Category: Women’s Health

Study by Anne Speckhard on emotional trauma

Researcher Anne Speckhard conducted a study that showed how abortion causes emotional trauma in women.

She interviewed women who regretted their abortions and found that they experienced the following:

• grief reactions (100 percent)

• feelings of depression (92 percent)

• feelings of anger (92 percent)

• feelings of guilt (92 percent)

• fear that others would learn of the pregnancy and abortion (89 percent)

• surprise at the intensity of the emotional reaction to the abortion (85 percent)

• feelings of lowered self worth (81 percent)

• feelings of victimization (81 percent)

• decreased effectiveness, or suppressed ability to experience pain (73 percent)

• feelings of discomfort around infants and small children (73 percent).

Anne Speckhard The Psycho-Social Aspects of Stress Following Abortion (Sheed and Ward, Kansas City, 1987)

Quoted in:  “ABORTION A Briefing Book For Canadian Legislators” Campaign Life Coalition NATIONAL PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE July 2002

These women were a selected sample of those who regretted their abortions, so this may not be representative of ALL women who have abortions. But the study shows that some women have  emotional trauma due to abortion.

Read more about abortion’s psychological impact and the emotional trauma it causes.

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Study shows abortion doesn’t improve mental illness

Before abortion was legalized in the United States, women could get permission for an abortion by going to a psychiatrist and proving they were mentally ill and would be a adversely affected by the pregnancy. A study done soon after abortion’s legalization however, shows:

“…it would appear that the more serious the psychiatric diagnosis: the less beneficial was the abortion…As might be expected chronic characterological neurotic or psychotic conditions are not solved by abortion, which is in essence a form of environmental manipulation.”

Ford et al., “Abortion: Is it a Therapeutic Procedure in Psychiatry?” Journal of the American Medical Association in November, 1978

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Pro-choice writer: women experience “shame” and “powerlessness” during abortion

Helen Susan Edelman supports legalized abortion. But she interviewed postabortion women for an article, and writes:

“Symbolically, silence reflects the sexual shame, stripped-down powerlessness, and vulnerability many women feel during abortion.”

Helen Susan Edelman, “Safe to Talk: Abortion Narratives as a Rite of Return,” Journal of American Culture 19, no. 4 (1996)

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Counselor says that half of relationships break up after abortion

Bruce Rappaport is the program director of the Men’s Support Center, an abortion counseling organization. He has experience counseling men whose partners have had abortions. According to Rappaport, although they’ve done no official study, counselors at his centers have found that half of all relationships break up after the woman has an abortion.

Rappaport said this in an article he wrote for Mademoiselle:

Bruce Rappaport “Abortion: Are Men There When Women Need Them Most?” Mademoiselle April 1981, 253

Read more about relationships breaking up after abortion here.

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Abortionist mistakes 26 week baby for 6 weeks

Pro-Life author Troy Clark, Ph.D. recounted the following story:

“Taranda,” age 17, went to a Family Planning Clinic for Reproductive Health for an abortion on December 22, 1989. Dr. Karen J Smiley misdiagnosed the pregnancy at 6 weeks and performed an abortion.

Four days later, Taranda gave birth to a one pound, critically ill infant girl in a hospital corridor. Taranda’s lawyer said, “She’s devastated, obviously. She would never have dreamed of having an abortion had she known it was 26 weeks old.” Taranda needed psychiatric care after her ordeal. The following news agencies reported her story:

The Tennessean 3/15/90: Today’s Tennessean 2/2/90, Associated Press 1/1/90, 1/26/90, and 1/29/90

Troy Clark, Ph.D. Abortion Every 90 Seconds: The Whole Story (Kindle, 2015)

24 weeks
24 weeks
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Botched abortion of 7 month old baby puts teen in hospital

A pro-life book tells the story of a 16 year-old-woman who had a botched abortion.

“Francine,” age 16, went to the All Women’s Health Center for an abortion in August 1986. Abortionist Harold Ticton estimated the pregnancy at 3 months.

Upon removing the baby’s arm, he realized that the boy was actually 7 months. He stopped the procedure, but did not transport Francine to the hospital for 7 hours. Francine had the dead fetus removed by C-section, was admitted to the intensive care unit, and was hospitalized for over a week.

28 weeks
7  months, 28 weeks

An autopsy on the 28 week young baby attributed death to “partial dismemberment due to the suctioning during the abortion.” Tiction blamed Francine, saying that she gave him a wrong date for her last period, which led him to miscalculate the pregnancy as 12 weeks rather than 28 weeks. The following news agencies reported the story:

Tampa Bay and State 2/9/92; St. Petersburg Times 5/12/88; AP 8/8/88; Tampa Tribune 8/6/88

Troy Clark, Ph.D. Abortion Every 90 Seconds: The Whole Story (Kindle, 2015)

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Planned Parenthood worker: Women cry after abortion

A Planned Parenthood worker called Dr. Michael Brown’s radio show and asked if God could ever forgive her for working in an abortion clinic. Brown asks her about the women who have abortions:

Radio Host Dr. Michael Brown: The women that come in and out. When you see them having, making this decision, when you see them leaving, is it just some wonderful, happy event for them as well?

Planned Parenthood worker: Oh God no. They cry, and the people, we call them support people that are with them, if they come with a parent, the parents will usually cry – they’re very somber and they cry a lot and we have journals in the back, in the recovery room, where we encourage them to write down their feelings, things like that – and I read them. They’re never happy. They always regret it.”

Kate Scanlon “Anonymous single mom exposes behind-the-scenes details at Planned Parenthood in emotional interview” The Blaze Jul 31, 2017

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Abortionist explains how few doctors want to prescribe abortion pill

When the abortion pill first became available, the FDA required general practitioners or other non-abortionists who prescribed it to have an agreement with an abortion provider to do a backup surgical abortion if the pills failed. One abortionist who runs a clinic explained how no local doctors had contacted her to do these backup procedures – meaning that none of the doctors in the area wanted to start prescribing the abortion pill.

Dr. Deborah Oyer, medical director and owner of Aurora Medical Services in Seattle

”We have not been called by anybody about surgical backup and we are the only clinic in the Pacific Northwest that’s been using mifepristone since the first trials. ‘We have gotten lots of calls over the years about medical abortions. We have done seminars on medical abortions and we have had tons of phone calls from the lay public and potential patients. But I don’t know of any doctors calling about surgical backup or about how to get started. ”I’m a little surprised,” she said. ”But also at some level, I’m not. In studies that were done in the last several years, there were always a significant percent of doctors who say they would do medical abortions. But I was always a little suspicious. It’s a lot easier to say you’ll do it than to actually do it.”

Gina Kolata.” Wary doctors spurn new abortion pill; some doctors insist that a surgical abortion remains a better alternative than the new pill.” The New York Times Nov 14, 2000

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Postabortion woman: We are told to be quiet

Cynthia Collins, who had her first abortion as a 19-year-old and then took a “downward spiral”:

“We were sold a bill of goods that abortion is a good thing, and when we find out that it’s not, we’re told to be quiet. [A]s those voices are heard, then we’re going to see the true picture.”

“Women cite experience to support abortion ban” The Washington Times – Tuesday, April 18, 2006

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Third trimester baby bleeds to death after botched abortion

Pro-lifer Troy Clark, Ph.D, documented the following story

“Dorothy”, age 23, had an abortion at Family Planning Medical Clinic on October 30, 1987. The gestational age was misdiagnosed before the abortion was started. When trouble arose, she was transported to a hospital, where the gestational age was estimated to be 21 weeks. The abortion was completed.

An autopsy on the baby revealed a well-developed human being with no abnormalities other than injuries caused by abortion, including traumatic amputation of left arm at shoulder. The baby bled to death from the wound, with a lacerated area extending over 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. He had been 30 to 31 weeks of gestational age.”

Source: LA County Autopsy Report No. 87 – 10358

Troy Clark, Ph.D. Abortion Every 90 Seconds: The Whole Story (Kindle, 2015)

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