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Artist Emma Beck hanged herself after aborting her twins
when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: "Living is
hell for me. I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been
a good mum. I told everyone I didn't
want to do it, even at the hospital. I
was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be
with my babies -
they need me, no-one else does."
The Royal College of
Psychiatrists in Great
Britain has - belatedly - issued a statement saying that some women may
suffer mental health problems after abortion and calling on health care
providers to provide better screening and informed consent. The College recommends, not the abolition of abortion
or even taking any legal measures to reduce it, but updating the information
pamphlets given to women considering abortion to include details of the risks
of depression: "Consent cannot be
informed without the provision of adequate and appropriate
information.....The specific issue of whether or not induced abortion has
harmful effects on women's mental health remains to be fully resolved. The
current research evidence base is inconclusive - some studies indicate no
evidence of harm, whilst other studies specify a range of mental disorders
following abortion." Well there was nothing inconclusive about Emma
Beck’s suicide note.
Professor David Fergusson of
Canterbury University, New Zealand, challenges
the report of the Abortion Supervisory Committee which shows
that 98.9% of the 17,934 abortions performed in 2006 were approved on
mental health grounds. Fergusson who is pro-choice, points to his own research which
showed that women who have abortions
are 40% more likely to have mental health problems. His 2005 study found
nearly half of women who had abortions "had elevated rates of subsequent
mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors and
substance abuse disorders.” Fergusson wants the Committee to commission more
research and "have an assessment six months later to see what the evidence
is revealing. That would have been the responsible and sensible course of
action to take”.
“Responsible course of
action” seems too much for us to expect from those in power in medical organisations. In Australia
the lifetime
incidence of breast cancer has risen from one in eleven to one
in eight women, yet our Cancer Councils
fail to warn women of the abortion-breast cancer link. Abortion kills babies, and not infrequently their mothers as
well, so we have organised a Conference to inform the
public. There should be no more Emma Becks.
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