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Absent Data: Effects of Abortion on Women Remain Unclear After 31 Years 3/10/2004 Senate hearing questions absence of scientific data.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, called a hearing on March 3 to evaluate the need for more federally funded research into the impact of abortion on women.
The hearing followed last January's 31st anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade decision, which sanctioned doctors to perform abortions on women, killing millions of babies in the name of reproductive choice. However, three decades later, information on potential health risks linked to the abortion procedure remains unavailable.
Brownback said that amid much debate and disagreement regarding the sanctity of the unborn baby’s life, there is universal agreement about the sanctity of the mother’s life. He said that women deserve access to scientifically accurate information on potential health risks before choosing the abortion procedure.
The hearing consisted of a two-part panel of witnesses. The first featured post-abortive counselors, and the second featured medical professionals. They came from both sides of the abortion issue.
Georgette Forney, executive director for the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life (NOEL), testified. “[I]f I had been invited to speak ten years ago, I would have done so in support of a woman's right to choose,” said Forney, who said she had an abortion when she was 16 years old and lived for 19 years pretending that it had never happened. She recounted the question from her 8-year-old daughter: “You were pregnant when you were 16, and you killed your baby?” This and other events forced Forney to grieve over her abortion and the baby she had lost.
When Forney joined NOEL, she began hearing from women worldwide who were experiencing emotional trauma from their abortions. Forney described a girl who had had an abortion on Saturday and sent an e-mail Sunday night saying, “I can’t go to school tomorrow and pretend everything is fine, I feel like dying.” Another post-abortive woman wrote: “I just saw a diaper commercial and I can’t stop crying.”
What was the common denominator in the correspondence she received? “They wanted help; they wanted to know they weren’t the only one hurting," Forney said. "They always expressed relief to know help was available and they weren’t alone in their pain.”
Forney commented as well on abortion's impact on women's physical health: “Women have been at the center of a 31-year social experiment, and we should unapologetically insist on mandatory reporting of abortion complications for the sake of women’s health.”
Also testifying at the hearing was Michaelene Jenkins, executive director for the Life Resource Network Women’s Task Force. She described her abortion experience as an 18-year-old, saying, “It was not an empowering experience.” Jenkins experienced significant emotional challenges that she attributes to her abortion, such as an eating disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts.
“There is mounting evidence—both anecdotal and in published studies—that women suffer emotionally after an abortion. But since abortion is held hostage to politics and special interest groups, there are too few reliable studies that have been done. Abortion continues to be an unchecked and unstudied experiment on American women,” Jenkins said.
Forney and Jenkins’ candid disclosure of the emotional and physical repercussions they experienced due to their abortions appeared to have little effect on the Rev. Dr. Roselyn Smith-Withers, representing the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights. As a counselor of post-abortive women, she said that an unsupportive community of family and friends imposes on women any guilt they may have following an abortion.
Seated next to Forney and Jenkins, Smith-Withers said, “It is important and heartening to all who care about women’s health and lives to know that the consensus in the medical and scientific communities is that most women who have abortions experience little or no psychological harm.”
Elizabeth Shadigian, M.D., a clinical associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics at the University of Michigan, also testified. Shadigian’s presentation of her research reinforced the concerns of Forney and Jenkins regarding the deficiency of scientific research on the impact of abortion on women. “Most of the medical literature since induced abortion was legalized has focused on short-term surgical complications, surgical technique improvement, and abortion provider training,” she said.
“The political agenda of every researcher studying induced abortion is questioned more than in any other field of medical research. Conclusions are feared to be easily influenced by the author’s beliefs about women’s reproductive autonomy and the moral status of the unborn.”
Results from Shadigian’s own research indicate probable links to breast cancer, placenta previa, preterm birth and maternal suicide.
Nada Stotland, M.D., professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology at Rush Medical College, said that the American Psychiatric Association believes abortion is important for women’s mental health. Stotland said, “The psychological outcome of abortion is optimized when women are able to make decisions on the basis of their own values, beliefs, and circumstances, free from pressure or coercion, and to have those decisions, whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy, supported by their families, friends, and society in general.” She said that further research on the impact of abortion on women was unnecessary.
However, despite the claims of Dr. Stotland and the Rev. Smith-Withers, reality doesn't paint an innocuous picture of abortion.
“Like children who close their eyes and think no one can see them, pro-abortion advocates deny that abortion harms women right in front of women who candidly and courageously revealed how abortion hurt them," said Wendy Wright, senior policy director of Concerned Women for America. "If they are confident that abortion is painless, then they shouldn’t oppose objective scientific studies to investigate a procedure that impacts millions of women.”
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