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National Women's Health Policy,
MDP 13
GPO Box 9848,
Canberra ACT 260l

Dear Ladies,

1. Endeavour Forum Inc. is a national women's pro-family NGO which has special consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations.
2. Our main concern is with the pro-abortion policies pursued by your unit, as was apparent at the consultation meeting in Melbourne. One of the attendees at our table ( a man who is not a member of Endeavour Forum Inc) was making a verbal submission about how Natural Family Planning achieved a higher success rate at lower cost for sub-fertile women who wished to have babies than the lower success rate at much higher cost achieved by IVF procedures. A feminist at an adjoining table leapt to her feet and interrupted him declaiming that she was sick of the Right to Life with its religious agenda. The chairwoman did not attempt to rule her out of order and did not give the man the opportunity to finish his verbal presentation. She claimed it was because time had run out, but we feel he should have been given the opportunity to finish what he was saying as he had been unfairly interrupted.
3. It should be noted that the interjector was completely illogical as the man was not a member of Right to Life, nor was he speaking on their behalf, there was nothing religious about his presentation. He was simply comparing the success rates and costs of two methods of achieving pregnancy and delivering a live baby.
4. The scribe on the computer screen at our consultation also did not accurately transcribe what our table had recorded as our priorities, i.e. our concern that women were not informed about the increased risk of breast cancer, the increased risk of premature birth in subsequent pregnancies (with the associated risk of cerebral palsy for the babies) and the increased risk of mental health problems following induced abortions.
5. We are therefore giving you the medical references for the two recent studies showing an increased risk of breast cancer caused by induced abortion, which add to the 28 other studies dating back to 1957 showing increased risk:
   1. V.Ozmen et al; "Breast cancer risk factors in Turkish women - a university hospital-based case control study", World Journal of Surgical Oncology, 2009, 7:37
   2. Xing P, Li J, Jin F. A case-control study of reproductive factors associated with subtypes of breast cancer in Northeast China.” Humana Press, e-publication online September 2009.
6. We also give you the references for the increased risk of premature birth in subsequent pregnancies: NEW NATIONAL WOMEN’S HEALTH POLICY Endeavour Forum Inc. Submission
   1. Rooney B, Calhoun BC. Induced abortion and risk of later premature births. J American Physicians Surgeons 2003;8(2):46-49 [ URL: “http://www.jpands.org/ vol8no2/rooney.pdf ]
   2. Shah P. et al. Induced termination of pregnancy and low birthweight and preterm birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis BJOG 2009;116(11):1425- 1442 URL:http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122591273/ abstract
   3. Swingle HM, Colaizy TT, Zimmerman MB, Moriss FH. Abortion and the Risk of Subsequent Preterm Birth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Reproductive Medicine 2009;54:95-108
7. We give below a report on the study of mental health problems following induced abortion. This is the third study by Prof. Fergusson of New Zealand, who, incidentally is pro-choice, so he can hardly by categorised as a religious fundamentalist or a Right to Life member:

“A new report from researchers at a university in New Zealand indicates 85 percent of women who had abortions report negative mental health issues as a result. The report is the latest from Professor David Fergusson and his team showing abortions cause problems for women.

“The University of Otago team examined the medical history of over 500 women and concluded having an abortion generally ‘leads to significant distress in some women who have them’. It noted women reporting adverse reactions to their abortions were up to 80 percent more likely to have mental health problems and risk of mental illness was ‘proportional to the degree of distress’ associated with the abortion.

The study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, examined data from women who had been interviewed six times between the ages of 15 and 30 and who were asked if they were pregnant and, if so, the outcome of the pregnancy.More than 85 percent of women reported negative reactions to their abortions including sorrow,sadness, guilt, regret, grief and disappointment. The study revealed that women who have abortions face more negative mental health problems resulting from that pregnancy outcome as compared with women who keep their baby and carry to term. Women having abortions had rates of mental health problems ‘approximately 1.4 to 1.8 times higher than women not exposed to abortion’.

“Fergusson and his team said there is little justification for saying that legal abortions should be promoted on the basis of improving a woman's mental health. ‘Collectively, this evidence raises important questions about the practice of justifying termination of pregnancy on the grounds that this procedure will reduce risks of mental health problems in women having unwanted pregnancy,’ the team wrote.

“The team said the study showed no reason to “support strong pro-choice positions that claim unwanted pregnancy terminated by abortion is without mental health risks. “The new study is a follow-up to previous studies Fergusson and his team conducted showing women who have abortions are more likely to become severely depressed. “The original 2006 study found some 42 percent of the women who had abortions had experienced major depression within the last four years. That's almost double the rate of women who never became pregnant. The risk of anxiety disorders also doubled.

“According to the study, women who have abortions were twice as likely to drink alcohol at dangerous levels and three times as likely to be addicted to illegal drugs. “A second study Fergusson's team released found that women who had abortions had rates of mental health problems about 30% higher than other women. The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance abuse disorders.

“The authors concluded that anywhere from 1.5 to 5.5 percent of all mental health disorders seen in New Zealand result from women having had abortions”.

David M. Fergusson, L. John Horwood, and Joseph M. Boden: Reactions to abortion and subsequent mental health: The British Journal of Psychiatry 2009 v. 195, p. 420-426. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

7. We trust you will advise women of these risks and not regard induced abortion as a sacred rite enhancing women's liberation and career prospects.

Mrs. Babette Francis. National & Overseas Co-ordinator, Endeavour Forum Inc. 14 November 2009