After several months’ delay, a leading medical journal has published a letter by Elliot Institute director Dr. David Reardon in response to recent ad hominem attacks by abortion advocates attempting to deny a link between abortion and mental health problems in women.

The criticism began last fall after the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP) published a meta-analysis review by Dr. Priscilla Coleman on mental health and abortion. To the dismay of abortion rights advocates, the review showed that women who had abortions were 81 percent more likely to experience mental health problems afterward compared to women who gave birth.

Abortion rights advocates responded by criticizing Coleman and her study, and attempting to accuse her of bias by linking her to Reardon. Three different letters published in the BJP used quotes from an article previously written by Reardon, in an attempt to undermine Coleman’s integrity.

In a response published by BJP, Reardon refuted the charges of bias and provided context for the article that was used to criticize Coleman, pointing out the critics had taken quotes out of context and offered a distorted picture of his views.

The article “reflected my sincere belief that abortion involves substantial dangers to specific subgroups of women,” he wrote. “Unfortunately critics have distorted this into the charge that I seek to scare women with exaggerated risks. That is untrue. There are real risks, especially for certain higher risk groups. Women should be told of the truth, with neither exaggeration nor dismissal and minimization.”

The letter is available online under the heading, “Abortion, Mental Health and Charges of Guilt by Association,” and will be published in the journal’s print edition in March.

For more information on this controversy, see this article by Reardon describing and refuting the “attack and distract” strategy employed by those seeking to discredit this research. In it, he explains why its time to stop attacking the messenger and start putting concern for the lives and well-being of women ahead of promoting abortion.

The new study repeats the same discredited practice of simply comparing nationally reported maternal mortality rates with Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported deaths associated with abortion.  Sounds reasonable, until you learn that there is no accurate or formal mechanism for reporting abortion-related deaths. Indeed, the rules regarding completion of death certificates specifically exclude identifying abortion as a cause of death.

At least in part, this is why CDC officials have admitted that maternal mortality rates and abortion mortality rates “are conceptually different and are used by the CDC for different public health purposes.”

In other words, the CDC numbers on abortion-related deaths cannot be meaningfully compared to maternal mortality rates.  CDC methods simply do not rely on a uniform method of collecting data on abortion related deaths.

In short, Grimes used a very incomplete record of abortion-associated deaths and compared it to a complete record of deaths associated with non-aborted pregnancies, and found that the death rate is lower. Therefore, he concludes, abortion is safer than childbirth.

As they say: junk in, junk out.

But fortunately we are not stuck with only the CDC’s haphazard yardstick for measuring abortion-related deaths.  In the last 15 years, a number of record-based studies have been conducted that do provide an objective, identical standard for comparing abortion-associated deaths with natural pregnancy-associated deaths.

The article below is excerpted from the classic book Aborted Women, Silent No More, by David C. Reardon. This excerpt describes how, in the 1970s, the abortion industry’s approach to “counseling”  was developed.

Like most other commercial businesses, the abortion industry has a specialized sales force and a carefully defined marketing strategy. The sale force is composed of abortion counselors who “help” women decide about abortion. Their marketing strategy is to tell their clients as little as possible  ‑‑ and never anything negative ‑‑ about their product.

[As far back as the 1970s,] the sales and marketing divisions of the abortion industry were described in lurid detail in [a] Chicago Sun‑Times abortion expose.  In that series, undercover reporters charged that at “Michigan Ave. abortion mills, women who are hired to counsel don’t ‑‑ they’re paid to sell.”  And the selling of abortion, they observed, included “sophisticated pitches and deceptive promises.”¹

At one of the clinics investigated, slick brochures assured women that: “From admission to recovery, patient ease and comfort are first considerations.  She is encouraged to ask questions, share feelings or misgivings.”  But in actual practice, the same clinic instructed its counselors with these three guidelines:

(1) “Don’t tell [the] patient the abortion will hurt.”
(2) “Don’t discuss [the abortion] procedure or the instruments to be used in any detail.”
(3) “Don’t answer too many questions.”²

The Sun‑Times reporters criticized this type of “counseling” as being superficial and deceptive.  On both counts, the reporters were right.  But this type of counseling is not only common throughout the country, it is the accepted and recommended philosophy of the abortion industry. According to that counseling philosophy, the patient is to be “protected” from information which might discourage [abortion] or make her situation more difficult.  …

“Few Women Really Want Abortion”

This philosophy was developed at a 1971 conference for abortion providers held in Los Angeles. Some of the statements made during a special symposium devoted to the “proper” role of abortion counseling are particularly revealing.

For example, one nurse told her colleagues that “whether rich or poor, few women really wanted an abortion.”³ Therefore, she suggested, it was important for counselors to avoid conveying any attitudes that might reinforce negative feelings. Counselors were advised to be particularly careful about their choice of words. They were told never to refer to the procedure as “abortion,” but instead to use euphemistic expressions.

Another speaker, nurse Henrietta Blackmon, advised that counselors and nurses should be able and willing to describe the procedure, but should never describe the abortion instruments, since this might upset the client. Above all, she warned, counselors should be on guard to keep their own true feelings in check:

 If you say “Suck out the baby,” you may easily generate or increase trauma; say instead, “Empty the uterus,” or “We will scrape the lining of the uterus,” but never “We will scrape away the baby.” These may seem very, very insignificant to us, but to the patient it can really imply that you are using a judgment, and quite often we are not aware of what we are saying. We have to be very, very sensitive, and very, very aware of what words we are using to describe the procedures used. Use the word “fetus”: This is a fetus; this is not a “baby.”⁴

According to these experts, who were establishing the counseling standards to be used across the nation, an abortion counselor’s only purpose is to act as “facilitator and participant” in the abortion process ‑‑ a compassionate friend to help the aborting woman face the unknown and overcome her doubts.

Counselors, they warned, were not to urge reevaluation of either the client’s needs or the decision to abort; they were only to make it as easy as possible for the woman to get the abortion. Any other form of counseling that challenged her “decision,” provided new information about risks or fetal development, or dwelt on options, would only increase [feelings of] doubt, anxiety and guilt.  …

Therefore, the role of the counselor was to provide emotional support, explain the clinic’s routine, describe the procedure in a neutral manner, and “[only] if the doctor approved ‑‑ warn the patient of the possibility of future sterility.” Finally, the counselor should reassure the patient that the decision to abort was good, ethical, and acceptable.⁵ …

Taking Advantage of Women in Crisis

One factor which allows abortion counselors to get away with telling so little is that many women seeking abortions are in a vulnerable, frightened or insecure position. In one case, for example, a woman who was counseled in a group situation had several questions she wanted to ask, but she did not, saying: “I was afraid to ask them with all those people around.”⁶ … Feeling frightened and dependent on others [who are often insisting on abortion], women seeking abortion are generally not in a position to insist on complete answers.

Second, many women do not know what questions they should ask, especially when it comes to complications.  In general, the most that they are told is that: “There are only slight risks to this procedure, like in any operation.  It’s nothing to worry about.” The vagueness of this reassurance prevents even the slightest possibility for women to ask questions like: “Will dilation damage my cervix? Will a ‘slight infection’ reduce my ability to conceive in the future?”

Lying About Fetal Development

But worst of all is the lack of counseling about fetal development; it never occurs. Information about the stage of development of the fetus to be aborted is available at any local library, but never at the local abortion clinic.

To abortion counselors, discussion of fetal development is absolutely taboo. It will only upset their patients, they argue, and increase the feelings of guilt women may face. Counselors are so concerned with “protecting” women from these facts that distortions and lies are an accepted method of easing the patient’s concerns.

An example of such “reassuring” counseling is described by Julie Engel, who received an abortion when she was three months pregnant.

Then I asked, “Is abortion a threat to future pregnancies?” “Women often have D & C’s [dilation and curettage] to help them get pregnant,” was the perfunctory answer. “Are there psychological problems?” I continued. “Hardly ever.  Don’t worry,” I was told. … “What does a three‑month‑old fetus look like?” “Just a clump of cells,” she answered matter‑of‑factly.⁷

In the years that followed, Julie discovered that she was no longer able to conceive. And then one day she saw some of the pictures of fetal development:

 When I saw that a three‑month‑old “clump of cells” had fingers and toes and was a tiny, perfectly formed baby, I became really hysterical. I’d been lied to and misled and I’m sure thousands of other women are being just as poorly informed and badly served. To prove it, John [her husband] and I visited most every clinic in Cleveland.  I pretended I was pregnant and asked for guidance. What we heard was incredible. One counselor told us the fetus did not begin to resemble a human being until seven months; another said five months and so it went.⁸

Deciding What’s Best for Women

The desire to “protect” women from the biological facts … is all part of the paternalistic attitude of abortion providers, which automatically presumes that abortion is the “best” solution for women in trouble, especially if the women they serve are young and destitute. Instead of giving women all the available information and alternatives so that women can decide for themselves, counselors screen the information given so as to “guide” their clients to the “best” (and most profitable) solution, which they, the counselors, have already picked out for them. …

Once counselors decide what is “best” on behalf of their clients, it is an easy matter to influence the clients’ final decisions toward the predetermined outcome. Counseling, in such cases, downplays or even denies the availability of support resources, and instead concentrates on the “tremendous burdens” involved in raising a child.

Such counseling sessions encourage the women to believe that abortion … is in fact “the only practical thing to do.” Explaining how she handles such cases, abortion counselor Betty Orr of Preterm in Cleveland says, “I ask them who is going to take care of the baby while they’re in school.  Where are they going to get money for clothes?”⁹ Faced with such antagonism rather than offers of confirmation and support, frightened and vulnerable young women are easily convinced that abortion is their only option ‑‑ even when it is contrary to their real desires.

When counseling teenage girls, many family planning and abortion counselors are so confident that they are the ones with the “best” solutions, that they envision themselves as being “better” parents than the girl’s own natural parents.  Seeing themselves as being “substitute parents,” they jealously guard their “right” to decide what is “best” for their troubled girls. Wanting no interference from the “outside”, many clinics will go to great lengths to “protect” a young girl from family members who might encourage birth rather than abortion,¹⁰ [even if it means covering up sexual abuse].

Has Anything Changed Today?

Unfortunately, as many former abortion facility workers can testify, failing to help women who don’t really want to abort, withholding information, lying about fetal development and deciding “what’s best” for women hasn’t changed today.

Indeed, a survey of American and Russian women who had abortions, published in the Medical Science Monitor, found that:

• 64 percent of American respondents reported they were pressured by others to abort;
• More than 50 percent said they were uncertain or needed more time to make a decision;
• 79 percent said they were not given any information about abortion alternatives;
• 84 percent said they did not receive adequate counseling before abortion; and
• 67 percent said they received no counseling before abortion.

This research suggests that women and girls are not being given even the minimum of counseling that they need and deserve. A survey of women seeking medical services found that, when it comes to elective medical procedures, 95 percent of respondents wanted to be informed of all the risks of the procedure and 69 percent wanted to be informed of all possible alternative treatments, not just those preferred by their doctor.

Further, when asked about elective gynecological or obstetric procedures such as abortion or sterilization, the results indicated that, on average, women wanted to be given more information than they did with other elective procedures.⁸

One way to protect the rights of women is through legislation that would hold abortion facilities accountable for failing to screen women for coercion and risk factors that could increase their chances of psychological problems after abortion. Laws based on the Elliot Institute’s model screening bill have been passed in South Dakota and Nebraska. This would help ensure that women and girls are given accurate information and access to viable resources, not false information and high-pressure sales tactics disguised as support.

~~~

A previous version of this article was published in the book Aborted Women, Silent No More by David C. Reardon (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 1987, 2002).

Learn More:
“This Wasn’t Really Counseling At All:” Raising Questions About “Choice” and Pre-Abortion Counseling
Disclosure and Coercion: Concealing Relevant Information Is “An Act of Coercion”

Resources to Download and Share:
Forced Abortion in America Special Report
Other Resources on Coerced Abortion
Help and Healing Guide: Pregnancy and Post-Abortion Help

Citations

1. Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick, “The Abortion Profiteers,” Chicago Sun‑Times Special Reprint, December 3, 1978 (original publication November 12, 1978) 2‑3 and 33.

2. Ibid., 33.

3. Paul Marx, The Death Peddlers: War on the Unborn (Collegeville, MN, St. John’s University Press, 1971) 19.

4. Ibid., 21.

5. Ibid., 18‑19.

6. Zekman and Warrick, “The Abortion Profiteers,” 33.

7. Milton Rockmore, “Are You Sorry You Had An Abortion?”, Good Housekeeping, July 1977, Volume 185, 120.

8. Ibid.

9. Linda Bird Francke, Ambivalence of Abortion (New York: Random House, 1978) 179.

10. Donald DeMarco, “The Family at Bay,” The Human Life Review, Volume VIII, No. 4, Fall 1982 44‑54; Thomas and Catherine Yassu, “The Abortionists Betray a Family,” brochure printed by Sun Life, Thaxton, Virginia; and “Court OKs Abortion for Suicidal Minor,” Illinois Right to Life Committee News, Sept/Dec 1986, 1.

“Planned Parenthood’s mission is to pressure as many women into having an abortion as it can,” a former abortion facility worker has revealed. From Catherine Anthony Adair’s op-ed piece in The Washington Examiner:

In 1997, I began working at a Boston Planned Parenthood clinic as a young, idealistic college student who strongly believed in what I had been told about the organization, that I would be helping other young women access safe and affordable health care.

My time there was not spent providing prenatal care to pregnant women, providing counseling or basic health care services or educating women about reproductive health.

Instead, I spent my days urging women to terminate their pregnancies. My superiors constantly reminded me of our abortion-centered business model: abortions first, everything else came second.

I began to recognize their emphasis on performing abortions each time a woman would express concern or have second thoughts about having an abortion. When I notified management, though, they told me not to worry and encourage her decision to move ahead with the procedure. …

Planned Parenthood’s mission is to pressure as many women into having an abortion as it can.

The misinformation, lack of counseling and coercion extended to facility workers purposely obscuring information on fetal development, Anthony Adair wrote.

In fact, clinic workers would purposefully avoid providing information on fetal development, what the child looked like, the child’s anatomical development and the pain he or she could feel. I was continuously reminded that when referring to the baby, the appropriate terminology was “clump of cells” or “contents of the uterus.”

Then women would know what was really growing inside them: a little person with a beating heart, functioning nervous system, tiny hands and feet. The child is entirely disregarded. There is no counseling, no care, no waiting and no discussion. Once a pregnancy is confirmed, it is off to termination.

Planned Parenthood takes specific advantage of women who are too young or misinformed to know better than to trust them with their well-being. Those who know the truth have a duty to speak out.

Other Former Workers Speak About Coercion, Lack of Help

Other former abortion facility employees have echoed Anthony Adair’s observations about the industry. Jewels Green, who underwent a coerced abortion at 17 and later became a counselor at Planned Parenthood, related that the “counselors” weren’t trained to help women thoroughly explore other options, even when the woman was truly ambivalent about abortion or felt she had no other choice:

Sure, we had a little notebook with the names and numbers of two local adoption agencies, but we were never trained or taught how the adoption process works so we could explain it to women. We had the phone number of the local WIC office, public assistance, etc., but again, knew nothing about the process should anyone ever ask for details. If a pregnant woman wanted to learn more about these other choices, the best the ‘options counselor’ could offer was a post-it note with a phone number hastily scribbled on it.

Others have described more blatant pressure and coercion. In Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion, Melinda Tankard Reist quotes Laurel Guymer, a former abortion clinic nurse in Australia who left her job after seeing women pressured to abort:

Women who were poor, unemployed, too young, too old, working in the sex industry, nor married, had no steady partner, or suffered any mental instability were reassured by the clinic staff and and society that it was best they have an abortion. It is clear that society fears a certain type of woman having a baby and I found that many of the doctors and nurses I met in the abortion clinic were not any different despite their proposed commitment to feminist principles. (p. 31)

Selling Abortions

Carol Everett, who once directed an abortion clinic in Texas, described abortion counselors as being trained to sell abortions:

I’m sure you’ve seen those numbers advertised that say “Problem Pregnancy,” “Abortion Information,” or “Pregnant?”. When a young girl finds out she is pregnant, she may not want an abortion, she may just want information.

But when she calls that number that’s paid for by abortion money, what kind of information do you think she is going to get? Remember, they sell abortions. They don’t sell keeping the baby. They don’t sell giving the baby up. They don’t sell delivering the baby in any form. They only sell abortions.

The counselor that the girl speaks to on the telephone is paid to be her friend. She is supposed to seduce her into a friendship of sorts to sell her the abortion. …

When the girl goes in for the abortion she pays up front, then goes into a room for counseling. They give her a 6 to 12 page form. This form is written by an abortion attorney to confuse the girl to death. It works and she doesn’t ask any questions. …

I cannot tell you one thing that happens in an abortion clinic that is not a lie.

Laurel Guymer, the former abortion clinic nurse quoted above, was reminded by co-workers that “this is a business” when she tried to help women who didn’t want to abort:

What if they said “no” when entering the operating room? In this instance I felt compelled to reassure them that they didn’t have to go through with it with it and walked them back to the change room. This was not welcomed by my colleagues at the clinic. I was reminded that this is a business and that any slowing in the production line costs money. … Their patronizing remarks that some women will never be 100 percent sure and that I should encourage them to go on and get the abortion over quickly, were not comforting. I could no longer participate. (Giving Sorrow Words, p. 170-171)

As Abby Johnson, who wrote the book Unplanned about her experiences as a Planned Parenthood clinic director and her exit from the abortion industry, writes:

So many women today think of Planned Parenthood as a safe place to turn to … [but it is] a place where they will NOT hear all of their options.  A place where women will be coerced into thinking abortion is the best and only option for them.

Research Finds Coercion

Research suggests that that observations about women being coerced into abortions are accurate. A survey of American and Russian women who had abortions, published in the Medical Science Monitor, found that:

• 64 percent of American respondents reported they were pressured by others to abort;
• More than 50 percent said they were uncertain or needed more time to make a decision;
• 79 percent said they were not given any information about abortion alternatives;
• 84 percent said they did not receive adequate counseling before abortion; and
• 67 percent said they received no counseling before abortion.

As Green points out, the solution is to provide real support to pregnant girls and women:

“We need to do better. We need to provide real resources to pregnant mothers facing an unplanned pregnancy. The women and babies of our country deserve better.”

You can find a list of resources and support for pregnant women and for women, men and families hurting after abortion in our Help & Healing Guide. The Center Against Forced Abortion also provides legal resources to women and girls being coerced or forced to abort.

~~~

Update: Former Planned Parenthood manager Sue Thayer writes in the Washington Times about “the big lie” that the organization is about protecting women’s health, and how she lost her job after expressing concern about putting profits before safety:

Planned Parenthood is not about helping women access health care. Instead, it is about making money. And abortion is its moneymaker. Telemed abortion is its mega moneymaker.

Read more from Giving Sorrow Words:
“This Wasn’t Really Counseling At All:” Raising Questions About “Choice” and Pre-Abortion Counseling
Disclosure and Coercion: Concealing Relevant Information Is “An Act of Coercion”

Resources to Download and Share:
Forced Abortion in America Special Report
Other Resources on Coerced Abortion
Help and Healing Guide: Pregnancy and Post-Abortion Help

Sadly, this is not what they usually get. A survey of women who had abortions found that 79 percent of American respondents said that they were not given information on alternatives to abortion, 84 percent said they did not receive adequate counseling and 67 percent said they received no counseling before abortion.

As women’s rights advocate Melinda Tankard Reist pointed out in Giving Sorrow Words,

Concealing information relevant to a woman’s decision-making and future health should be recognized as an act of coercion. Deceptive information presented as fact; for example, that post-abortion trauma is a “myth,” also acts coercively on a client. If a woman chooses abortion without having been apprised of the facts about potential harm and suffering, she has not chosen freely: the decision-making process has been rendered defective. (p. 167)

The United Nations has stated that, “Coerced abortion is explicitly recognized as a violation of basic rights and principles.” The women below are just some of the many whose basic rights were violated by coercion.

I Said That I Wanted to Keep the Baby
I called [an abortion facility], and they told me what to do to prepare myself. I didn’t even know what abortion really was. So I went up there the next day — it all happened really fast — and the woman at the reception desk asked me the reason for terminating the baby. I said that “I would like to keep it, but I can’t.” She said, “Well then, you don’t want it, do you?” I said, “No, I want it, but I can’t keep it.” I had no support from anyone at that time. She wrote down anyway that I didn’t want the fetus. That hurt me really bad at the time, because I did want my baby. –Alice¹

The Counselor Had No Right to Put Me Down Like That
During the pre-abortion group counseling, each girl was asked to tell the others whose choice it was to have the abortion. All the girls had said it was their choice, but I said that I wanted to have my baby but my boyfriend wanted me to have the abortion. … The counselor seemed quite upset with me and plainly told me that I was being “romantic,” while my boyfriend was being “realistic.” How could wanting to give birth to my baby be romantic? I knew it wouldn’t be peaces and roses, but the counselor had no right to put me down like that, either. It seems to me that these people are so involved in fighting for abortions that they forget to look at young girls’ and their babies’ needs. — Jeri¹

They Never Told Me I Would Be Eligible for Help
The counselor [at Planned Parenthood] painted a bleak picture of parenting alone, and never told me that I would be eligible for WIC, food stamps, welfare and medical aid should I carry my baby to term. Instead, the counselor told me that I had to explore my career goals before having a baby. –Karen¹

The Counselor Said I Shouldn’t Tell My Parents
[The counselor seemed so] sympathetic and understanding. He felt there was no need to worry my family [I was 14]. He also explained about having a child, how tough it would be on me and that I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted to do. He said the child would suffer because I was much too young to be a parent. He pointed out that the best thing for me to do was to abort the fetus as this stage so no one would be hurt. No mention was made of talking to my parents about this or or carrying my baby to term. He indicated that adoption would be difficult and not an option for me. The cost (thanks to Planned Parenthood) was only $35, as opposed to thousands of dollars for raising a child. He said he would even  pay the $35 if I couldn’t. –Gaylene¹

I Was Spoken To Like I Was A Piece of Dirt
I was sent to the Family Planning Center for Help; well, they helped me all right, so much so they had me booked in for an abortion the next day. Their reasons were I could not take care of myself, let alone a baby. I had no permanent home, and to even think of keeping “it” was totally selfish on my part. They gave me no options and no information; my rights as a human being were not valid because of who I was, just another stupid teenager who got pregnant. I wanted so much to talk to someone, maybe someone would say, “Don’t do it; I will help you through,” or maybe, “You can keep your baby; there is help available and there are people who care,” but instead I was herded into a room with about ten other girls like cattle and spoken to like I was a piece of dirt and treated as such. –Sue²

I Certainly Did Not Make An Informed Decision
I had to stumble through a system that was not supportive of my emotional needs, and I certainly did not make an informed decision. At no stage did they discuss the alternatives, or the procedure, or the possible effects or how I felt for that matter. … This wasn’t really counseling at all, and my guess was it was to satisfy some legal requirement. … No professional created an opportunity for me discuss anything, really … –Sam²

There Was No Counseling Offered
I was nine weeks pregnant. There was no counseling offered, just a leaflet telling me that I might feel a little upset, but that it was hormonal and would pass … –Jasmine²

I Would Not Have Gone Ahead With It
I was not prepared for what I would feel. There was no information on the emotional effect of abortion. There was some clinical explanation and the whole process was presented as not as complex as it should have been. Given what I know now, I would not have gone ahead with it … –Winnie²

I Had More Counseling Before I Had Breast Implants Than I Did Before Abortion
I had more “counseling” when I went to have breast implants than when I went to have an abortion. (At least the plastic surgeon had me fill out a personality and family history questionnaire to determine “suitability” for the procedure.) … There were no warnings of possible risks, i.e. perforated uterus, hemorrhaging, sterility, breast cancer, depression. I was told that an abortion was safer than carrying a child full term. I was totally unprepared for the pain, both physical and emotional, that I would endure.–Anonymous³

The Doctor Lied to Me About Fetal Development
The doctor told me abortion was safe, easy, and painless. … I asked whether the baby would feel any pain. He said that at this stage (8 weeks) it wasn’t a baby, but a cluster of cells, unable to feel anything. … It was when I went through nurse’s training that the reality of what I had done became clear to me. While studying fetal development, I realized that I had been lied to. At eight weeks, those “clusters of cells” had a remarkable resemblance to a baby. They had hands and feet, a heartbeat and brain waves. … –Debbie³

She Told Me Adoption Was Cruel
[My boyfriend and I were told we couldn't have a baby because] you’re too young, you have no money, you aren’t married. They said we couldn’t tell our parents because it would disappoint them. I said I would consider placing the baby for adoption. The counselor’s response was, “Oh, my God, you could never do that. That’s the cruelest thing you could ever do to a baby.” I started crying and said, “I’m adopted.” Her response was, “I don’t care; that’s still the cruelest thing to do to a child.” –Darlene⁴

The Counselor Said She Would Give Me Five Minutes to Think About It
I collapsed in sheer exhaustion. I told [the counselor] that I had been outside for hours. I cried curled over with my head in my hands on my knees. I said that “I feel like I’m depriving my child of life.” …  Our conversation was cut short by the doctor. The pressure was on. I stopped crying in disbelief when the counselor told me that if I was going to abort then I would have to do it right now. The counselor said, “Look, I’ll give you five minutes to think about it and when I come back, I want your answer.” I couldn’t believe it. Now I was going into a state of panic and shock. I could now barely speak … The counselor glared at me, sighed a deep sigh and impatiently said, “Look, they’re all waiting for you, you know …” They seemed angry at me. They were sick of me and in the end I obeyed their commands. –Genevieve²

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Find Help: If you or someone you know is pregnant or struggling after abortion, help is available. Find information and resources in our Help and Healing Guide.

Citations

1. From Aborted Women, Silent No More, by David C. Reardon (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 1987, 2002).

2. From Giving Sorrow Words, Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion by Melinda Tankard Reist (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books 2007).

3. From testimonies sent to the Elliot Institute.

4. From “Woman Silenced at New Jersey Senate Hearing Shares Her Story,” posted here.

Share this video with others so that girls and women in this situation know that there is help available.

Help is available through the Center Against Forced Abortions, or by calling 1-866-4-OUT-CRY (1-866-468-8279).

h/t Lumina blog

Martha Shuping, M.D.

Dr. Shuping presented this article at a United Nations workshop in March 2011, and at the June 2011 meeting of the Association for Interdisciplinary Research on Values and Social Change.

In 1973, as a 19-year-old undergraduate student, I worked as a volunteer at a clinic that helped women to access abortion services. I received one evening of training in which I was taught that abortion was a safe, simple procedure, and there were no side effects.

I was incorrectly taught that the developing baby was nothing more than a clump of cells. After that, I was considered to be a qualified pregnancy counselor, and I helped some women to obtain abortions.

Thirty-eight years later, many abortion counselors are still giving women that same misinformation. But today I know that many women have adverse psychological reactions following abortion.

I have known more than one thousand post-abortive women who have been unhappy about their abortions. Much of my professional life has been spent in helping women to deal with the emotional impact of abortion.

The published literature is clear that abortion puts women at increased risk for mental  health problems. For one example, a 2008 study using data from the National Comorbidity Survey (a large nationally representative data set) showed that abortion was a risk factor for eight different psychiatric conditions, “above and beyond the effects of the 22 control  variables.”1,2 A bibliography prepared in 2008 by Dr. Priscilla Coleman identified more than 50 strong studies in peer reviewed journals that “provide clear evidence of causation,”3 while a newer bibliography lists more than 100 such studies published from 1981-2010.4

In September of 2011, a meta-analysis was published, the “largest quantitative estimate of mental health risks associated with abortion available in the world literature.” This showed that “women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 percent increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10 percent of the incidence of mental health problems was shown to be attributable to abortion.”5

Rather than addressing the question of whether or not some women have mental health  problems after abortion, which is already clearly established, we will examine here some of the reasons that women are having mental health problems after abortion.

The stories of real women (not their real names) may help to make clear why some women are having problems, contrary to what everyone expected many years ago.

Read the rest of the article here (pdf download)

[Dr. Sunita Puri],  who practices in the Bay Area, wanted to find out why so many immigrant Indian women in the United States were so eager to find out the sex of their unborn children, and why so many of them choose abortion when they found out they were carrying a girl.

What she discovered over the course of 65 interviews conducted over several years profoundly shocked her. Fully 89 percent of the women carrying girls opted for an abortion, and nearly half had previously aborted girls.

Puri’s report, published in Social Science and Medicine this last April, makes for grim reading. Women told Puri of their guilt over their sex-selection abortions, how they felt that they were unable to “save” their daughters. Even the women who turned out to be carrying boys this time around could not shake their remorse over having earlier aborted daughters in this deadly game of reproductive roulette.

They also made clear that they were not free actors when it came to reproductive “choice.” Many, when it was learned that they were carrying girls, became the victims of family violence. Some — in an effort to make them miscarry — had been slapped and shoved around by angry husbands and in-laws, or even kicked in the stomach. Others were denied food, water, and rest in order to coerce them into aborting their unwanted girl babies.

Mosher also sited research showing that sex-selection abortion “is widely practiced among certain Asian-American communities:”

Jason Abrevaya of the University of Texas analyzed U.S. birth data and found unusually high boy-birth percentages after 1980 among later children (most notably third and fourth children) born to Chinese and Asian-Indian mothers. Moreover, using maternally linked data from California, he found that Asian-Indian mothers are significantly more likely both to have a terminated pregnancy and to give birth to a son when they have previously only given birth to girls.

Columbia University economists Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund also found clear evidence of sex-selective abortions in what they called “son-biased sex ratios,” that is, a higher ratio of boys to girls than would occur in nature. Looking at the sex ratio at birth among U.S.-born children of Chinese, Korean, and Asian-Indian parents, they found that first-borns showed normal sex ratios at birth. But if the first child was a girl, the sex ratio jumped to 117, and if the first two children were girls, then the sex ratio jumped to 151. That is to say, for every 151 boys, there were only 100 hundred surviving girls. The rest had been eliminated.

This is not just misogyny; it is misogyny that kills.

As Mosher explains, legislation has been introduced in Congress to ban sex- and race-selection abortion in the United States. The Elliot Institute has also developed model legislation that would hold abortion clinics liable for failing to screen for coerced and unwanted abortions in any situation, and to screen women for factors that put them at risk for psychological problems after abortion. Laws based on this legislation have been passed in Nebraska and South Dakota.

Update: LifeSiteNews has a post on a woman who in India who has filed a filed a legal complaint against her husband and in-laws for attempting to coerce her into aborting her twin daughters. Mitu Khurana, who is the first women in Delhi to file such charges, also has a blog detailing her personal story and her fight against the exploitation, abuse and deaths of women and girls in India. Watch a video interview with her on ABC News here.

Find help:
Help and Healing Guide– downloadable guide with resources  and information to help those who are pregnant or struggling after abortion
Center Against Forced Abortions — legal help for women and girls who are being pressured or coerced to abort

Note: This story is reprinted from the book Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting From Sexual Assault.

When I was about 13, my stepfather started molesting me. It continued until I came forward with it when I was 16. At age 15, I became pregnant. No one knew but my stepfather and a lady that told him where to take me.

My stepfather told me the only way was to have an abortion. He made me set up an appointment; he dropped me off and picked me up.

I could not tell anyone what had happened. I was messed up after this. I couldn’t take much more, so I finally told what was happening to me. On top of all my other problems, the biggest emotional hurt was the killing of that child. I have often wondered what my child would be like today, if I hadn’t had an abortion. I am pretty much over the effects of the molestation, but I still have to face a lot of effects from the abortion.  …

I am happily married now and have been for three years. My husband and I have been blessed with a little boy who is one now. I am thankful that the Lord protected me, so I could have the blessing of giving birth.

Thank you for showing the public the truth of the abortion issue. I have always said that I wish pro-choicers could see it through my eyes.

Learn More:
Women Who Became Pregnant Through Sexual Assault Tell Legislators, “Ask Us!”
Special Report on Sexual Assault Pregnancy and Abortion
“Victims and Victors” Book