Abortion Myth #5
Legal abortion is safe and easy.
Abortion Facts
“Every abortion carries a risk of complications. In fact, there are over 100 physical and psychological complications of abortion.(1)
In the words of Colorado abortionist, Warren Hern, “...there are few surgical procedures given so little attention and so underrated in its potential hazards as abortion... It is a commonly held view that complications are inevitable.”(2)
Indeed, abortion is far from being safe. Immediate physical complications may include pain, bleeding, perforation of the uterus, infection, uterine adhesions, cervical damage, and fever.
• “The UK’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has recently established that the immediate physical complication rate of induced abortion is at least eleven per cent.”(3) See also www.deveber.org/text/chapters/Chap 1.pdf.
• An Ontario study of 41,039 women during the three month period after abortion revealed that these women had a more than four times higher rate of hospitalizations for infections, a five times higher rate of “surgical events” and a nearly five times higher rate of hospitalization for psychiatric problems than the matching group of women who had not had abortions(4)
• Between 2% and 3% of all abortion patients may suffer perforation of the uterus, yet most of these injuries will remain undiagnosed and untreated unless laparoscopic visualization is performed.(5)
• A study of pregnancy-associated deaths published in a March 2004 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology has found that the mortality rate associated with abortion is 2.95 times higher than that associated with pregnancies carried to term.
Long-term physical complications may include cancers of the breast and reproductive system, infertility and difficulties with future pregnancies such as ectopic pregnancy, premature births and uterine damage.
• The risk of breast cancer almost doubles after one abortion, and rises higher with multiple abortions.(6)
• Higher risk of future breast cancer in women with abortion versus pregnancy and delivery has been consistently reported in medical literature since 1970 multinational study (including the UK) by the World Health Organization (WHO). www.bcpinstitute.org/ABCUKParliamenttestimony-2007.htm
• According to the Canadian Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Society, pelvic inflammatory disease can be caused by “any procedure which dilates a woman’s cervix or introduces bacteria into the pelvic organs.” (PID) is epidemic in Canada and much of the world. Almost 100,000 Canadian women contract PID each year. The Lancet reports that “at least ten per cent of women who have a single episode of pelvic infection will become subfertile.”(7)
• A very large study by the World Health Organization of 7,228 women in eight European countries, showed that previously aborted women had significantly higher midtrimester pregnancy loss, premature delivery and low birth weight babies.(8)
• At least 49 studies have demonstrated a statistically significant increase in premature births or low birth weight risk in women with prior induced abortions.(9)
Psychological Aftermath of Abortion may include guilt, depression, grief, anxiety, sadness, shame, helplessness and hopelessness, lowered self-esteem, distrust, hostility towards self and others, regret, sleep disorders, recurring dreams, nightmares, anniversary reactions, psychophysiological symptoms, suicidal ideation and behaviour, alcohol and/or chemical dependencies, sexual dysfunction, numbness, insecurity, painful re-experiencing of the abortion, relationship disruption, communication impairment, isolation, fetal fantasies, self-condemnation, flashbacks, uncontrollable weeping, eating disorders, preoccupation, confused or distorted thinking, bitterness and a sense of loss and emptiness.(10)
• A prestigious Finnish study of women, based on the records of almost 600,000 women, discovered a suicide rate among women who aborted nearly six times greater than among women who delivered their babies.(11)
For further Information visit www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org and www.AfterAbortion.org.
(1) D. Reardon, Ph.D., Making Abortion Rare, Acorn Books, 1996.
(2) Warren Hern, M.D. Abortion Practice, Lippincott, 1990.
(3) Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy, Ian Gentles. Women’s Health after Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence. The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research, Toronto, ON 2003.
(4)College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario 2000.
(5)S. Kaali, et al., "The Frequency and Management of Uterine Perforations During First-Trimester Abortions," Am. J. Obstetrics and Gynecology 161:406-408, August 1989; M. White, "A Case-Control Study of Uterine Perforations documented at Laparoscopy," Am. J. Obstetrics and Gynecology 129:623 (1977).
(6) H.L. Howe, et al., "Early Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk Among Women Under Age 40," International Journal of Epidemiology 18(2):300-304 (1989); L.I. Remennick, "Induced Abortion as A Cancer Risk Factor: A Review of Epidemiological Evidence," Journal of Epidemiological Community Health, (1990); M.C. Pike, "Oral Contraceptive Use and Early Abortion as Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Young Women," British Journal of Cancer 43:72 (1981).
(7) Elizabeth Ring-Cassidy, Ian Gentles. Women’s Health after Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence. The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research, Toronto, ON 2003. P65
(8) Collaborative Study, Lancet 1979 20 Jan; 1 (8108): 142-5
(9) Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer 2003.
(10) Vincent M. Rue, et al., A Report on the Psychological Aftermath of Abortion 15 September 1987, 7.
(11)Gissler M, Hemminki E, Lonnqvist J. Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-94. British Medical Journal 1996. December 7.