in the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of Psychiatric Research. Both had strong methodology and controls for confounding or alternate variables.
Moira Gaul, Family Research Council's Director of Women's and Reproductive Health wrote this Article over at the Family Research Council's Website.
New Mental Health Studies Dispel Myth That Abortion is a 'Non-Event'
News of note this week is that two new studies published in peer-reviewed journals continue to link abortion and negative mental health effects.
The first paper [PDF], published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Survey, the most comprehensive national dataset on the prevalence of psychological disorders, was analyzed to explore associations between abortion history and mental health. Abortion was found to be associated with an increased risk of a number of mental health problems including: panic attacks, panic disorder, agoraphobia, post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depression. The four study authors presented their research on topic at a panel discussion at the Family Research Council in October 2008.
The second paper [PDF], written by New Zealand researcher David Fergusson, analyzed data from a 30-year longitudinal study. The methodology, analysis employing two types of models of for concurrent and long-term health effects, strong control for confounding variables, and comparison groups were all strengths of the study. The results indicated abortion to be associated with an increased risk of mental disorders, including major depression, anxiety disorder, illicit drug dependence, and suicide ideation.
The results of both studies add to the strong body evidence detailing the causal association between abortion and mental health disorders. These findings continue to raise important implications concerning informed consent in healthcare. Women in this country deserve quality healthcare which provides accurate information on the associated risks accompanying abortion.
Also making news yesterday was a review paper published by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. In their own press release the university/dept. cited the review paper as the most rigorous review of the literature to date which purported that "studies with the most flawed methodology found negative mental health sequelae of abortion." This is an insult to Johns Hopkins as a credible academic research institution. The exclusion of numerous studies published in peer-reviewed journals was a gaping omission. The ties of senior author Robert Blum to the Alan Guttmacher Institute as a board member and previous board chair as well as the funding of the university's department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, where three of the four study authors work, by Planned Parenthood of Maryland, serve as evidence of the political motivation behind the publishing of the study. Johns Hopkins should be admonished for stamping such sham science.
Women are increasingly coming forward to share about the negative impact abortion has played in their lives. Clinicians treating women for mental health disorders are increasingly stepping forward to tell the truth about the large numbers seeking treatment due to the fallout from abortion. The repeated lies from the pro-abortion community that abortion is a nonevent or somehow "therapeutic" in women's lives is being dispelled and the truth clearly elucidated by scientific findings.
Something happens to a Woman when she becomes pregnant. Natural instincts kick in to nurture and protect that little life inside her. Over the nine months, they become as one and this is followed the rest of both their lives. Logically speaking, if a Woman LOOSES the child, DEVASTATING results can occur. So why then would anyone in their right mind, EVER, think that purposely ENDING THAT LIFE inside her would be a non-issue?Yes. The Pro-Choice people will continue to argue that it means nothing. Just a medical procedure. It is not a life. If they could ever agree on when it actually "becomes one." Therefore, no harm, no foul. Well, that has always been and will always be wrong.
Peter
Sources:
Family Research Council
4 comments:
The JHU review failed to include three new studies all showing abortion leads to significant mental health problems for women.
Last week, Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University, and her colleagues published a study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research showing the link exists. http://www.lifenews.com/nat4617.html
The research team found induced abortions result in increased risks for a myriad of mental health problems ranging from anxiety to depression to substance abuse disorders.
The number of cases of mental health issues rose by as much as 17 percent in women having abortions compared to those who didn't have one and the risks of each particular mental health problem rose as much as 145% for post-abortive women.
For 12 out of 15 of the mental health outcomes examined, a decision to have an abortion resulted in an elevated risk for women.
"What is most notable in this study is that abortion contributed significant independent effects to numerous mental health problems above and beyond a variety of other traumatizing and stressful life experiences," they concluded.
Earlier this week, researchers at Otago University in New Zealand reported their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry and found that women who have abortions have an increased risk of developing mental health problems. http://www.lifenews.com/int1008.html
The study found that women who had abortions had rates of mental health problems about 30% higher than other women. The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance abuse disorders.
Abortions increased the risk of severe depression and anxiety by one-third and as many as 5.5 percent of all mental health disorders seen in New Zealand result from women having abortions.
A third study, from a team at the University of Queensland and published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, found women who have an abortion are three times more likely to experience a drug or alcohol problem during their lifetime. http://www.lifenews.com/int1012.html
The study showed that women who had experienced an abortion were at increased risk of illicit drug and alcohol use compared with women who had never been pregnant or who gave birth.
Hey Steve,
Welcome to the OPNTalk Blog.
Thank you very much for the links and information. I use to just talk about this via my personal experience, logic, and observation. I was mostly met with the types of things I described in the article.
But now I'm starting to see more and more indisputable evidence that this really DOES have a negative effect on the mental well being of the Women involved.
I'm sure that some will still argue, blindly and falsely, the talking points set forth from people the PROFIT greatly from Abortions. Even if they themselves cannot agree as to when Life starts.
But again, thank you for the info and please feel free to stop by anytime and often. You never know what you may see here.
I may have to highlight your comment coming up soon.
Peter
Thanks for the studies, Peter. I looked them over and neither one seems to be the sort of conservative faux "studies" we so often see. Whatever their motivations or funding, they both seem to be real objective scientific attempts to discover some truth.
I should note that one study showed only what it terms a "mild" (or perhaps "slight"; I don't have the text in front of me) correlation. But I should also note that these studies only show correlation -- not causation. In other words, we have no proof that abortion causes these mental wellness defects -- only that they tend to exist at a higher level in people who have abortions. It could of course well be that mental wellness defects lead one to have unwanted pregnancies that then lead to abortions.
Of course, it seems to me highly likely that abortion DOES adversely affect one's emotional health. We know that spontaneous abortion -- e.g., losing a child involuntarily -- has huge emotional consequences; surely doing so intentionally would ahve consequences at least as significant. In other words, these studies represent (like so many studies!) a sort of "DUH" idea. It's the sort of thing most of us would assume. So it's hard to know why you are crowing about this so much, or claiming that "I have seen Doctors come out and say that there is no effect on the Woman at all." What "doctors" and when, Peter? I think you would have to search very hard to find such a thing; I personally have never encountered it out in the world.
In other words, it seems like you set up a straw man here, pretending that this is some big issue when really it just confirms what everybody pretty much already assumed.
After all, it's not like this has any bearing on whether abortion should be legal or not. Lots of things that have negative emotional effects are legal. Indeed, lots of things that are immoral are legal. The issue is whether or not the heavy hand of the state should decide for each of us what is right and what is wrong, or whether we should be free to apply the teachings of our own moral and religious authorities in determining such things for ourselves. I personally see a lot more spiritual and moral growth in grappling with such issues than I do in simply having everything decided for us by the government.
This is why I am pro-choice but anti-abortion. Indeed, most Americans probably are. I would never advise someone to get an abortion, and indeed would try to persuade her otherwise. But I also don't feel that my own personal opinion on the subject needs to be enforced by the heavy hand of the state. There are deeply held, moral, principled beliefs on both sides of the issue; there is no reason for the government to decide it for us.
The sad irony is that if the more extreme anti-abortion people had put even half the energy they put into trying to criminalize abortion into, instead, working together with others to actually prevent abortions -- whether by public education campgains, or support groups for girls and young women, or working to change a culture of poverty and despair in which young women see sex as the only thing they have to contribute to the world -- they would have saved far, far more of what they perceive to be human lives than they do by all their ranting and fulminating and attempts to divide us all.
Hey kwix,
Thank you for this excellent addition to the conversation. Thanks to your contribution, I think I'm starting to get what you are saying. I see how you and other may feel this way
I just can not go there. I see it as murder of an innocent life, yet, I understand the need of it if the health of the Mother is at stake. So I understand where you are coming from to a degree.
Thank you again. Be back when I have more time.
Peter
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