“Complications: Abortion’s Impact on Women”

Editor

published bythe deVeber Institute for Bioethics & Social Research, Canada, stacks up the scientific evidence for the negative effects abortion has on women’s health. “This book comes as an enormous relief for many of us who have been studying abortion for decades,” says Priscilla Coleman, Professor of Human Development & Family Studies, at Bowling Green State University. “Here is a credible, evidencebased resource to inform medicine, psychology and law.”

Drawing on over 650 published studies from international medical and psychological journals, “Complications” knocks down the generally accepted idea that abortion is perfectly safe. Some of the findings presented in the book contradict statements from major health organizations. The chapter on breast cancer provides evidence of a link between breast cancer and abortion, challenging the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s official position on the issue, and the chapter on the psychological impact of abortion challenges the American Psychological Association’s position that abortion has no psychological effects on women.

“This book contains the most up-to-date research on abortion from around the world,” says Ian Gentles, one of the book’s authors. “It provides the medical community with the evidence it needs to begin telling women that abortion can indeed hurt them—whether it is an increased chance of breast cancer or the serious psychological strain abortion causes for some women.”

The 433 page book includes chapters on maternal health and abortion, the breast cancer abortion link, sex selection, multi-fetal pregnancy reduction, the psychological impacts such as depression and suicide, intimate partner violence, and the risk of later infertility and premature birth.

“Complications” is authored by Angela Lanfranchi, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, and President of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute in New Jersey; Ian Gentles, Research Director at the deVeber Institute and a history professor at York University and Tyndale University College in Toronto; and Elizabeth Ring Cassidy, psychologist, educator & Senior Researcher at the deVeber Institute.