THE HEALTH RISKS OF ABORTION
PANEL PRESENTATION FOR FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL

 

BUILDING A CULTURE OF LIFE

 

 

Offered by Mary Cunningham Agee
President & Founder
The Nurturing Network
April 2002

“If only I had known.” This is the haunting lament that I hear almost daily on the toll free crisis hotline of the Nurturing Network. Since founding this charitable organization almost twenty years ago, I have been invited by literally thousands of frightened, wounded women to understand the painful circumstances of their troubled lives.  Let me assure you that they do not call to express satisfaction in their “reproductive freedom” to terminate the life of their unborn child. They call desperately seeking immediate, practical assistance in order to avoid an abortion procedure which almost half of our clients have already experienced in a prior pregnancy.

This is why the Nurturing Network was founded: to provide all of the practical support a mother in crisis needs in order to choose life for her unborn child. Our 32,000 member resources are located in all 50 states and in 27 foreign countries. We offer individually tailored solutions that include medical, emotional, financial, educational, employment and residential assistance to any woman whose own support network has let her down. I am happy to share that we have had the indescribable joy of assisting almost 15,000 mothers and children. Their personal stories and courageous testimonies are what have contributed to the insights that I am sharing with you today.

I must admit, therefore, that my perspective on the topic of abortion is about as detached or philosophical as that of a medic on the front line of an active combat zone.

I have come to know this topic up close and in living color through the tragic life stories of women who believed the marketing rhetoric about this allegedly sate and easy procedure. And yet, almost all of them would tell you that if they could erase just one decision in their lives, it would be the irreversible one that ended the life of their unborn child. Their grief is difficult to capture here in a few words because it is always tinged with a sense of having been betrayed. These women consistently describe the panic and loneliness that sets in when those whom she has trusted create fatal trade-offs between their role in her life and her child. How can she help but feel tricked and manipulated by boyfriends, parents, friends and employers who conveniently wash their hands of her maternal needs and choose to describe her unborn child as an inconvenience and even a threat. None of these accomplices, of course, will ever live out the permanent consequences of an abortion decision the way she will and so her sense of abandonment and isolation is profound.

While I am tempted to fill our time together with poignant anecdotes from our Client files, I believe that an objective review of a few facts might be just as persuasive. The data that I am about to share has not been gleaned from biased sources, but rather, from medical and social scientists with no ax to grind. Their rather startling research findings only confirm what our common sense and the clients of the Nurturing Network have said for years: Abortion is far from being a safe procedure. It was, after all, this false assumption about the safety of this procedure that led the United States Supreme Court in to strike down every federal, state and local law regulating its practice. The premise of their decision was that the advances of modern medicine had removed the need for any regulation of the procedure since it was now “relatively safe.”

Clearly, the facts no longer support this assumption and, in fact, expose the glaring error at the root of our country’s national policy toward abortion. The following data shows that abortion is actually dangerous to the health of women – both physically and psychologically – and, therefore, should be at least regulated if not outright prohibited.

The data that I am about to share was made readily available in a report generated by the Elliot Institute. While I cannot include all of the findings listed on their web site, I would like to acknowledge them for providing such well-documented statistical information. I will be drawing heavily upon this for the statistical part of my presentation.       

National statistics on abortion show that 10% of women who undergo this procedure suffer from immediate complications. (1) Over one hundred different complications have been associated with induced abortion. “Minor” complications include: infections, bleeding, fevers, chronic abdominal pain, gastro-intestinal disturbances, vomiting, and Rh Sensitization. The nine most common “major” complications are infection, excessive bleeding, embolism, ripping or perforation of the uterus, anesthesia complications, convulsions, hemorrhage, cervical injury and endotoxic shock. (2) Can you imagine what an honest warning label might read like for such a procedure?!

While the immediate complications of abortion are usually treatable, these complications frequently lead to even more serious long-term reproductive damage.. For example, one common outcome of abortion related infections is sterility. Researchers have reported that as many as 5% of aborted women are left inadvertently sterile. (3)The risk of sterility is even greater for women who are infected with a venereal disease at the time of an abortion.(4)

In addition to the risk of sterility, women who acquire post-abortal infections are five to eight times more likely to experience ectopic pregnancies.(5) In fact, between 1970 and 1983, the rate of ectopic pregnancies in the U.S. has risen four-fold! (6) It is worth noting that 12% of all maternal deaths are due to ectopic pregnancy. (7) And other countries who have legalized abortion have also seen the same dramatic rise in ectopic pregnancies. (8)

Cervical damage is another leading cause of long term complications following abortion. According to one hospital study, 12.5% of first trimester abortions required stitching for cervical lacerations. (9) Another study found that lacerations occurred in 22% of aborted women. (10) And women under the age of 17 have been found to face twice the normal risk of suffering cervical damage. (11)

Whether microscopic or macroscopic in nature, the cervical damage which results during abortion frequently results in a permanent weakening of the cervix. This weakening may result in an “incompetent cervix”, a serious medical condition in any pregnancy that often results in miscarriage or premature birth. According to one study, symptoms related to cervical incompetence were found among 75% of women who undergo forced dilation for abortion. (12)

To put this risk in context, cervical damage from previously induced abortions significantly increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and complications of labor during later pregnancies by 300 to 500%! (13) The reproductive risks of abortion are especially acute for women who abort their first pregnancy. A major study of first pregnancy abortions found that almost half, or 48%, of women experienced abortion-related complications in later pregnancies. Women in this group experienced 2.3 miscarriages for every one live birth. (14) And another researcher found that among teenagers who aborted their first pregnancies, 66% subsequently experienced miscarriages or premature birth of their second pregnancy. (15)

When this risk of increased pregnancy loss is projected on the population as a whole, it is estimated that aborted women lose 100,000 “wanted” babies each year due to latent abortion morbidity. (16) In addition, premature births, complications of labor, and abnormal development of the placenta all can result from latent abortion morbidity and each are leading causes of handicaps among newborns. (17) Considering premature deliveries alone, it is estimated that latent abortion morbidity results in 3000 cases of acquired cerebral palsy among newborns each year. (18) And, finally, since these pregnancy problems pose a threat to the health of the mothers too, women who have had abortions face a 58% greater risk of dying during a later pregnancy. (19)

There are similar shocking statistics that expose the serious psychological risks associated with abortion. Since this topic has been assigned to Dean Gladys Sweeney, I will not cover this topic in my remarks. But I cannot conclude my thoughts without at least stating that the emotional scars of this decidedly unsafe procedure are every bit as devastating as the physical ones we have just discussed.

It is my hope that by sharing this data, you will be moved to inform others who are at risk for an abortion procedure. It is a cruel and unconscionable for any of us to remain silent in the face of new scientific evidence that undeniably points to the health risks of this procedure for women. It is time for those in a position of policy-making power to correct the errors of the past and protect the next generation of women from further exploitation and damage.

Thank you.

 

Footnotes: 1. Frank, et al, “Induced Abortion Operations and Their Early Sequelae”, Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners (April 1985), vol 35, no 73, pp 175-180. 2. Reardon, Aborted Women-Silent No More, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987). 3. Wynn and Wynn, “Some Consequences of Induced Abortion to Children Born Subsequently”, British Medical Journal (March 3, 1973), and Foundation for Education and Research in Child Bearing (London, 1972) 4. Wilke, Abortion: Questions and Answers, (Cincinnati, Hayes Publishing Co., 1985). 5. Chun, et al. Effects of Induced Abortion on Subsequent Reproductive Function and Pregnancy Outcome, University of Hawaii (Honolulu, 1981) 6. Atrash, et. Al., “Ectopic Pregnancy in the U.S., 1970-1983” MMRW, Center for Disease Control, vol.35, no. 2ss9.29ss. 7. “Annual Ectopic Totals Rose Steadily in 1970’s But Mortality Fell”, Family Planning Perspectives (1983) vol,15,p.85. 8. Hilgers, “The Medical Hazards of Legally Induced Abortion,” in Hilgers and Horan, eds, Abortion and Social Justice (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1972). 9. Wilke, Handbook on Abortion, (Cincinnati, Hayes Publishing Co., 1979). 10. “Abortion in Hawaii”, Family Planning Perspectives (Winter 1973) 5(1): Table 8. 11. Schulz, et. Al., “Measures to Prevent Cervical Injury During Suction Curettage Abortion”, The Lancet (May 28, 1983),pp 1182-1184. 12. Wren, “Cervical Incompetence—Aetiology and Management”, Medical Journal of Australia (December 29, 1973), vol 60. 13. Harlap and Davies, “Late Sequelae of Induced Abortion: Complications and Outcome of Pregnancy and Labor”, American Journal of Epidemiology (1975). Vol 102, no.3; Hogue, “Impact of Abortion on Subsequent Fecundity”, Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynecology (March 1986), col.13,no.1. 14. Lembrych, “Fertility Problems Following Aborted First Pregnancy”, eds. Hilgers, et al., New Perspectives on Human Abortion (Frederick, MD.: University Publications of America, 1981). 15. Russel, “Sexual Activity and Its Consequences in the Teenager”, Clinics in Ob&Gyn, (Dec 1974). Vol1, no.3, pp 683-698. 16. Reardon, Aborted Women-Silent No More, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987). 17. Hogue, Cates and Tietze, “Impact of Vacuum Aspiration Abortion on Future Childbearing: A Review”, Family Planning Perspectives (May-June 1983), col.15, no.3. 18. Reardon, Aborted Women-Silent No More, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987). 19. Reardon,