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A new survey has found that women want to be thoroughly informed of all possible risks associated with elective medical procedures, and they generally want as much or more information when it comes to abortion.  The survey of 187 women seeking obstetric and gynecological services at a Wisconsin women's health clinic was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics in July. The women were given a short survey in which they were asked to state their preferences for information about elective medical procedures. They ranked the degree of information they preferred regarding alternative treatments and complication rates, and rated the severity of different types of complications, ranging in severity from headaches to death. The results showed that 95% of patients wished to be informed of all the risks of a procedure and 69% wanted to be informed of all alternative treatments, not just the alternatives preferred by their doctor.

Moreover, in their ranking of the seriousness of complications, mental-health complications ranked as very serious, only slightly below the risk of death or heart disease. This finding may be especially important to the abortion debate, since recent peer-reviewed studies have linked abortion to increased rates of mental health problems, such as suicidal behavior, clinical depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and sleep disorders.

"Doctors should anticipate that most women desire information on every potential risk, even risks that doctors may judge to be less serious or inconsequentially rare, and they will generally consider this information to be relevant to their decisions regarding elective procedures," the authors wrote.

Dr. David Reardon, one of the authors of the study,   said the study refutes the claim doctors should withhold information about studies identifying abortion risks simply because the abortion provider personally believes that future studies may someday disprove the earlier findings.    (LifesiteNews.com/CWN:  31 Aug.  2006)

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06083003.html