A new study by the deVeber Institute, a nonprofit bioethics and social research group based in Toronto, reports that abortion complications are seriously underreported so that women considering abortion are mostly unaware of the physical and psychological risks involved. The study, Women’s Health after Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence, did a comprehensive review of the medical literature in the world and found that breast cancer, pelvic infection, infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, and subsequent premature births - with higher rates of children born with cerebral palsy - were all found to be associated with abortion. The study also found that a woman’s risk of suicide is six time greater after abortion than after normal childbirth, according to three large worldwide studies.

Regarding breast cancer in particular, the American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a paper in late May saying that there is very strong evidence that induced abortion poses a significant risk of future breast cancer. The paper says that 75% of the world’s scientific literature on the subject, and 80% of the American scientific literature on the subject, agree with this conclusion.

Depression is another significant risk. A study conducted by the Elliott Institute and published in the British Medical Journal examined a national sample of 1,086 American women who had unintended first pregnancies. They found that women who had abortions had significantly higher risk of clinical depression compared to women who delivered unintended pregnancies. The Institute’s director and lead researcher on the study, Dr. David Reardon, noted that the findings are consistent with other research linking abortion to higher subsequent rates of suicide, substance abuse, and other psychological reactions but added, “What makes this study especially important, however, is that it looked at depression rates for a number of years after abortion and reveals that the link between abortion and higher depression rates persists over at least eight years.”

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, June 2002