They said it.
A study of 30 women who consider their abortions highly stressful said that:
“Though 72% of the subjects reported no identifiable religious beliefs at the time of the abortion, 96% regarded abortion as the taking of a life or as murder subsequent to their abortion.”
Anne Catherine Speckhard, “the Psychosocial Aspects of Stress Following Abortion” (Arlington, Virginia: Family System Center, 1985) 1
Share on FacebookIn a study entitled “Women’s preferences for information and complication seriousness ratings related to elective medical procedures” in the August 2006 edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics, 95% of women surveyed claimed that they would want to know all of the risks of elective medical procedures, including abortion, before agreeing to that procedure. According to an article on the study:
Priscilla Coleman, David Reardon, and Matthew Lee, the study of a diverse sample of 187 largely low-income women seeking obstetric and gynecological services found that they overwhelmingly wanted to be informed of all known risks associated with elective procedures in general and with abortion in particular….
The study revealed that 95% of the women surveyed at the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, expressed a desire to be informed of all possible complications associated with elective medical procedures, including abortion. This was found to be true regardless of how common or uncommon the particular complications were.
Study Reveals Women Want Information on Abortion Risks, NRL News Volume 33 Issue 9 September 2006 Page 20
Pro-Choice organizations usually oppose informed consent laws, which require clinics to inform women about the risks of abortion procedures prior to performing them.
Share on Facebook“After Washington state began to provide public funding for abortions in 1970, the breast cancer rate among the poor rose by 53%, while the rate for rich women dropped by 1%.”
Mona Charen, Conservative Chronicle, November 2, 1994, quoted in Tamara L Roleff. Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints (San Diego, Greenhaven Press, 1997) 157
Share on FacebookMany pro-choice activists say that abortion has always been with us. They are right. But the numbers of abortions being performed today, in the legal era, are MUCH greater than the number of abortions that were being performed before abortion became legal. Surveys say that over 70% of all women would not even consider abortion if it was illegal.
To combat the pro-choicers who say that abortion was always common in the United State, look at the following statistics:
A well known study estimates the number of illegal abortions prior to 1967 range from 39,000 in 1950 to 210,000 in 1961, with a mean of 98,000.”
Barbara Syska, Thomas Hilgers, and Dennis O’Hare “An Objective Model for Estimating Criminal Abortions and Its Implications for Public Policy” In New Perspectives on Human Abortion edited by Thomas Hilgers, M.D., Dennis J Horan, and David Mall (Frederick, M.D.: University publications of America, 1981) 178
Within seven years of Roe versus Wade, legal abortions jumped to 1.2 million a year. In 2012, there were over a million abortions.
Stanley K Henshaw at al., “Abortion Services in the United States, 1991 and 1992,” Family Planning Perspectives vol. 26, no. 3 (May – June 1994), 101
Mandatory waiting periods before abortions reduce the suicide rate among women ages 25-64, according to a study.
In the study “Mandatory Waiting Periods for Abortions and Female Mental Health”by Jonathan Klick, it was determined that the suicide rate of women between 25 – 64 dropped by 10% in states where waiting period and counseling (informed consent) legislation was passed. When adjusted for other factors, the number increased to 30%.
The study came to the following conclusion:
It would appear as though waiting periods (and the counseling that usually accompanies them) induce a more reasoned approach to the abortion decision, avoiding rash decisions on the part of the pregnant women. Better decision-making processes presumably lead to fewer regrets later on, lowering the incidence of depression and, ultimately, suicide. These results suggest mandatory waiting periods represent public policies that generate large welfare gains for women faced with unwanted pregnancies.
The study appeared in Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine, volume 16, P 183, 2006 FSU College of Law, Law and Economics Paper number 05 –27
Suicide rates are much higher among women who have aborted versus women who have not. For example, one study shows that the suicide rate for women who aborted 6 to 7 times greater than in women who have never had an abortion.
(Gissler, Hemminki & Lonnqvist, “Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-94: register linkage study,” British Journal of Medicine 313:1431-4, 1996; and M. Gissler, “Injury deaths, suicides and homicides associated with pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000,” European J. Public Health 15(5):459 63,2005.)
Another study shows that Up to 60% of aborting women have suicidal thoughts. 31% had thoughts of suicide after abortion. In another survey, approximately 60% of women with post-abortion problems reported suicidal thoughts, with 28% attempting suicide and half of those attempting suicide two or more times
D. Reardon, Aborted Women, Silent No More (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2002).
Teen girls are 10 times more likely to attempt suicide if they have had an abortion in the last six months than girls who have not had an abortion.
B. Garfinkel, et al., “Stress, Depression and Suicide: A Study of Adolescents in Minnesota,” Responding to High Risk Youth (University of Minnesota: Minnesota Extension Service, 1986); M. Gissler, et. al., “Suicides After Pregnancy in Finland: 1987-94: register linkage study,” British Medical Journal, 313: 1431-1434, 1996; and N. Campbell, et. al., “Abortion in Adolescence,” Adolescence, 23:813-823, 1988. See the “Teen Abortion Risks” Fact Sheet at www.unfairchoice.info/resources.htm for more information.
Planned Parenthood another pro-choice organizations vehemently oppose laws that would require a waiting period and counseling before abortions. For example:
One proposed law would require the abortion clinic or hospital to provide a woman with information on the probable age of her fetus and details of the abortion procedure and to offer her information about the pregnancy and other options available. Unless her life is at stake, the woman would then have to wait 24 hours before having the abortion. The information could be given by phone or in person.
According to pro-choice groups, these laws are unnecessary and burdensome to women.
“I just think it is patronizing and unfair to women and women’s health.”
Delegate Clifton A. “Chip” Woodrum, Roanoke Democrat
Stephen Dinan “24-Hour Abortion Wait Progresses in House” February 3, 2001 The Washington Times, 8
Share on FacebookA 2004 psychological study showed the following results among American women:
64% felt pressured by others to choose the abortion
79% received no counseling on alternatives
17% desired pregnancy
39% felt emotionally attached to the pregnancy
52% felt they needed more time to make the decision
51% believe that abortion is morally wrong
30% more unsure of abortion was morally wrong
65% subsequently experienced multiple symptoms which they attributed to their abortions
Vince M Rue, Priscilla K Coleman, JJ Rue, and David C Reardon. “Induced Abortion and Traumatic Stress: A Preliminary Comparison of American and Russian Women.) Medical Science Monitor, 2004 10 (10): SR5 – 16
Share on FacebookThe abortion debate is very polarized and often very nasty. Pro-choice activists and insult pro-lifers and call them names, and, sadly, some pro-lifers reciprocate this bad treatment.
Yet in an interview with many pro-life crisis pregnancy center workers (these are people who minister to women who are pregnant and the postabortion women) the majority said that they would be willing to work with pro-choice activists to help women:
“79% said yes to the question “Would you be willing to work with pro-choice activists to alleviate [pregnant women’s] problems, if beliefs about abortion were not raised as an issue?”
Frederica Mathews-Green. Real Choices: Offering Practical, Life-Affirming Alternatives to Abortion (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Books, 1994)16
This willingness to work with others on the opposing side is commendable. Perhaps if pro-life and pro-choice activists can put aside their differences, even if only for short time, things for pregnant women could be a lot easier.
Share on Facebookfrom 1980 to 2000 – 99.31% of abortions annually were for non-therapeutic reasons
5460 were for health of mother — that is .36%
3640 were for fetal defects — that is .24%
1,506,770 are for social cases- that is 99.31%
Brian W. Clowes “The Facts of Life: an Authoritative Guide to Life and Family Issues”
Marybeth T. Hagan “Abortion: a Mother’s Plea for Maternity and the Unborn” (Liguori, Missouri: Triumph) 2005
In an essay entitled “Abortion: the War on Women” author Elizabeth Fox – Genovese cited the following statistic:
only 5 out of 100 obstetricians/gynecologists are now willing to perform abortions
Lawrence B Finer and Stanley K Henshaw, “Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States in 2000,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 35:1 (2003): 6 – 15
Erika Bachiochi. The Cost of “Choice”: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion (San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books, 2004) 51
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Pro-Choice author Melody Rose, in her book Safe, Legal and Unavailable? Abortion Politics in the United States, discusses Republican and Democrat views on abortion. by comparing voting records, she came to the following conclusion:
After examining the voting records of Republicans and Democrats on abortion related legislation between 1994 and 2005, she says that Mathematically, she calculates that the average party unity score (instances of Republicans voting pro-life and Democrats voting pro-choice) was 87% for Republicans and 71% for Democrats—meaning that Republicans more consistently voted pro-life than Democrats voted pro-choice. She makes the point that the Republican Party is more committed to its antiabortion stand in the Democratic Party is committed to the pro-choice platform.
Melody Rose “Safe, Legal and Unavailable? Abortion Politics in the United States” (Washington DC: CQ Press) 2007 Table on page 172
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