ABORTION: WHAT NEXT?

Please think very carefully before you have that abortion.
There is plenty of help and love available in the world.

"There has been almost a conspiracy of silence in declaring the risks of induced abortion. Unfortunately, because of emotional reactions to legal abortion, well documented evidence from countries with a vast experience of it, receive little attention in either the lay or medical press. This is medically indefensible when patients suffer as a result.

"It is significant that some of the more serious complications occur with the most senior and experienced operators. These complications are seldom mentioned by those who claim that abortion is safe ... "

(J.A. Staliworthy, 'Legal Abortion: A Critical Assessment of its risks'
British Medical Journal The Lancet.)

Physical

Well documented complications include the following:

(a) Infection leading to sealing of the Fallopian tubes, or
(b) Pelvic Inflammatory disease (both can cause sterility).
5.2% for 1st Trimester abortions: (to 3 months)
18.5% 2nd Trimester abortions. (3 to 6 months).
(British Journal of Venereal Disease);(Kodasek Artificial termination of Pregnancy Czechoslovakia);(STD Bulletin John Hopkins University Medical Centre. USA); (International Journal of GYN/OBS); (American Journal OBS/GYN)
27% rate Complication from infection (British Lancet)

Some causes of death following induced abortion are:
(a) Blood clots to lungs (American Journal of Medicine OBS/GYN)
(American Journal of Paediatrics)
(b) Amniotic Clots resulting from induced abortion - treatment ineffective. (American Journal GYN/OBS)

Other reported blood related problems stem from

(a) Saline abortions, Dilate and Evacuate abortions and Prostaglandin abortions (Journal of American Medical Associations; Family Practice News).
(b) Mid-Trimester abortions (White - Journal of Anaesthesiology)
(c) Infertility - risk 3-4 times higher in women with abortion history (British Journal OBS/GYN).
(d) Excess of menstrual symptoms in all age groups following abortion (American Journal GYN/OBS).
(e) Risk of miscarriage-
17.5% in women with abortion history
7.5% in women with no abortion history (British Medical Journal).

Many cases of death go unrecorded as they are recorded under 'other reasons'. Complications increase, the younger the patient. Teens are particularly at risk (Dr Margaret Wynn, British Medical Journal).

Psychological and Emotional

"Mourning, sadness, guilt, sleepless nights, depression, anxiety, sense of failure, low self esteem, resentment, envy, hostility, paranoid tendencies psychopathic traits, troubled by presence of small children, nervous disorders, strange feelings of emptiness." (From research papers in New perspectives on Human Abortion; Australian Medical Journal; Med-Psychiatric Journal, France; Los Angelos Times; Asian Wall St Journal - Japanese study; Psychiatric aspects of Induced Abortion, Sydney; Problems of adolescent abortion, Toronto General Hospital; American Journal of Psychiatry; British Medical Journal).

Psychologist, Ann Kaiser names abortion and miscarriage as major losses, not given enough acknowledgement (Living through Personal Crisis by Ballantine books).

Disturbances are classed in 3 stages:
(a) Depression and Guilt
(b) Aggression against self, the father and whole world.
(c) Lasting personality disorders.

"The guilt is the most frequent, that it is not superimposed from the outside but has its roots deep in the recesses of humanity and motherhood. It therefore, remains with the aborted mother unless the problem is addressed. The destruction of the child in her womb destroys the very deepest structure of woman's femininity."
(Report from Wanda Poltawaska, Doctor of Medicine, Krakow Poland - from national meetings of counsellors and psychologists on Post Abortion Syndrome.)

Report from Suicides Anonymous:
Calls from 5,620 people suffering deep depression, anxiety, stress and fears -
> 4,000 were women,
>1,800 had suffered abortion
>1,400 were between 15 - 24 years of age.
(For Cincinnati, U.S.A. City Council)

"There are no unequivocable psychiatric indications for abortion."
(R. Sloan, New England Journal of Medicine, U.S.A.)

"Suicide is very rare in pregnant women, but much more common after an induced abortion." (Ohio State Medical Journal British Medical Journal; Adolescent Suicide; Paediatrics Journal U.S.A. Legal Abortion in Sweden)

Men and Abortion

"Three out of four males studied said they had a difficult time with the abortion experience. A sizable number reported persistent day and night dreams about the child and suffered considerable guilt, remorse and sadness."
(Sociologist Arthur Shostak The Family Coordinator)

"Abortion is a far greater dilemma for men than researchers, counsellors and women have ever begun to realise. Many men are victims of abortion along with the mothers and the unborn children. Often they are silent suffers, bewildered and frustrated."
(Forgotten Fathers Vincent Rue Ph.D.)

After the Trauma Healing

"This is written for the woman who has had an abortion, that she might better understand her emotions and feelings as she cries to be whole again... and for her councillor who cares enough to enter into the healing process with her and her family."
(Abortion & Healing: a cry to be whole by Michael Mannion.)

"Psychology and therapy can do much to assist the healing process... that the past may be coped with and healed... we must lead a woman to remember her abortion so she might begin to let go of her pain and grow from it."
(Michael Mannion)

"What American Victims of Abortion (A.V.A.) is about, is hope and purpose. People who have lost their babies through abortion need to be made whole through love, time and patience ... Healing for some means feeling at peace, others will seek a new challenge on behalf of fellow victims."
(Olivia Gans, PAS victim & Director A.V.A.)