Welcome to California Students for Life 

Royal College Warns Abortions Can Lead to Mental Illness 

From TIMESONLINE
By Sarah-Kate Templeton
March 16, 2008

Women may be at risk of mental health breakdowns if they have abortions, a medical royal college has warned. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says women should not be allowed to have an abortion until they are counselled on the possible risk to their mental health.

This overturns the consensus that has stood for decades that the risk to mental health of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy outweighs the risks of living with the possible regrets of having an abortion.

MPs will shortly vote on a proposal to reduce the upper time limit for abortions “for social reasons” from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, a move not backed by the government. A Sunday Times poll today shows 59% of women would support such a reduction, with only 28% backing the status quo. Taken together, just under half (48%) of men and women want a reduction to 20 weeks, while 35% want to retain 24 weeks.

Some MPs also want women to have a “cooling off” period in which they would be made aware of the possible consequences of the abortion, including the impact on their mental health, before they could go ahead.

More than 90% of the 200,000 terminations in Britain every year are believed to be carried out because doctors believe that continuing with the pregnancy would cause greater mental strain.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends updating abortion information leaflets to include details of the risks of depression. “Consent cannot be informed without the provision of adequate and appropriate information,” it says.

Several studies, including research published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in 2006, concluded that abortion in young women might be associated with risks of mental health problems.

The controversy intensified earlier this year when an inquest in Cornwall heard that a talented artist hanged herself because she was overcome with grief after aborting her twins. Emma Beck, 30, left a note saying: “Living is hell for me. I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I want to be with my babies; they need me, no one else does.”

The college’s revised stance was welcomed by Nadine Dorries, a Conservative MP campaigning for a statutory cooling-off period: “For doctors to process a woman’s request for an abortion without providing the support, information and help women need at this time of crisis I regard almost as a form of abuse,” she said.

Dawn Primarolo, the health minister, will this week appeal to MPs to ignore attempts to reduce the time limit on abortion when new laws on fertility treatment and embryo research come before parliament.

Dr Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: “How can a doctor now justify an abortion [on mental health grounds] if psychiatrists are questioning whether there is any clear evidence that continuing with the pregnancy leads to mental health problems.”

Study Finds Women Who Have Abortions Experience Post-Traumatic Stress

From LIFENEWS.COM
by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor
February 13, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study published in the journal BMC Psychiatry finds that women who have abortions typically experience high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder. The findings mirror other research reports showing women are more likely to suffer mental health issues following abortions compared with keeping the baby.

The study appeared in the July 2007 issue of the professional psychological publication but it only coming to light now.

The research involved 155 women from South Africa who had abortions and were evaluated one month and three months afterwards.

Approximately 20 percent of the women had post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms just one month later. The results led the authors to note that "high rates of PTSD characterize women who have undergone voluntary pregnancy termination.

Looking at the women three months after the abortion, the number of women experiencing the PTSD symptoms increased 61 percent.

Dr. David Reardon, the head of the Elliot Institute and a post-abortion research who has been involved in more than a dozen studies documenting the psychological impact of abortion on women, notified LifeNews.com of the new study.

"The abortion industry should not be subjecting women to a procedure that is likely to increase or cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress or other mental health problems," he said.

"Furthermore, the evidence shows that many of these abortions are unwanted and the result of pressure or coercion from others," Reardon added. "The industry should be held liable for putting women at risk and performing unwanted and dangerous abortions."

Reardon said the researchers also examined the effect of levels of pain and post-abortion psychological outcomes.

The study found women who had received a local anesthetic versus those who had received IV sedation had higher levels of pain and were more likely to experience PTSD symptoms in the short-term but there was no long-term difference.

According to Reardon that means the abortion itself is more likely to cause the PTSD issues rather than the kind of pain management given during the abortion process.

This isn't the first study to show a link between abortion and post-traumatic stress disorders.

In a 2004 study published in the Medical Science Monitor, 65 percent of American women reported PTSD symptoms after an abortion and just over 14 percent reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of PTSD.