Immediate physical health dangers

Abortion is never safe for the baby as it causes his/her death. However, neither is it safe for the mother. As Dr Warren Hern, an American abortionist, noted: "In medical practice, 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 inevitable¹".

Abortion is particularly dangerous for women who have chlamydia, the world’s most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection. Chlamydia has been increasing markedly in the UK in recent years, especially among young women in the age group in which they are also most likely to have abortions². Chlamydia infects the neck of the womb but is often symptomless, meaning that infected women may be unaware of their condition for years. An abortion may carry the infection, via the abortionist’s instruments, into the womb and cause pelvic inflammatory disease.

Various studies have shown that between 10 and 40 percent of women who request an abortion have chlamydia, and of these 10 to 25 percent will develop post-abortion pelvic infection³. In other words, between one and 10 percent of all women having abortions will be affected in this way. According to the British Medical Journal, pelvic inflammatory disease carries a 17 percent chance of tubal infertility, a 20 percent chance of chronic pelvic pain, a 40 percent chance of deep dyspareunia (painful intercourse) and an 80 percent chance of menstrual disturbance. There is also a sevenfold increase in the risk of ectopic pregnancy⁴. Most abortion providers now offer screening and/or antibiotics in order to try and prevent any post-abortion infection.

The UK’s department of health acknowledged the risks of abortion when it warned: "Ideally, all women should undergo ultrasound examination before termination of pregnancy to establish gestational age, viability, and site. Laparoscopy, and/or laparotomy, is essential if perforation of the uterus occurs during suction termination of pregnancy, because of the risk of bowel damage and life-threatening sequelae⁵."

159 women died as a result of abortion in England and Wales between 1968 and 1985⁶. Between 1986 and 1989 a further three deaths were recorded by the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys. It has been estimated that over 1,000 women have been killed in the USA in so-called safe and legal abortions since 1973⁷.

Long-term physical health dangers

As well as the immediate health dangers of abortion there are also long-term dangers. Many researchers believe that one of these dangers is breast cancer, although no conclusive proof of a direct causative link exists and it remains unacknowledged by the abortion industry.

A possible link between breast cancer and abortion was first identified in 1957. No such link has been identified between miscarriage and breast cancer as doctors agree that hormones produced during pregnancy have a protective effect, while induced abortion causes a sudden hormonal change which can affect breast cells and cause cancer.

A study by Professor Joel Brind of City University, New York, concluded that 24,500 cases of breast cancer in the USA were linked to abortion⁸. Other published studies have suggested that first trimester abortions of first pregnancies lead to an increased risk of breast cancer of 140 percent among women under 32⁹, that the risk of breast cancer could be increased by as much as 285 percent if a woman aborts her first pregnancy and then does not give birth to a baby later¹⁰, and that those at greatest risk of breast cancer are women who had an abortion before the age of 18¹¹. For more information on the link between abortion and breast cancer visit www.abortionbreastcancer.com.

Abortion has now become so widespread in Britain that, if the studies cited above are correct, it now accounts for around 600 new cases of breast cancer in women under 50 each year, more than 10 percent of the total in that age group¹².

Having an abortion can also significantly increase the risk of complications in subsequent pregnancies. A study of 9,283 deliveries in the USA between August 1977 and March 1980 showed that women who had one abortion were more likely to suffer bleeding in the first third of pregnancy, premature rupture of membranes, breech or other abnormal position of the baby, low birth weight or premature birth. The likelihood of such complications was further increased in women who had two abortions¹³. Induced abortion can also cause an increased risk of miscarriage¹⁴ and can cause sterility through scarring and infection¹⁵.

The most recent research indicates a risk of future pre-term delivery. It is also identified that although induced abortion does not directly increase the risk of breast cancer it does result in a reduced protection against breast cancer and therefore the net result is an increased risk .16

Mental health dangers

The evidence that abortion can affect the mental health of women has been accumulating for some time. In 1975 all admissions to psychiatric hospitals in Denmark were monitored in order to compare the number of women who had had an abortion within the previous three months with the number who had given birth within the previous three months¹⁷. The rate of hospitalization per 10,000 women of childbearing age in the population for women who had had abortions was 18.4, compared to 12 for those who had given birth and 7.5 for others. Moreover, the rates for younger women (up to 29 years) were almost double for those who had had abortions than for those who had given birth. A review in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1992¹⁸found that approximately 10 percent of women having an abortion will suffer marked, severe or persistent psychological or psychiatric disturbances.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is recognised as an illness by the American Psychiatric Association¹⁹. The Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary defines it as "an anxiety disorder caused by the major personal stress of a serious or frightening event" and observes: "The reaction may be immediate or delayed for months. The sufferer experiences the persistent recurrence of images or memories of the event, together with nightmares, insomnia, a sense of isolation, guilt, irritability, and loss of concentration²⁰".

The 1980s witnessed an increasing interest among mental health professionals in the possibility of identifying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder which could be linked to abortion. The phenomenon of post-abortion syndrome (PAS) had been increasingly discussed in professional journals and studies²¹and within professional organisations. Doctors writing in The Lancet medical journal described the symptoms of PAS in one patient thus: "Severe anxiety, depression, recurrent intrusive thoughts and images related to abortion and suction, insomnia, recurrent nightmares... ²²".

Abortions using the RU-486 abortion drug can also cause severe adverse psychological affects. One study has shown that feelings of guilt and regret after RU-486 abortions are even more pronounced than after surgical abortions²³. The chairman of Roussel Uclaf, the drug’s producer, admitted: "As abortifacient procedures go, RU-486 is not at all easy to use... True, no anaesthetic is required. But a woman who wants to end her pregnancy has to ‘live’ with her abortion for at least a week using this technique. It’s an appalling psychological ordeal²⁴".

Various studies have shown that abortion can lead to self-destructive or suicidal tendencies. The Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published a joint study on attitudes to abortion in 1990, which found that women obtaining abortions were nearly two-thirds as likely to develop self-destructive behaviour, such as taking drug-overdoses, as those who decided not to abort. They also had a 10 percent increased chance of problems such as anxiety or neurosis²⁵.

Abortion leaves many women emotionally and/or physically scarred for years to come²⁶. It is only a short-term solution to an immediate perceived problem. A study²⁷ of teenage girls who had abortions showed that 49% of them deliberately became pregnant within a year of their abortion, even though their circumstances had not changed, and that this was in order to dispel the sense of emptiness, which they had since the abortion.

An American survey²⁸of 192 women who became pregnant through rape or incest and who either had an abortion or carried the resulting child to term has suggested that abortion only adds to the pain and trauma. None of the women in the survey who had given birth regretted having done so, and many observed that keeping the child had brought peace and healing to their lives. Dr David Reardon, a member of the team that compiled the information, explained: "Abortion increases the sense of isolation and shame by allowing others to pre-tend the problem doesn’t exist²⁹". Many women report that their abortions felt like a brutal form of medical rape³⁰.

Further information on Post-Abortion Trauma can be obtained from British Victims of Abortion.

1 Dr Warren Hern, Abortion Practice, Boulder, Colorado: Alpenglo Graphics (2nd Edition), 1990. p.101
2 Reported by BBC News online, 14 February 2001; diagnoses of genital chlamydia in the UK have soared from 32,371 in 1995 to 56,855 in 1999. Four out of five cases of infection are contracted by women under the age of 25.
3 F E Skjeldestad, "Induced abortion: chlamydia trachomatis and postabortal complications. A cost benefit analysis", Acta Obstetrica et Gynaecologica Scandinavica (1988); 67(6), pp.525-9; and S J Duthie et al., "Morbidity after termination of pregnancy in first trimester", Genitourinary Medicine (1987), 63, pp.182-7
4 J Malcolm Pearce, "Pelvic Inflammatory Disease", British Medical Journal (1990), vol.300, pp.1090-91
5 Department of Health, Confidential enquiries into maternal deaths: Executive summary, 1999
6 Written parliamentary answer, Hansard, 27 November 1986
7 Human Life International, Pro-Life Activists’ Encyclopedia, 2000, chapter 59
8 See Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol 50, 481-496
9 M C Pike et al., "Oral contraceptive use and early abortion as risk factors for breast cancer in young women", British Journal of Cancer, 43: 72-76, 1981
10 Ewertz and Duffy, "Risk of breast cancer in relation to reproductive factors in Denmark", British Journal of Cancer, 58: 99-104, 1988
11 J R Daling et al., "Risk of breast cancer among young women: Relationship to induced abortion", Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 86/21: 1584-1592, 1994
12 Figures for 1990 show a total of 5,606 new cases of breast cancer among women aged 20 to 49. Assuming that 25 percent of women have an abortion at some point in their childbearing years, then if abortion increases the likelihood of breast cancer by the age of 50 by 50 percent (cf. Dr K Daling, op.sit.) one would expect that out of 5,606 cases, 1,869 would be in women who had had abortions and 623 would not have contracted the disease had they not had an abortion.
13 S Linn et al., "The relationship between induced abortion and outcome of subsequent pregnancies", American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 15 May 1983, 146(2), pp.136-140
14 Many sources, e.g.: "There was a tenfold increase in the number of second trimester miscarriages in pregnancies which followed a vaginal abortion": Wright et al., "Second trimester abortion after vaginal termination of pregnancy", The Lancet, 10 June 1972
15 D Trichopoulos et al., "Induced abortion and secondary infertility", British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol.83, August 1976, pp.645-650
16 Thorp Jr. et al, “Long-term Physical and Psychological Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: Review of the Evidence”, Ostetrical & Gynaecological Survey 2003, 58[1]
17 Giba Foundation Symposium (1985), vol.115, pp.150-61
18 G Zolese and C V R Blacker, "The Psychological Complications of Therapeutic Abortion", British Journal of Psychiatry, vol.160 (1992), pp.742-9
19 American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., 2000
20 Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary, fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 1994
21 e.g. E de Carvalho and A Monteiro, "Rematrixing an experience with abortion", Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama and Sociometry (1990), 43, pp.19-26; L De Verber et al., "Post-abortion grief; psychological sequelae of induced abortion", Humane Medicine (1991), 7, pp.203-9; T Steinberg, "Abortion counselling to benefit maternal health", American Journal of Law and Medicine (1987), 15, pp.483-517; C Barnard, The long term psychological effect of abortion, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Institute for Abortion Recovery and Research (1990).
22 The Lancet, 9 December 1989
23 Pharmaceutical Journal, 4 November 1989
24 Quoted in Guardian Weekly, 19 August 1990
25 Dr Philip Hannaford, RCGP/RCOG Attitudes to Pregnancy Study, 1990; reported in Pulse, 17 November 1990
26 See section 5.1 – "Health dangers"
27 J K Russell, Teenage Pregnancies
28Victims and Victors, ed. David C. Reardon, Julie Makimaa and Amy Sobie, Elliot Institute, 2000
29 Quoted in the Washington Times, 30 May 2000
30 Francke, The Ambivalence of Abortion, Random House, 1978, 84-95, 167.; Reardon, Aborted Women – Silent No More, Loyola University Press, 1987, 51, 126.

Adapted from 'A Way of Life' The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children March 2002

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