The Toronto Star continues its harassment of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. On Saturday, May 22, it published for the nth time an article entitled, “No new abortion law planned, PM insists.” On Tuesday morning, May 25, it followed up with, “Tories ignore abortion advice” and “Oda won’t comment on CIDA notes.”

            In an earlier article, Catholic Insight magazine drew attention to the Toronto Star’s recent pre-occupation with abortion (“Anti-life Left panics over pro-life activism”-Web, May 17; printed edition, June, p. 9-11). The Star sees abortion as a necessary ingredient for the G-8 maternity welfare policy. Prime Minister Harper does not. He wants to help poor women and their babies with food, milk, water and medical assistance that will aid them survive the births of their babies and have them live. The Star wants the overseas advisors in Africa and Asia to advise parents to kill their babies in what it constantly refers to as “safe abortions.”

            Canadian Press discovered in January of this year that “briefing papers” from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency for International Co-operation) had suggested that “safe abortion services could save numerous lives” (deadly for babies, of course, but “safe” presumably for their mothers). Needless to say, the “experts” of CIDA, drew figures out of a hat such as that “500,000 women die annually during pregnancy,”

            Feminists have been doing this for the last five decades. They and pro-abortion journalists like Star columnist James Travers (access to safe abortions is an essential of any effective international strategy,” Star, May 24) do not know what they are talking about.

Ipsos Reid

            Polling firms like Ipsos Reid suffer from the same problem. They poll people who know nothing about the subject. For most people, abortion is an abstraction. It means nothing. When these firms “poll” Canadians, they present abortion stripped of all reality (no family; no father, brothers, and sisters; no mental or physical consequences to the mother; no financial costs to society). Hence to the question: Should abortion be permitted?, 46% of Canadians easily say, “the government should leave things as they are” (National Post, Saturday, May 22, 2010).

But are abortions safe?

            We, however, should raise questions about these “safe” abortions. Are they really safe?

First go to the statistics on the subject provided by Toronto’s De Veber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research: “The physical and mental consequences of abortion on women’s health.” The original is available from the Institute, 103 Jane Street, Toronto, Web: www.deveber.org. Tel. 416-256-0555.

            It was also reprinted in Catholic Insight, October 2008, pp. 19 and 20, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+physical+and+mental+consequences+of+abortion+on+women%27s+health-a0187426337.

            The following is a summary of the main points, with the technical data about sources omitted.

Suicide

·         Within 12 months of the abortion or live delivery, Scandinavian women who aborted experienced a suicide rate of 34.9 per 1000, compared to a suicide rate of 5.9 per 1000 for women who delivered their babies. This is a suicide rate nearly six times greater.

·         A similar study in Wales discovered that women who aborted experienced a suicide rate 3.25 times greater.

·         Another study in the U.S. found a suicide rate 2.6 times greater.

Mental Health

·         A study sponsored by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario found that after three months, aborted women had a rate of 5.2 per thousand hospitalizations for psychiatric problems, compared to a rate of 1.1 per thousand for the control group.

·         Recently (Nov. 2006), a rigorously neutral study from New Zealand has uncovered a strong correlation between induced abortion and subsequent mental health problems. Whether it is major depression, anxiety disorder, suicidal ideation, alcohol dependence, illicit drug dependence, or mean number of mental health problems, those who terminated their pregnancy by abortion suffered much higher rates of disorder than those who were never pregnant, and those who were pregnant but did not abort.

Prematurity

·         33 weeks' gestation among women with previous first-trimester abortions, and a 267% increased risk among women with previous second-trimester abortions.

·         Two large multi-centre case-control studies were conducted in Europe. Both studies revealed that previous induced abortion was associated with increased risk for every preterm delivery.

·         Prematurity in turn is associated with an enormous increase in the risk of cerebral palsy and other health problems.

Lower fertility after abortion

·         Women who have abortions experience 6% lower fertility than women who do not have abortions.

Abortion and STDs

·         Women with a history of induced abortion were found to be 3.15 times more likely than women without a history of induced abortion to be seropositive for the organism causing Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID).

·         Chlamydia is a major cause of post-abortion PID.

Abortion and breast cancer

·         Out of 37 studies up to the year 2003 of the link between induced abortion and subsequent breast cancer, 23 showed a 30% increased risk of breast cancer for women who experienced induced abortion.

·         Since 2003 five studies have been published showing no link between abortion and breast cancer. However, these studies are either underpowered or use a control group with the same risk characteristics as the women who have had induced abortion.

·         The National Cancer Institute denies any link between induced abortion and breast cancer.

·         However, the National Cancer Institute has itself sponsored two major studies which discovered a 50% greater risk and 137% greater risk respectively of breast cancer among women who aborted their pregnancy.

Complication rates

·         A study conducted by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario shows that after induced abortion there is a 4 times increase in medical admissions and a 5 times increase in surgical admissions to hospital.

For a comprehensive examination of these issues, based on over 500 studies, see Elizabeth Ring Cassidy and Ian Gentles, Women's Health after Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence [Toronto: de Veber Institute for Bioethics, 2nd edition, 2003.] Some of the material above will appear in the forthcoming third edition of the book.

Another source of detailed information can be found at http://www.abortionfacts.com/effects/effects.asp. It contains a list of various effects on women’s health. One of them, for example, discusses a factual look at the number of maternal deaths that have been reported and the realistic numbers.

A third source is Our Catholic Faith website http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/complicationsofabortion.html. Under complications of abortions, it lists:

• perforation of the uterus
• excessive bleeding
• infection
• embolism
• retained tissue
• hemorrhage
• cervical injury
• endotoxic shock
• "boggy" uterus
• failure to recognize an ectopic pregnancy