Washington DC, August 17 (
Last week the APA issued a report based on the conclusions of apanel that examined whether abortion can cause mental health problems.According to Steven Ertlet, writing at LifeNews.com, the panel's reportconcluded that women who have abortions may experience some grief and a senseof loss, but claimed there is no evidence showing abortion can causesignificant mental health issues.
In the official APA statement Brenda Major, chairwoman of thepanel, said "The best scientific evidence published indicates that amongadult women who have an unplanned pregnancy, the relative risk of mental healthproblems is no greater if they have a single elective, first-trimester abortionor deliver that pregnancy."
The report claimed that many studies examining a link betweenabortion and subsequent mental health issues are flawed.
A Norwegian study conducted by Dr. Willy Pedersen was recentlypublished in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. The study focused upon5,768 women between 15 and 27 years of age, asking questions concerningabortion and childbirth as well as family.
The study's abstract said, "Young adult women who undergoinduced abortion may be at increased risk for subsequent depression,"while its results said women who reported having had an abortion in theirtwenties were "more likely to score above the cut-off point fordepression."
A New Zealand study likewise suggested that a young woman whohas an abortion raises her risk of developing mental health problems, doublingher risk of anxiety disorders. According to the study, about 42 percent ofwomen who had abortions have experienced major depression within the last fouryears, double the rate among women who never became pregnant.
The study also said that women who have had abortions were twiceas likely to abuse alcohol at dangerous levels and three times as likely to beaddicted to illegal drugs, according to LifeNews.com.
David Fergusson, an abortion advocate who led the New Zealandstudy, said the results show that access to legal abortions is not necessarilygood for women. He also claimed the study confirms abortions can cause mentalhealth issues.
On March 14, 2008 the British Royal Academy of Psychiatristsissued its own position statement on abortion, saying heathcare professionalsassessing or referring women who are requesting an abortion should assess them"for mental disorders and for risk factors that may be associated with itssubsequent development."
The statement continued, saying "Consent cannot be informedwithout the provision of adequate and appropriate information regarding thepossible risks and benefits to physical and mental health."
Steven Ertlet claimed that the APA panel was "stacked"with abortion advocates, as did the American Life League.
In a Wednesday statement the American Life League asserted thatat least half of the task force panelists studying the question are activeabortion supporters, stating that the APA panel member Dr. Linda Beckman is aneditor for the Pro-Choice Forum web site.
The APA study's lead author, Dr. Brenda Major, faces allegationsthat she has violated the APA ethics rules by not sharing her data on abortionand mental health effects for other researchers to analyze.
LifeSiteNews.com reports that Major avoided fulfilling a requestfrom the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asking in 2004 that shedeliver copies of data she collected under a federal grant. Major avoided doingso, writing "It would be very difficult to pull this informationtogether."
David Reardon, biomedical ethicist and director of the EliotInstitute, said one of his colleagues in 2000 had requested a breakdown ofdetails summarized in a table in a 2000 report by Major based on that data set.
"One of her grad students replied on her behalf with theadditional summary statistics we had requested within 48 hours," he said,according to LifeSiteNews.com. "So it clearly wasn't at all difficult forher team to access the data. Plus, with modern electronic data bases andmultiple backup procedures in place at universities like hers, it is nearlyimpossible to lose such data."
Reardon claimed that Major had not responded to any furtherrequests concerning the data since 2000 and voiced his belief that she iswithholding the data to prevent the spread of findings supporting a linkbetween abortion and subsequent health problems.
He said some additional information from research used inMajor's 2000 study showed women interviewed by Major did in fact attributenegative reactions to their abortions, but such information was not published.
"I know of a number of experts in the field who haverequested the data, even within the last six months. But she simply doesn'trespond to their calls, emails, or letters," Reardon said, noting that APAethics rule 8.14 requires research psychologists to share their data forverification of their findings.
"How can we trust the objectivity of a report prepared by atask force composed exclusively of pro-choice psychologists, especially whenthe chair and lead author has a history of withholding data and findings whichmay undermine her ideological preferences?" Reardon asked rhetorically.
Turning again to the APA report, Reardon said that though itconveys a message that abortion has no mental health risks, it actually admitsthat there is evidence that abortion causes negative effects for women who havehad multiple abortions, women who abort because of coercion or pressure fromothers, minors who have abortions, and women with preexisting mental healthproblems which can be triggered or aggravated by an abortion.
He said women who have had multiple abortions accounts for abouthalf of all abortions, while women pressured into having an abortion couldaccount for between 20 to 60 percent of the women who have had abortions.
The San Antonio-based Justice Foundation has announced that 100scientists, medical and mental health professionals have issued a jointstatement saying they agree that it is common for women who have had anabortion to suffer "feelings of anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, grief, or guilt."
"It is undeniable that significant numbers of women areinjured by abortion and should not be ignored by the medical profession andthat significant numbers of women suffer serious physical, mental orpsychological trauma as a result of abortion," the joint statementcontinued.
Signatories to the joint statement attested that the existenceof a causal connection between abortion and negative health problems issupported by the "self-attribution of women themselves," mentalhealth professionals' successful diagnosis and treatment of post-abortionreactions, and peer reviewed, statistically validated studies which control for"confounding factors."
Clayton Trotter, General Counsel of The Justice Foundation said:"Given that the Supreme Court, the Eighth Circuit, the British RoyalAcademy of Psychiatrists, 100 American Scientists, Medical and Mental HealthProfessionals and 3000 post-abortive women, and men agree that abortion canpotentially severely hurt women we want that truth to be recognized by the AmericanPsychological Association."