Abortion Opponents Converge On San Francisco To Celebrate Death Of Roe

Neat lighting and effects. That photo #3 is interesting. It's a nonsequitor like the Westboro Baptist church people heckling after the funerals of the miners in West Virginia last week- what are they thinking?

A lot of white males in those photos. They were certainly a well-represented group!

smash patriarchy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/opinion/20marsh.html?incamp=article_popular_2

Here is an article on why 68% of evangelical still support Bush's war in Iraq, and the Left Behind book series etc. - of course this is evangelicals and not Catholics. I don't know why catholics are into tanks and machine guns.

The issue in fighting fascism, as exemplified by this contrived hate march organized to promote fascism under the guise of anti-abortion, is class struggle. This garbage exists because labor is weak. With a serious labor movement, our right to abortion would be secure. It was won in 1973 when labor was much stronger and has been weakened as labor weakens. This is true throughout the world: Where labor is strong, women's rights and gay rights are strong. It is no accident that the Scandinavian countries were the first to support gay marriage; labor is much stronger there and thus less susceptible to scapegoating. As to the minority Baby Boomers, who are mostly age 46 to 61, this is a minority of the population and is not capable of leading anything as an age group both as an age group of any kind and as an age group soon to be retired, if not already retired. Most of the protests against the war against Vietnam were student protests until the draft ended in 1973, at which time most of the protests ended as well. The antiwar movement was primarily an anti-draft movement, which is why today's peace movement is smaller in terms of constant demonstrations. It is bigger in terms of mass support because the economy is weaker and thus Bush has no support for making war. The name of the game is always money.

Ageism is as bad as sexism. Baby boomers, raging grannies, young radical women, if they show up and fight, my hat's off to 'em.

... with the pro-war signs were some very right-wing evangelical religious nutcases who came over to harass us pro-choicers. They were surroundewd by ISOers (good job) and others. They were not really with the more Catholic oriented sheep (sorry if people think i insult sheep) marching and bleating along the Embarcadero.

I joined the front of the march, and while we were held up for 15 minutes (probably because of the groups trying to block us), we had to watch and listen to anti-abortion protesters with bullhorns. We were silent. Some of the pro-aborts were dressed in black, like Ninjas with bandanas on their faces, like Ninja bandits.

Inane slogan #1: If you don't like abortion, don't have one.

Is there a woman or man whose soul is so dead that she or he would like abortion?

The people in picture three were not walking with the pro-lifers, and I suspect they were just there to get attention from both sides. They're the same sort who protest outside sporting events and such, and so I doubt they were there with much reason besides getting their "message" across to as many people as possible.

I might say they were just there to make the pro-life side look bad, but I don't think it was any kind of organized conspiracy. I think they were just a bunch of extremists who were not representative of either side at the walk that day.

It surly has been quite a while since Justin Herman Plaza saw so many people of faith, and so many clean, educated and employed people. My hats off to them as well; I hope the tolerant lefties in Frisco left their cars alone...

These photos are fantastic. Z is a real artist. Would like to know who took these photos. Great talent.

They had no cars to mess with, the anti-choicers were bused in from out of town.

I've never seen so many right wing patriarchal bigots in one place. I hope they hosed down the plaza after they left...

Hey you guys took some good pics of us. In that first one I think I'm off to the side or I hadn't shown up yet because I stood in front of you for awhile with my sign when you were screaching in the back of the plaza.
I was holding the one that said "Women Killed by legal abortion" and then listed the women legally murdered by abortion NOT by coat hangers.
Also, do you have any documents of women killed by "illegal" abortion? I tried to ask you that question at the walk but your screams drowned out my voice.
Annuit Coeptis

That wasn't screaming dear, you need to remember that the drugs you were on affect your hearing. Or maybe it was the white noise in your ears from the tour bus. Or maybe the sound of women exclaiming their rights wasn't something you're used to hearing where you come from (Stepford perhaps?).

Here's one documented victim of illegal abortion, and it was one too many:
http://www.sapphireblue.com/25years/

Now perhaps you could provide the number of women who died in childbirth? Please tell us how many women in poverty died because they were denied access to prenatal care or other basic reproductive rights (including abortion).

Please also give us some details of the numbers of women who are denied access to contraception and die of AIDS.

We'll be waiting!

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ib_5-03.html

Illegal Abortions Were Common
Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. One analysis, extrapolating from data from North Carolina, concluded that an estimated 829,000 illegal or self-induced abortions occurred in 1967.

One stark indication of the prevalence of illegal abortion was the death toll. In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women—nearly one-fifth (18%) of maternal deaths recorded in that year. The death toll had declined to just under 1,700 by 1940, and to just over 300 by 1950 (most likely because of the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s, which permitted more effective treatment of the infections that frequently developed after illegal abortion). By 1965, the number of deaths due to illegal abortion had fallen to just under 200, but illegal abortion still accounted for 17% of all deaths attributed to pregnancy and childbirth that year. And these are just the number that were officially reported; the actual number was likely much higher.

Poor women and their families were disproportionately impacted. A study of low-income women in New York City in the 1960s found that almost one in 10 (8%) had ever attempted to terminate a pregnancy by illegal abortion; almost four in 10 (38%) said that a friend, relative or acquaintance had attempted to obtain an abortion. Of the low-income women in that study who said they had had an abortion, eight in 10 (77%) said that they had attempted a self-induced procedure, with only 2% saying that a physician had been involved in any way.

These women paid a steep price for illegal procedures. In 1962 alone, nearly 1,600 women were admitted to Harlem Hospital Center in New York City for incomplete abortions, which was one abortion-related hospital admission for every 42 deliveries at that hospital that year. In 1968, the University of Southern California Los Angeles County Medical Center, another large public facility serving primarily indigent patients, admitted 701 women with septic abortions, one admission for every 14 deliveries.

A clear racial disparity is evident in the data of mortality because of illegal abortion: In New York City in the early 1960s, one in four childbirth-related deaths among white women was due to abortion; in comparison, abortion accounted for one in two childbirth-related deaths among nonwhite and Puerto Rican women.

Even in the early 1970s, when abortion was legal in some states, a legal abortion was simply out of reach for many. Minority women suffered the most: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 1972 alone, 130,000 women obtained illegal or self-induced procedures, 39 of whom died. Furthermore, from 1972 to 1974, the mortality rate due to illegal abortion for nonwhite women was 12 times that for white women.

It's really weird how you state that women are dying from no pre-natal care and than go on how they also need ?abortions? How can you protect some and not the other? That's very anti-feminist you know.
Please present some documents and research saying that childbirth is more dangerous than abortion. The baby cannot stay in the womb forever, the womb is only it's home for 9 months the question is, should we let the baby come out alive or dead. Because the baby is coming out it just depends weather we are going to kill them or let them live.

Totus Tuos

Until you become one. Oh and, wearing a shirt that says you are one doesn't really count. That just shows you're a good obedient little consumer. Now here's your homework:

http://www.guttmacher.org/sections/abortion.php

PS: it's not a baby the minute the sperm hits the fan.

Why do you always use links to the research arm of planned parenthood? I've done my research, maybe you should stop being so narrow minded on your website choices.

Abortion Is Four Times Deadlier
Than Childbirth

New Studies Unmask High Maternal Death Rates From Abortion

David C. Reardon, Ph.D.
Abortion advocates, relying on inaccurate maternal death data in the United States, routinely claim that a woman's risk of dying from childbirth is six, ten, or even twelve times higher than the risk of death from abortion.

In contrast, abortion critics have long contended that the statistics relied upon for maternal mortality calculations have been distorted and that the broader claim that "abortion is many times safer than childbirth" completely ignores high rates of other physical and psychological complications associated with abortion. Now a recent, unimpeachable study of pregnancy-associated deaths in Finland has shown that the risk of dying within a year after an abortion is several times higher than the risk of dying after miscarriage or childbirth.(1)

This well-designed record-based study is from STAKES, the statistical analysis unit of Finland's National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health. In an effort to evaluate the accuracy of maternal death reports, STAKES researchers pulled the death certificate records for all the women of reproductive age (15-49) who died between 1987 and 1994--a total of 9,192 women. They then culled through the national health care data base to identify any pregnancy-related events for each of these women in the 12 months prior to their deaths.

Since Finland has socialized medical care, these records are very accurate and complete. In this fashion, the STAKES researchers identified 281 women who had died within a year of their last pregnancy. The unadjusted mortality rate per 100,000 cases was 27 for women who had given birth, 48 for women who had miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, and 101 for women who had abortions.

The researchers then calculated the age-adjusted odds ratio of death, using the death rate of women who had not been pregnant as the standard equal to one. Table 1 shows that the age-adjusted odds ratio of women dying in the year they give birth as being half that of women who are not pregnant, whereas women who have abortions are 76 percent more likely to die in the year following abortion compared to non-pregnant women. Compared to women who carry to term, women who abort are 3.5 times more likely to die within a year.

Such figures are always subject to statistical variation from year to year, country to country, study to study. For this reason, the researchers also reported what is known as "95 percent confidence intervals." This means that the available data indicates that 95 percent of all similar studies would report a finding within a specified range around the actual reported figure.

For example, the .50 odds ratio for childbirth has a confidence interval of .32 to .78. In other words, it is probable that 95 percent of the time, the odds ratio of death following childbirth will be found to be between 32 percent and 78 percent of the non-pregnant woman rate. The 95 percent confidence interval for the odds ratio of death following abortion was reported to be 1.27 to 2.42 of the annual rate for non-pregnant women.

Deaths from Suicide

Using a subset of the same data, STAKES researchers had previously reported that the risk of death from suicide within the year of an abortion was more than seven times higher than the risk of suicide within a year of childbirth.(2) Two of these suicides were also connected with infanticide. Examples of post-abortion suicide/infanticide attempts have also been documented in the United States.(3)

The same finding was reported in STAKES' more recent study. Among the 281 women who died within a year of their last pregnancy, 77 (27 percent) had committed suicide. Figure 2 shows the age-adjusted odds ratio for suicide for the three pregnancy groups compared to the "no pregnancy" control group.

Notably, the risk of suicide following a birth was about half that of the general population of women. This finding is consistent with previous studies that have shown that an undisturbed pregnancy actually reduces the risk of suicide.(4)

Abortion, on the other hand, is clearly linked to a dramatic increase in suicide risk. This statistical finding is corroborated by interview-based studies which have consistently shown extraordinarily high levels of suicidal ideation (30-55 percent) and reports of suicide attempts (7-30 percent) among women who have had an abortion.(5) In many of these studies, the women interviewed have explicitly described the abortion as the cause of their suicidal impulses.

The original publication of the STAKES suicide data prompted researchers at the South Glamorgan (population 408,000) Health Authority in Great Britain to examine their own data on admissions for suicide attempts both before and after pregnancy events. They found that among those who aborted, there was a shift from a roughly "normal" suicide attempt rate before the abortion to a significantly higher suicide attempt rate after the abortion. After their pregnancies, there were 8.1 suicide attempts per thousand women among those who had abortions, compared to only 1.9 suicide attempts among those who gave birth. The higher rate of suicide attempts subsequent to abortion was particularly evident among women under 30 years of age.

As in the STAKES sample, birth was associated with a significantly lower risk of suicide attempts. The South Glamorgan researchers concluded that their data did not support the view that suicide after an abortion was predicated on prior poor mental health, at least as measured by prior suicide attempts. Instead, "the increased risk of suicide after an induced abortion may therefore be a consequence of the procedure itself."(6)

Interpretation of these statistical studies is aided by numerous publications describing individual cases of completed suicide following abortion.(7) In many cases, the attempted or completed suicides have been intentionally or subconsciously timed to coincide with the anniversary date of the abortion or the expected due date of the aborted child.(8) Suicide attempts among male partners following abortion have also been reported.(9)

Teens are generally at higher risk for both suicide and abortion. In a survey of teenaged girls, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that the rate of attempted suicide in the six months prior to the study increased ten fold--from 0.4 percent for girls who had not aborted during that time period to 4 percent for teens who had aborted in the previous six months.(10) Other studies also suggest that the risk of suicide after an abortion may be higher for women with a prior history of psychological disturbances or suicidal tendencies.(11)

It is also worth noting the suicide rate among women in China is the highest in the world. Indeed, 56 percent of all female suicides occur in China, mostly among young rural women.(12) It is also the only country where more women die from suicide than men. For women under 45, the suicide rate is twice as high as that of Chinese men. Government officials are reported to be at a loss for an explanation.

Traditionally, Chinese families placed a high value on large families, especially in rural communities. But after the death of Mao Tse-Tung, who also valued large families, China instituted its brutal one child policy. This population control effort, encouraged by governments and family planning organizations from the West, has required the widespread use of abortion--including forced abortion--and infanticide, especially of female babies. Given the known link between abortion and suicide, can there be any doubt that maternally-oriented Chinese women who are coerced by their families and communities to participate in these atrocities are more likely to commit suicide?

Deaths from Risk-Taking Behavior

In this most recent study from Finland, the STAKES researchers also reported that the risk of death from accidents was over four times higher for women who had aborted in the year prior to their deaths than for women who had carried to term. Of the 281 women who died within a year of their last pregnancy, 57 (20 percent) died from injuries attributed to accidents.

Once again, giving birth had a protective effect. Women who had borne children had half the risk of suffering a fatal accident compared to the general population. On the other hand, as shown in Figure 3, women who aborted were more than twice as likely to die from a fatal accidentthan women in the general population.

This finding suggests that women with newborn children are probably more careful to avoid risks which could endanger them or their children. Conversely, women who have had an abortion are apparently more prone to taking risks that could endanger their lives.

This data is consistent with at least two other studies that have found that women who abort are more likely to be treated for accident-related injuries in the year following their abortions.

In a study of government-funded medical programs in Canada, researchers found that women who had undergone an abortion in the previous year were treated for mental disorders 41 percent more often than postpartum women, and 25 percent more often for injuries or conditions resulting from violence.(13)

Similarly, a study of Medicaid payments in Virginia found that women who had state-funded abortions had 62 percent more subsequent mental health claims (resulting in 43 percent higher costs) and 12 percent more claims for treatments related to accidents (resulting in 52 percent higher costs) compared to a case matched sample of women covered by Medicaid who had not had a state-funded abortion.(14)

It is quite likely that some of these deaths which were classified as accidental may have in fact been suicides. Reports of post-abortive women deliberately crashing their automobiles, often in a drunken state, in an attempt to kill themselves have been reported by both post-abortion counselors and in the published literature.(15)

It is also likely that many of these deaths are simply related to heightened risk-taking behavior among post-abortive women. This may occur simply because some women care less whether they live or die after an abortion. Other women may seek to "self-medicate" a sense of depression with the adrenalin rush that often comes with taking risks. In addition, heavier drinking and substance abuse are well-documented aftereffects of abortion, both of which increase a person's risk of fatal accidents.(16)

Deaths from Homicide

The STAKES study also found that 14 (5 percent) of the 281 women were killed by another person. Most of these deaths occurred among women who had undergone an abortion. As shown in Figure 4, the risk of dying from homicide for post-abortive women was more than four times greater than the risk of homicide among the general population. This finding, especially when combined with the suicide and accident figures, once again reinforces the conclusion that women who abort are more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior.

An Elliot Institute survey of 256 post-abortive women found that nearly 60 percent stated that they began to lose their temper more easily after their abortions, with 48 percent saying they also became more violent when angered. Increased tendencies toward anger and violence after abortion were also significantly associated with substance abuse and higher suicidal tendencies.(17) In other words, women who were more prone to anger were also more prone to "giving up" on life. This is a dangerous combination which can more easily lead to fatal confrontations with others.

In the STAKES study, an additional 6 deaths that were due to traumatic physical injuries were listed as "unclear violent deaths." In these cases, the researchers could not make a determination of whether the cause of death was due to accident, suicide, or homicide.

Deaths from Natural Causes

Of the 281 deaths, 127 (45 percent) were attributed to natural causes. As seen in Figure 5, the age adjusted odds ratio of dying from natural causes within a year following any outcome of pregnancy is less than the odds ratio of dying for non-pregnant women.

The obvious implication of this finding is that women who are capable of becoming pregnant are simply healthier and less likely to die of natural causes than women who cannot or do not become pregnant. In other words, women who are most likely to die from a natural physical ailment are less likely to have been pregnant in the last year of their lives.

Comparing abortion to birth, however, we once again see that the risk of death from natural causes was significantly higher (60 percent higher in this sample) for women who had an induced abortion in the prior year compared to those who carried to term or had a natural pregnancy loss.

One possible explanation would be that the women who died after an abortion were already in ill health before the abortions and sought the abortion to protect their health. But this hypothesis was rejected by the STAKES researchers when an examination of abortion registry records showed that only a single woman in this group had her abortion for reasons of maternal health.(18) The STAKES data would appear to support the view that induced abortion produces an unnatural physical and psychological stress on women that can result in a negative impact on their general health.

This theory is also supported by a 1984 study that examined the amount of health care sought by women during a year before and a year after their induced abortions. The researchers found that on average, there was an 80 percent increase in the number of doctor visits and a 180 percent increase in doctor visits for psychosocial reasons after abortion.(19)

Ten years later, another study of 1,428 patients chosen at random from their office visits to 69 general practitioners found that pregnancy loss, especially abortion, was significantly associated with a lower assessment of general health.(20) The more pregnancy losses a woman had suffered, the more negative her general health score. In addition, loss of a woman's most recent pregnancy was more strongly associated with lower health than were losses followed by successful deliveries.

While the researchers found that miscarriage was also associated with a lower health score, induced abortion was more strongly associated with a lower health assessment and more frequently identified by women as the cause of their reduced level of health. More than 20 percent of the women participating in the study expressed a moderate to strong need for professional help to resolve their loss.

From this data, Dr. Philip Ney, who led the research team, concluded that acute or pathological grief after the loss of an unborn child, whether by miscarriage or abortion, has a detrimental effect on the psychological and physical health of some women.

Ney proposed several possible reasons for this: (1) depression has been linked to suppressed immune responses, (2) psychological conflict consumes energy that would otherwise be spent in more healthy ways, and (3) prolonged or unresolved mourning may distract the woman from taking care of other health needs or confuse her interpretation of situations and events. In addition to these factors, abortion has been linked to sleeping disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse, all of which can have a direct negative impact on a woman's health.

Conclusions

The STAKES study of pregnancy-associated deaths is beyond reproach. It is a record-based study in a country with centralized medical records. While a small number of women who died during the period investigated may have had births or abortions outside of Finland which would not have been identified in the records, there is no reason to believe these few cases would have altered these dramatic findings.

Clearly, the odds of a woman dying within a year of having an abortion are significantly higher than for women who carry to term or have a natural miscarriage. This holds true both for deaths from natural causes and deaths from suicide, accidents, or homicide. In addition, the study underscores the difficulty in reliably defining and identifying maternal deaths. Only 22 percent of the death certificates examined had any mention of the woman's recent pregnancy.

Unfortunately, there is often no clear way of determining when there is any causal connection between a death and a previous pregnancy, birth, miscarriage, or abortion. According to the lead author of the STAKES study, Mika Gissler, in maternal health reports throughout the world, "[t]here is no consensus concerning which cases should be included as maternal deaths. Problematic are, for example, some cancers, stroke, asthma, liver cirrhosis, pneumonia with influenza, anorexia nervosa, and many violent deaths, such as suicide, homicide, and accidents."(21)

By stepping back from a predefined notion of what constitutes a pregnancy-related death, the STAKES team has shown that deaths among women following a pregnancy cannot easily be tracked when a study is based purely on short-term post-operative recovery. This is particularly true following an abortion. Maternal deaths after an abortion are seldom identified as such unless the death occurs on the operating table, if even then (see accompanying article on page 5). By examining all death certificates and all pregnancy events in the prior year, the STAKES team avoided the basic problem of pre-defining what deaths will be included or excluded in maternal mortality reports.

Even this study, however, has shortcomings. The most obvious limitation is that the researchers examined only a single year of the reproductive history of women who had died during the study period. Since suicide attempts are often associated with the anniversary date of the abortion, some portion of deaths from suicide or accidents that occurred slightly over one year after a prior abortion were probably missed.

As seen in Figure 6, the distribution of suicides by month following the pregnancy event indicate an increased level of suicides at seven to ten months following an abortion. This may correspond to a negative anniversary reaction related to the expected due date of the aborted child. A similar spike is seen among women who had miscarriages, though it peaks a couple of months earlier, perhaps because the miscarriages generally occurred further along in gestation than the abortions.

Figure 6: Suicide Rate by Month After Pregnancy Event

Another disadvantage of the one-year limit on the STAKES data set is that it does not reveal how long the protective effect of birth extends, or conversely, how long the odds ratio of death for those who abort remains elevated. A study spanning a longer period of time would be needed to identify these longer term effects.

Finally, the STAKES study does not shed any light on whether or not women who died from suicide or risk-taking behavior after an abortion were already self-destructive before their abortions. It is probable that many were. Women with a propensity for risk-taking would be more likely to become pregnant and perhaps more likely to choose abortion. In such cases, while abortion may not be the underlying cause of their problems, it probably contributed to their psychological deterioration and was a contributing cause of their death.

On the other hand, it is also clear from other studies that many women who were not previously self-destructive become so as a direct result of their traumatic abortion experience. Whether this latter group represents a major or minor portion of those who died in the STAKES sample is unknown.

Additional insights could be gained by looking back over several more years of the women's medical records. It is likely that prior suicide attempts, a high incidence of treatment for accidents, prior psychological treatments, and other prior pregnancy losses would all be associated with an increased risk of subsequent death by suicide, homicide, or accident.

Abortion advocates will naturally argue that abortion did not "cause" any of these deaths, but rather that these women were simply self-destructive or ill beforehand and would have died anyway. This is a flimsy argument, since clearly this same data shows that giving birth has a protective effect. Even women who committed suicide after giving birth waited until after their children were born to take their own lives.

It is quite probable that the best way to help a self-destructive woman to change her life, and value her own life, is to encourage her to cherish the life of her unborn child. Conversely, it is clear that aiding and encouraging a self-destructive woman to undergo an abortion is likely to aggravate her self-destructive tendencies.

These findings underscore the importance of holding abortion clinics liable for screening women who are seeking an abortion for a history of suicide, self-destructive behavior, and psychological instability. The failure to screen for these risk factors is clearly gross negligence. In addition, when abortion clinic counselors falsely reassure women that abortion is safer than childbirth, they should be held accountable for false and deceptive business practices.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally printed in The Post-Abortion Review, 8(2), April-June 2000. Copyright 2000, Elliot Institute.
See also:
Informed Consent Booklets Hide True Risks of Abortion
The Cover-Up: Why U.S. Abortion Mortality Statistics Are Meaningless
Two Senseless Deaths: The Long Road to Recovery
Abortionists Are Not Held Accountable for Mistakes
Notes
1. Gissler, M., et. al., "Pregnancy-associated deaths in Finland 1987-1994 -- definition problems and benefits of record linkage," Acta Obsetricia et Gynecolgica Scandinavica 76:651-657 (1997).

2. Mika Gissler, Elina Hemminki, Jouko Lonnqvist, "Suicides after pregnancy in Finland: 1987-94: register linkage study" British Medical Journal 313:1431-4, 1996.

3. McFadden, A., "The Link Between Abortion and Child Abuse," Family Resources Center News (January 1998) 20.

4. S. J. Drower, & E. S. Nash, "Therapeutic Abortion on Psychiatric Grounds," South African Medical Journal 54:604-608, Oct. 7, 1978; B. Jansson, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia 41:87, 1965.

5. David Reardon, "Psychological Reactions Reported After Abortion," The Post-Abortion Review, 2(3):4-8, Fall 1994; Anne C. Speckhard, The Psychological Aspects of Stress Following Abortion (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1987); Vincent Rue, "Traumagenic Aspects of Elective Abortion: Preliminary Findings from an International Study" Healing Visions Conference, June 22, 1996

6. Christopher L. Morgan, et. al., "Mental health may deteriorate as a direct effect of induced abortion," letters section, BMJ 314:902, 22 March, 1997.

7. E. Joanne Angelo, Psychiatric Sequelae of Abortion: The Many Faces of Post-Abortion Grief," Linacre Quarterly 59:69-80, May 1992; David Grimes, "Second-Trimester Abortions in the United States, Family Planning Perspectives 16(6):260; Myre Sim and Robert Neisser, "Post-Abortive Psychoses," The Psychological Aspects of Abortion, ed. D. Mall and W.F. Watts, (Washington D.C.: University Publications of America, 1979).

8. Carl Tischler, "Adolescent Suicide Attempts Following Elective Abortion," Pediatrics 68(5):670, 1981.

9. "Psychopathological Effects of Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy on the Father Called Up for Military Service," Psychologie Medicale 14(8):1187-1189, June 1982; Angelo, op. cit.

10. B. Garfinkle, H. Hoberman, J. Parsons and J. Walker, "Stress, Depression and Suicide: A Study of Adolescents in Minnesota" (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Extension Service, 1986)

11. Esther R. Greenglass, "Therapeutic Abortion and Psychiatric Disturbance in Canadian Women," Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 21(7):453-460, 1976; Helen Houston & Lionel Jacobson, "Overdose and Termination of Pregnancy: An Important Association?" British Journal of General Practice, 46:737-738, 1996.

12. Elizabeth Rosenthal, "Women's Suicides Reveal China's Bitter Roots: Nation Starts to Confront World's Highest Rate," The New York Times, Sunday January 24, 1999, p. 1, 8.

13. R.F. Badgley, D.F. Caron, M.G. Powell, Report of the Committee on the Abortion Law, Minister of Supply and Services, Ottawa, 1977:313-319.

14. Jeff Nelson,"Data Request from Delegate Marshall" Interagency Memorandum, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, Mar. 21, 1997.

15. Carl Tischler, "Adolescent Suicide Attempts Following Elective Abortion," Pediatrics 68(5):670, 1981; E. Joanne Angelo, Psychiatric Sequelae of Abortion: The Many Faces of Post-Abortion Grief," Linacre Quarterly 59:69-80, May 1992.

16. D.C. Reardon and P.G. Ney, "Abortion and Subsequent Substance Abuse" Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 26(1):61-75.

17. David Reardon, "Psychological Reactions Reported After Abortion," The Post-Abortion Review, 2(3):4-8, Fall 1994

18. Personal communication with Mika Gissler, March 8, 2000.

19. D. Berkeley, P.L. Humphreys, and D. Davidson, "Demands Made on General Practice by Women Before and After an Abortion," J. R. Coll. Gen. Pract. 34:310-315, 1984.

20. Philip G. Ney, Tak Fung, Adele Rose Wickett and Carol Beaman-Dodd, "The Effects of Pregnancy Loss on Women's Health," Soc. Sci. Med. 48(9):1193-1200, 1994.

21. Gissler, et.al. (1997) 652.

Sex selection abortions are very commen and planned parenthood fully supports it. That doesn't sound very pro-women to me.

While most people would be horrified at the thought of murdering a newborn baby just because it is the wrong gender, this has been happening in India and China, possibly elsewhere. Gender selection has become common (by one method or another) because many parents have decided that if they are only going to have one child, it should be a boy.In India, China and other nations,, baby girls are also valued far less than baby girls in some communities.

The Accademy of Social Sciences in Bejing research times have found that in some parts of China there are 120 boys to only 100 girls because of Gender Selection - natural births produce a ratio of 105 to 100. Another study of women migrating to Bejing found they were arriving with 159 boys to only 100 girls. Gender Selection in China has already produced a very profound national imbalance with many tens of millions of young men now growing up without women to marry.

In India there is a similar problem with Gender Selection, and this has been the case for many years. A study in 1985 of women having amniocentesis (sampling of cells in the fluid surrounding a developing foetus in the womb) in Mumbai (Bombay) found that 90% were carries out to determine the gender of the child, and that 96% testing positive for a girl resulted in abortion. Although now illegal to abort in India on the basis of Gender Selection alone, ultrasound is commonly used to make the diagnosis before the 20th week of pregnancy and abortion is a common result.

In the UK recently two parents who had seen a daughter die requested gender selection to guarantee that their next child be a girl, but were refused - against British law. They said that they had many sons and desperately needed a daughter. Indeed they claimed that they had a human right to a baby girl and that gender selection should be allowed - as an exception for them.

The trouble is that society as a whole is not capable of handling gender selection without terrible results. Cultures vary. A report in October 2000 found that 75% of newly wed couples want their first child to be a girl - and if many families have only one child. what then? Even if they all have two children, statistically there will be far too many women in Japanese society, assuming gender selection becomes common practice.

And why stop at gender selection? Why not start selecting future babies on the basis of predicted intelligence, athletic ability, musical talent, height or personality tendencies? The human genome project, coupled withGenetic engineeringg research is giving us huge powers to predict the future of human beings. We don't yet know which genes are good at predicting intelligence, but there is no doubt that we will. What then?

You can be sure that there will be huge pressures, if gender selection becomes normalised, to continue with selection for a host of other characteristics.

Do you really want to live in that kind of world? A world where gender selection routinely condemns to destruction healthy foetuses just because they don't fit the personal preferences of selfish parents?

Gender selection is a dangerous avenue to go down.

The real feminists fought for the right to vote not the right to murder. Here are some quotes from feminist history.


Susan B. Anthony
In her publication The Revolution, was written:
"Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"
Abortion was referred to as "child murder."
The Revolution, 4(1):4 July 8, 1869
"We want prevention, not merely punishment. We must reach the root of the evil...It is practiced by those whose inmost souls revolt from the dreadful deed."
The Revolution, 4(1):4 July 8, 1869
"All the articles on this subject that I have read have been from men. They denounce women as alone guilty, and never include man in any plans for the remedy."
The Revolution, 4(1):4 July 8, 1869

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton
She classified abortion as a form of "infanticide." The Revolution, 1(5):1, February 5, 1868
"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe's diary at Harvard University Library
"There must be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this. But where shall it be found, at least where begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?"
The Revolution, 1(10):146-7 March 12, 1868

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Emma Goldman
"The custom of procuring abortions has reached such appalling proportions in America as to be beyond belief...So great is the misery of the working classes that seventeen abortions are committed in every one hundred pregnancies."
Mother Earth, 1911

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Mattie Brinkerhoff
"When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged."
The Revolution, 4(9):138-9 September 2, 1869


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Victoria Woodhull
The first female presidential candidate was a strong opponent of abortion.
"The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus."
Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly 2(6):4 December 24, 1870
"Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth."
Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard, November 17, 1875

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Sarah Norton
"Child murderers practice their profession without let or hindrance, and open infant butcheries unquestioned...Is there no remedy for all this ante-natal child murder?...Perhaps there will come a time when...an unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood...and when the right of the unborn to be born will not be denied or interfered with."
Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly, November 19, 1870

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Mary Wollstonecraft
As early as 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women," which Susan B. Anthony admired enough to serialize in The Revolution. After decrying, in scathing 18th century terms, the sexual exploitation of women, she said:
"Women becoming, consequently, weaker...than they ought to be...have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection...either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast if off when born. Nature in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity."


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Matilda Gage
"[This] subject lies deeper down in woman's wrongs than any other...I hesitate not to assert that most of [the responsibility for] this crime lies at the door of the male sex."
The Revolution, 1(14):215-6 April 9, 1868

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Alice Paul
The author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (1923) opposed the later trend of linking the E.R.A. with abortion. A colleague recalls her saying:
"Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women."

Totus Tuos

All done in the name of compassionate conservatism OF COURSE.

"Why do you always use links to the research arm of planned parenthood? I've done my research, maybe you should stop being so narrow minded on your website choices."

You have something against family planning? One can't exactly quote doctors from the right. I mean really, "Intelligent Design" is SCIENCE? Give me a break. The facts that the Guttmacher Institute relys on are available to anyone. However when the facts prove something that the anti-choice side doesn't agree with, the facts are conveniently ignored.

As to this: "Abortion Is Four Times Deadlier" ...well yes, IF it's made illegal. I think you forgot that bit.

PS- try editing instead of spewing.

From the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (aah- what do they know!):

Risks: Abortion is a low-risk procedure. An early abortion has less risk than a later one. ***Both are lower risk than carrying a pregnancy to term.***
http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ2K98T77C&sub_cat=2006
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Urban Myth about breast cancer and abortion:
The relationship between induced and spontaneous abortion and breast cancer risk has been the subject of extensive research beginning in the late 1950s. Until the mid-1990s, the evidence was inconsistent. Findings from some studies suggested there was no increase in risk of breast cancer among women who had had an abortion, while findings from other studies suggested there was an increased risk. Most of these studies, however, were flawed in a number of ways that can lead to unreliable results. Only a small number of women were included in many of these studies, and for most, the data were collected only after breast cancer had been diagnosed, and women’s histories of miscarriage and abortion were based on their “self-report” rather than on their medical records. Since then, better-designed studies have been conducted. These newer studies examined large numbers of women, collected data before breast cancer was found, and gathered medical history information from medical records rather than simply from self-reports, thereby generating more reliable findings. ***The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.***
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/abortion-miscarriage

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US Gov. link to facts on abortion:
http://search.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/query?MAX=500&SERVER1=server1&SERVER2=server2&PARAMETER=Abortion&DISAMBIGUATION=true&FUNCTION=search

I respect the progression of thinking on the subject of abortion, and as a feminist would happily sit down with my dear sister Mary W. and challeneg her on her notions about the way femininity is contsructed. Movements change as they gain new information.

but Mary Wollstonecraft died in the 19th century...