unsafe
our daughters, sisters and mothers are dying, too
“... get in touch with my dad, tell him ... I love him.”
They gave Susanne a barbiturate that sent her into cardiac arrest.
Without oxygen, she lapsed into a coma. Four months later, she awoke at a nursing home, unable to talk and paralyzed from the neck down. Three years later, she died of pneumonia. She tapped out her last words on a plastic synthesizer:
“... get in touch with my dad, tell him ... I love him.”
State law did not permit Maryland officials to prosecute the uncertified abortionist or the unregulated clinic, which grossed an estimated $10 million in 5 years.
When asked what she would tell a girl about to have an abortion, Susanne shook her head, “no,” and tapped out:
“They would be taking a chance.”
a haunting picture of coercion and physical and emotional aftereffects
The most common immediate and short-term complications include excessive bleeding, chronic and acute infections, intense pain, shock, coma, incomplete removal of the baby or placenta (which can cause life-threatening infections and sterility), pelvic inflammatory disease, punctured uteruses and even death.
infertility, complications with future pregnancies
Abortion can also result in damage to reproductive organs that can make it difficult to conceive or carry a child to term in the future. This damage can be long-term and sometimes permanent. Women who have abortions also experience more ectopic (tubal) pregnancies, infertility, hysterectomies, stillbirths, miscarriages, and premature births (the leading cause of birth defects) than women who have not had abortions.
cancer
Abortion has also been linked to increased risks of developing breast, cervical and uterine cancer.4
learn more about physical complications
psychological complications |
Psychological complications are even more common than physical complications.
They include ...
§ clinical depression
§ substance abuse
§ eating disorders
§ broken relationships
§ post-traumatic stress
§ suicide
learn more about psychological complications
Recent studies have also shown that compared to women who carry to term, women who abort have an elevated risk of death (from suicide, accidents, homicide and natural causes) over the next eight years.5
Physical Complications and Psychological Complications
Who is most at risk?
"If someone could have talked with her,
she might be alive today."
Suicide rates are 6-7 times higher among women who abort vs. giving birth.3
" ... She was crying as she entered the clinic, she cried throughout the procedure, and was sobbing as she left. No one at the clinic asked her any questions ... Had they inquired about her health history they may have seen her as the high-risk patient that she was ... Her three children are growing up without their mom because no one wanted to ask questions." – Julie
"Our mom made my sister have an abortion. At age 14 my sister became a completely different person. She got into very hard drugs and would use them every day. She had attempted suicide at least 3 times that I know of and has horrible huge scars on her arms from one of the attempts."– Anonymous
"The thought of abortion in our family is a terrible thing. Our granddaughter, age 21, had an abortion. Three months later her father found her hanging from the cross beams in the basement. We did not know ... about the abortion until a week before her death when she tried suicide by cutting her wrist. ... she told her mother what she had done. They took her to the hospital ... kept her five days, released her ... three days later she killed herself. She said her boyfriend made her do it [the abortion] ... She dearly loved children ... She was always taking care of some friend's children. ... If someone could have talked with her, she might be alive today."– Anonymous grandmother
link to other stories
the abortion industry's harm to women |
perspectives from the front line
“ … legal abortion is the most destructive manifestation of discrimination against women today." – Nancyjo Mann, founder of Women Exploited by Abortion
“Teens are suffering adult-sized pain with a child's coping skills. The [abortion industry] tells them to ‘get over it’… My dream is to get this pain out in the open. I want to help give women the freedom to acknowledge that abortion hurts. –Terri, woman who had abortion as teenager
“Every woman … has a trauma at destroying a pregnancy. … It is totally beside the point whether or not you think a life is there. You cannot deny that something is being created … a psychological price is paid. … Something happens on the deeper levels of a woman’s consciousness when she destroys a pregnancy. I know that as a psychiatrist." –Dr. Julius Fogel, psychiatrist and obstetrician who has personally performed over 20,000 abortions
“I know that there are short- and long-term adverse effects of abortion psychologically on women … there is no doubt in my mind that problems exist.” –former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in an exclusive interview with The Rutherford Institute
As the host of eight documentaries on the subject of abortion, I have met many other women who carry these deep psychological scars. In fact, I have met so many that I now believe that there are only two kinds of women who have had abortions: those who have hit the emotional wall and those who will. –Jane Chastain, columnist and radio host
“I wish someone had said ‘There will be losses having a baby, but don’t underestimate the loss of having an abortion. –Lee, in Giving Sorrow Words
stories from women who've been |
broken hearts and broken lives
"I was totally unprepared for the pain."
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.) ...
... "Planned Parenthood also didn't prepare me 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."
– Anonymous
Carol's story: gripping pain, 'shut up' ... death from cervical cancer
"...I felt this gripping pain -- it hurt so bad that I cried out. The doctor told me "shut up" because there were 'other girls' and the "walls were thin." –Carol St. Amour, in Aborted Women, Silent No More (Carol later died of cervical cancer)
Janet’s Story: “I cannot think why the gun did not fire.”“With quiet deliberation, I took my handgun from under my pillow … I chambered a round, walked into my living room, sat in a chair, put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger. To this day, I cannot think why the gun did not fire … I find it amazing in retrospect, how we can function so well in front of others, while suffering like that.” –Janet, in Forbidden Grief
link to other stories
published post-abortion research |
a growing body of evidence that abortion is unsafe
Risk of DeathCompared to women who give birth, women who abort have an elevated risk of death from all causes, which persists for at least eight years. Higher risk of death from suicide and accidents were most prominent.5Southern Medical Journal, 2002
Substance Abuse
Women who abort are five times more likely to subsequently abuse drugs or alcohol than women who deliver.6American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2000
Clinical Depression
Compared to women who carry their first unintended pregnancies to term, women who abort their first pregnancies are at significantly higher risk of clinical depression as measured an average of eight years after their first pregnancies.7 British Medical Journal, 2002
Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder65 percent of American women studied experienced multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which they attributed to their abortions.2
Medical Science Monitor, 2004
more research
botched abortions and dangerous clinics |
the price women have been forced to pay
Dr. Lenora W. Berning, M.D.
unacknowledged post-abortion injuries and deaths
"A few years ago, a young woman about twenty years old came to the ER because she was feeling very sick. She'd become increasingly ill ever since the abortion she'd had about a week earlier. I had her admitted to the hospital from the ER with a severe pneumonia. The following days revealed that the pneumonia was just a part of the problem—she had overwhelming sepsis, which is infection throughout her entire body which had, at its source, the abortion.
"This woman died. The admitting physician never reported the incident as abortion-related, nor did she inform the abortion provider of the results of his 'care.' He was still practicing, without the slightest idea that his intervention had led to his patient's death..
"The medical diagnosis reads 'severe pain'—the real cause is abortion. The record reads 'vaginal bleeding”—the real cause is abortion. The operative note says 'ruptured ectopic pregnancy and internal hemorrhage'—the real cause is abortion. The autopsy states 'cause of death—overwhelming sepsis'—the real cause is abortion." - Dr. Lenora Berning, writing in "Abortionists Are Not Held Accountable for Mistakes"
"After the inspectors left, it was back to business as usual. The very next abortion patient ended up in the emergency room of a local hospital." - Mark Crutcher in Lime 5, Exploited by Choice
citations
1. Gissler M., et. al., “Pregnancy Associated Deaths in Finland 1987-1994 -- definition problems and benefits of record linkage,” Acta Obsetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica 76:651-657, 1997
2. VM Rue et. al., “Induced abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian women,” Medical Science Monitor 10(10): SR5-16, 2004.
3. Gissler, Hemminki & Lonnqvist, "Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-94: register linkage study," British Journal of Medicine 313:1431-4, 1996, and M. Gissler, “Injury deaths, suicides and homicides associated with pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000,” European J. Public Health 15(5):459-63, 2005. See also DC Reardon et. al., “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women,” Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41, Aug. 2002.
4. See the article, “The Aftereffects of Abortion” at http://www.afterabortion.org/complic.html.
5. DC Reardon et. al., “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women,” Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41, Aug. 2002.
6. DC Reardon, PG Ney, “Abortion and Subsequent Substance Abuse,” American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse 26(1):61-75, 2000.
7. DC Reardon, JR Cougle, “Depression and Unintended Pregnancy in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth: A Cohort Study,” British Medical Journal 324:151-2, 2002.
8. For citations for this list, see the Research Booklet.
