ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 130, MAY 2008

 

 

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SAVING BABIES AND THEIR MOTHERS

BABETTE FRANCIS

 

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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