Ninety-seven percent of aborting women, in one
Montreal study, reported pain,with 61% reporting moderate to severe
pain. U.S. researchers admit to being "surprised," at finding most
women, in a study of their own, reporting "moderate or more discomfort"
during their abortions and said they had not expected so many to report
"severe pain." Adolescents in the Montreal study were nearly twice as
likely to report severe pain as older women. In a ranking, women put
their abortion pain ahead of sprains, fractures, and arthritis, and
about equal to the residual pain from an amputation. Women having drug
induced abortions reported higher pain levels than those having surgical
abortions. Despite efforts by the industry to minimize abortion pain,
it is an important signal that patients and doctors should heed. Pain
may be a side effect of surgery or the chemical abortion process, but
can also be an indicator of infection, cervical damage, uterine rupture,
or an unresolved ectopic pregnancy.
Common Abortion Side Effects, Complications and Injuries
From Chemical Abortion
- Severe Pain, Cramping, Nausea, Diarrhea
- Hemorrhage, Infection
- Rupture of Undiagnosed Ectopic
From Surgical Abortion
- Infection, Sepsis, Endometritis
- Cervical Lacerations
- Uterine, Bladder, or Bowel Perforations
- Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
- Incomplete Abortion, Retained Tissue
Later Infant Disability
Preterm birth is associated with lower birthweight and higher rates
of cerebral palsy, often leading to physical and mental disability.
Future Miscarriages
Decreased cervical resistance due to forced dilation may result in
early cervical failure and the spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) of
future pregnancies.
Future Prematurity
Premature birth is the leading cause of infant morbidity and
mortality, and at least 10 international studies show previous abortions
significantly increases that risk.
Abortion Related Causes of Death
- Anesthesia Infection
- Hemorrhage Ruptured Ectopic Pregnancy Embolism
Physical Damage
Surgical abortion may harm a woman’s reproductive system, damaging
her uterus or cervix, leading to future reproductive problems. Chemical
abortions (using RU486, etc.) are bloody, painful, and dangerous, and
the long term effects on the body are unknown.
Future Infertility
Women having abortions face more than a doubled risk of future sterility.
Later Ectopic Pregnancy
- A study appearing in the American Journal of Public Health in
1998 found aborting women facing a 50% increased risk of having a
subsequent ectopic or tubal pregnancy. The risk was nearly twice as high
- (90%) for women having two or more previous abortions.
The Abortion Breast Cancer Link:
Pregnancy & Normal Breast Development
In pregnancy, as estrogen levels elevate, immature milk glands, or
lobules, begin to grow and differentiate, reaching maturity around 32
weeks. By birth, the lobules are fully formed and ready for milk
production. A full term pregnancy is known to lower a woman’s long term
risk of breast cancer.
Abortion Interrupts Breast Development
Abortions, which typically occur in the first or early second
trimester, interrupt the process of breast development while estrogen
is still surging, urging growth, but before full differentiation has
taken place.Thus, the risk-lowering effect of full term pregnancy is
lost. Even worse, lobules stuck in this growth stage are susceptible to
replication defects, which may eventually manifest themselves as
cancers.
Scientific Evidence of Abortion’s Impact
Thirteen out of 17 studies in the U.S. reported more breast cancer
among women who chose abortion. A 1996 meta-analysis of all published
reports on the incidence of induced abortion and breast cancer appearing
in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found, on average, a
30% increased risk.
Adverse Public Health Consequences of Abortion
Two government funded studies from Finland that studied deaths among
all women of childbearing age within one year after pregnancy found
higher death rates among women who aborted, as well as higher rates of
death from suicide, accidents and homicide. The Finland Studies also
found a lower death rate among women who gave birth than among women who
had not been pregnant suggesting that birth had a protective effect.
A study using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
found that women whose first pregnancy ended in abortion had a higher
risk of clinical depression than women whose first pregnancy ended in
birth.
A study using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
found that children of women with a history of abortion were more likely
to receive a lower level of emotional support in the home between ages
1-4 and were more likely to have behavior problems between ages 5-9 than
children of women with no history of abortion.