Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man. - Luke 21:36
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man. - Luke 21:36
Adopted from a research paper for a writing class at the South Western Oregon Community Collage
By the age of forty-five, one out every two and half women has had an abortion (Post Abortion Healing, 1). Perhaps it is the significance of this number that makes the abortion debate so heated. In the United States alone 1,300,000 abortions occur annually. These statistics about abortions affects almost everyone. Whether or not they have had an abortion, most likely they have a mother, sister or friend who has had one.
It is no wonder that both the prochoice and prolife movements are so adamant in their positions. Both sides are fully convinced that they are fighting for what is truly best for these women. Why then do they reach such different conclusions? This topic has caused such animosity between the two movements. Abortion is an issue that goes much deeper than mere politics. It is an emotionally and even religiously charged topic. What is truly best for a woman who is experiencing an unwanted pregnancy? The prochoice would say that if the pregnancy is unwanted then the woman should terminate it so that she can move on with her life. The prolife side says that an abortion kills a human baby and can harm the woman. Therefore, she should not have an abortion. Which side is right?
This research paper covers how abortions affect women, without attempting to cover whether or not an abortion kills a human baby . If someone is in doubt over whether a fetus is human or not, they can look at one of the many other studies written about it. For the purpose of this paper an abortion means induced abortion.
One of the biggest arguments for induced abortions is for the sake of the mother. If this is a legitimate argument, then the quality of life that the mother experiences after having an abortion should be greater than if she had chosen to keep the baby. It is not argued that induced abortions have some negative effects on women; however, the extent of those effects is debated.
Here are some of facts about the most common abortion procedures and the short term side effects that are not well known. The side effects are many and vary depending on the procedure that is used. The most common method of abortion is the surgical method vacuum aspiration (Bygdeman, 2465). For this abortion, the cervix is stretched with dilators. When it is open enough the doctor inserts a tube by hand into the uterus. He attaches a syringe to the tube and the fetus is pulled apart and suctioned out into a collection container (Healthwise, 1). The complications that can occur with this are excessive bleeding, abdominal swelling, pelvic infection, uterine perforation, cervical tears, incomplete abortion, and in extreme cases death (Corbett, 106).
Another common method of pregnancy termination is medical treatment (Bygdeman, 2460). It consists of taking mifepristone, followed by misoprostol. The risks for this are frequent uterine pain, excessive uterine bleeding, pelvic infection, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, incomplete abortion, vomiting, diarrhea, and in extreme cases death. The risks for surgical versus medical procedures are difficult to weigh as all of the articles available state that the risks are about equal. It is unnecessary to go into detail risks. The purpose of this paper is not to be frightening in detail, but rather point out that an abortion is a high-risk procedure. There are other methods of abortion, especially for pregnancies that are in the second and third term, it is always recommended that abortions be done earlier in the pregnancy, because the later the abortion is done the more risks and dangers involved.
There are long-term side effects of abortions as well. If a woman does not suffer from short term physical problems this does not mean she is not affected by the abortion. In fact, the long-term effects may be more devastating than the short term.
Postabortion syndrome is a post-traumatic stress disorder. It affects women differently. Symptoms vary greatly depending on the individual. Common side effects of post abortion syndrome are thoughts of self-harm and suicide, increase in dangerous activities, depression, inability to perform normal self-care activities, difficulty sleeping, panic disorders, eating disorders, codependence, abusive parenting, or overly protective parenting, compulsivity in work or sex, and the list goes on (Post Abortion Healing, 4) (Coleman, 11).
It is interesting that many professionals in the medical field do not recognize postabortion syndrome as a problem. This is because to recognize postabortion syndrome as a legitimate issue that affects a large number of women is to imply that abortion may not be the right choice for some women. If they do this they are immediately labeled, “judgmental”, “biased” and “imposing their personal beliefs on their clients”. This has left a huge number of women who are suffering from postabortion syndrome with no one to reach out and help them. They are judged by many prolifers and ignored by most prochoicers. The woman becomes but another pawn in the abortion war, left to cope as she best can, while the two sides continue to fight. During this battle the medical community, remaining politically correct, will not do anything to acknowledge them.
According to Pedersen, women who have had an abortion are more likely to have substance abuse problems then women who are not pregnant or who have given birth to their child (1971). There was an exception made for women who continue to live with the father of their aborted baby. They are not at an increased risk. Doing a study like this has many variables; however, even after a control range of these variables there remained the link between abortion and substance abuse. Women are more than twice as likely to abuse drugs if they have had an abortion (1974). This is not to say that everyone who has had an abortion is addicted to drugs. However, substances enable someone to be able to forget, to feel good, or even just to function. Many women who have had an abortion have an emptiness in their lives that they are trying to fill. This puts them at an increased risk for substance abuse.
Another fact about the risks of abortions is a woman’s increased risks of getting breast cancer. Pregnancies carried through completion lower the risk of a woman getting breast cancer more than if she had never gotten pregnant. Pregnancies terminated by an abortion not only lose that benefit, the physiological change in their body due to the termination can be devastating. The termination of a pregnancy causes a significant drop in the level of estrogen secreted in a woman’s body. This drop causes a rapid growth in the number of cells in the breast tissue. This cell multiplication greatly increases the risk of getting breast cancer. According to the United State National Cancer Institute, woman who have had an induced abortion have a 50% risk of getting breast cancer by the age of 45 (AAPLOG, 192). The risk is higher for women who have had an abortion before the age of 18 (ibid 192).
The gravity of this risk is huge. How many women who got an abortion this last month were informed of this risk? How many of the women who discovered they had breast cancer last month have previously had an abortion?
For many women it is merely a matter of wrong timing that leads them to choose an abortion. They want to have children but often they get pregnant before they are ready . However, unbeknownst to them, they may never have this opportunity. One of the risks of abortions is secondary infertility. This means that a woman who has previously conceived a child is no longer able to. Abortions can both directly and indirectly affect fertility. Directly a surgical abortion can cause scaring of the uterine. In addition, a small percent of pregnancies are ectopic. This means that the fertilized egg plants itself somewhere outside of the uterine cavity (Myers, 611). A pregnancy test will still come up positive and a girl can go in to get an abortion. She will leave thinking that she is no longer pregnant, not to mention all of the damage that she undergoes having her uterine scraped out needlessly. If she does not recognize that she is still pregnant in time, her fallopian tube could rupture causing hemorrhage and making her infertile, if she survives (Real choices, 5).
One way in which an abortion can indirectly affect fertility is through the risk of an infection of the fallopian tubes. This is called salpingitis (Myers, 1663). Salpingitis greatly increases the risk future pregnancies being tubal pregnancies (Murray, 627). Some women never get another chance to have a baby. This is one of the saddest long-term effects of abortion on women.