What You Don't Hear About Abortions
Abortions are more common than most people realize. Here are some things you don't hear about abortion (The following statistics are on abortions in the United States.):
One in four pregnancies is terminated by abortion.
Half of pregnancies are unintended.
Half of unintended pregnancies are ended by abortion.
One-third of women will have an abortion by age 45, at current abortion rates.
Six in 10 women who have an abortion are already mothers.
More than nine in 10 women at risk of unintended pregnancy use contraceptives.
Six in 10 women who have an abortion want to get pregnant in the future.
43% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% identify themselves as Catholic.
On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.
In 2000 (the most recent year for which data are available), 11 women died as a result of complications from known legal induced abortion
In 2000, the cost of a nonhospital abortion with local anesthesia at 10 weeks of gestation ranged from $150 to $4,000, and the average amount paid was $372.20.
Women between the ages of 20-24 obtained 33% of all abortions.
52% of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25, and teenagers obtain 19%.
55% of minors who have abortions do not tell their parents.
Black women are more than 3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2 1/2 times as likely.
88% of all abortions happen during the first trimester, prior to the at 13th week.
Sources: The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Abortion is not a benign procedure. It is the violent and unnatural destruction of a living human being.
Abortion is physically painful for both the mother and her baby.
While there are a number of medical risks associated with abortion, including a significant increase in the likelihood of contracting breast cancer, the greatest threat that abortion poses to a woman may come from the abortion providers themselves.
Some of the psychological risks of abortion include:
Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD or PAS)
Sexual dysfunction
Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts
Increased smoking with correspondent negative health
Alcohol abuse
Drug abuse
Eating disorders
Child neglect or abuse
Divorce, and chronic relationship problems
Repeat abortions
Some of the physical risks of abortion include:
Death
Breast Cancer
Cervical, ovarian, and liver cancer
Uterine perforation
Cervical lacerations
Placenta previa
Complications of labor
Handicapped newborns in later pregnancies
Ectopic pregnancies
Pelvic inflammatory diseases (PIP)
Endometritis
Immediate complications
Increased risks for women seeking multiple abortions
Lower general health
Increased risk for contributing health factors
Increased risk for teenagers.
Quotes About Abortion You Never Hear
"I was trained by a professional marketing director in how to sell abortions over the telephone... The object was, when the girl called, to hook the sale so that she wouldn't get an abortion somewhere else, or adopt out her baby, or change her mind. We were doing it for the money."
~ Nina Whitten, chief secretary at a Dallas abortion clinic under Dr. Curtis Boyd.
"One night a lady delivered and I was called to come and see her because she was 'uncontrollable.' I went into the room, and she was going to pieces; she was having a nervous breakdown, screaming and thrashing. The other patients were upset because this lady was screaming. I walked in, and here was this little saline abortion baby kicking. It had been born alive, and was kicking and moving for a little while before it finally died of those terrible burns, because the salt solution gets into the lungs and burns the lungs too. I'll tell you one thing about D& E . You never have to worry about a baby's being born alive. I won't describe D & E , other than to say that, as a doctor, you are sitting there tearing, and I mean tearing- you need a lot of strength to do it- arms and legs off of babies and putting them in a stack on top of the table."
~ Dr. David Brewer of Glen Ellyn Illinois
"I have never known a woman who, after her baby was born, was not overjoyed that I had not killed it."
~Abortionist Aleck Bourne
"We know that its killing, but the state permits killing under certain circumstances."
~Dr. Neville Sender, abortionist
"Grief after elective abortion is uniquely poignant because it is largely hidden. The post-abortion woman's grief is not acknowledged by society because the reality of her child's death is not acknowledged. In order to gain her consent for the abortion she has been told that the procedure will remove a "blob of tissue" a "product of conception", or a "pre-embryo." She has been assured that her "problem will be solved" and that she will be able to "get on with her life" as though nothing significant had happened. Yet the pregnant woman knows by the changes in her body that something very significant is happening to her: her menses have stopped, her breasts are enlarging, she is sick in the morning (or all day long), and she knows that the process which has begun in her will most likely result in the birth of a baby in nine months time if allowed to run its course. She is aware of the expected date of delivery and she has often thought of a name for her baby as she has begun to picture the child as he or she would be at birth (Bonding begins very early in pregnancy.). All of these feelings and fantasies about her pregnancy must be denied in order to undergo an elective abortion. The pregnant woman is asked to deny the fact that she is carrying a child at all!"
~E. Joanne Angelo, M.D, Linacre Quarterly, Vol 59, no. 2 (May, 1992).
One in four pregnancies is terminated by abortion.
Half of pregnancies are unintended.
Half of unintended pregnancies are ended by abortion.
One-third of women will have an abortion by age 45, at current abortion rates.
Six in 10 women who have an abortion are already mothers.
More than nine in 10 women at risk of unintended pregnancy use contraceptives.
Six in 10 women who have an abortion want to get pregnant in the future.
43% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% identify themselves as Catholic.
On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.
In 2000 (the most recent year for which data are available), 11 women died as a result of complications from known legal induced abortion
In 2000, the cost of a nonhospital abortion with local anesthesia at 10 weeks of gestation ranged from $150 to $4,000, and the average amount paid was $372.20.
Women between the ages of 20-24 obtained 33% of all abortions.
52% of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25, and teenagers obtain 19%.
55% of minors who have abortions do not tell their parents.
Black women are more than 3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2 1/2 times as likely.
88% of all abortions happen during the first trimester, prior to the at 13th week.
Sources: The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Abortion is not a benign procedure. It is the violent and unnatural destruction of a living human being.
Abortion is physically painful for both the mother and her baby.
While there are a number of medical risks associated with abortion, including a significant increase in the likelihood of contracting breast cancer, the greatest threat that abortion poses to a woman may come from the abortion providers themselves.
Some of the psychological risks of abortion include:
Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD or PAS)
Sexual dysfunction
Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts
Increased smoking with correspondent negative health
Alcohol abuse
Drug abuse
Eating disorders
Child neglect or abuse
Divorce, and chronic relationship problems
Repeat abortions
Some of the physical risks of abortion include:
Death
Breast Cancer
Cervical, ovarian, and liver cancer
Uterine perforation
Cervical lacerations
Placenta previa
Complications of labor
Handicapped newborns in later pregnancies
Ectopic pregnancies
Pelvic inflammatory diseases (PIP)
Endometritis
Immediate complications
Increased risks for women seeking multiple abortions
Lower general health
Increased risk for contributing health factors
Increased risk for teenagers.
Quotes About Abortion You Never Hear
"I was trained by a professional marketing director in how to sell abortions over the telephone... The object was, when the girl called, to hook the sale so that she wouldn't get an abortion somewhere else, or adopt out her baby, or change her mind. We were doing it for the money."
~ Nina Whitten, chief secretary at a Dallas abortion clinic under Dr. Curtis Boyd.
"One night a lady delivered and I was called to come and see her because she was 'uncontrollable.' I went into the room, and she was going to pieces; she was having a nervous breakdown, screaming and thrashing. The other patients were upset because this lady was screaming. I walked in, and here was this little saline abortion baby kicking. It had been born alive, and was kicking and moving for a little while before it finally died of those terrible burns, because the salt solution gets into the lungs and burns the lungs too. I'll tell you one thing about D& E . You never have to worry about a baby's being born alive. I won't describe D & E , other than to say that, as a doctor, you are sitting there tearing, and I mean tearing- you need a lot of strength to do it- arms and legs off of babies and putting them in a stack on top of the table."
~ Dr. David Brewer of Glen Ellyn Illinois
"I have never known a woman who, after her baby was born, was not overjoyed that I had not killed it."
~Abortionist Aleck Bourne
"We know that its killing, but the state permits killing under certain circumstances."
~Dr. Neville Sender, abortionist
"Grief after elective abortion is uniquely poignant because it is largely hidden. The post-abortion woman's grief is not acknowledged by society because the reality of her child's death is not acknowledged. In order to gain her consent for the abortion she has been told that the procedure will remove a "blob of tissue" a "product of conception", or a "pre-embryo." She has been assured that her "problem will be solved" and that she will be able to "get on with her life" as though nothing significant had happened. Yet the pregnant woman knows by the changes in her body that something very significant is happening to her: her menses have stopped, her breasts are enlarging, she is sick in the morning (or all day long), and she knows that the process which has begun in her will most likely result in the birth of a baby in nine months time if allowed to run its course. She is aware of the expected date of delivery and she has often thought of a name for her baby as she has begun to picture the child as he or she would be at birth (Bonding begins very early in pregnancy.). All of these feelings and fantasies about her pregnancy must be denied in order to undergo an elective abortion. The pregnant woman is asked to deny the fact that she is carrying a child at all!"
~E. Joanne Angelo, M.D, Linacre Quarterly, Vol 59, no. 2 (May, 1992).
Dear Dr. Jean,
ReplyDeleteFirst, let's see if I understand it: The mother's brain knows she is pregnant before she is consciously aware of it, since the newly fertilized egg sends hormonal signals to her brain that prepare her body for implantation and pregnancy - is this correct?
I have been wondering about this a lot lately. Back before we used fancy pregnancy tests and doctors, how did a woman confirm her own pregnancy? What is the "natural" process by which she discovers she is carrying another human being? Does bonding occur between mother and child even before she "knows" she is pregnant, because the non-verbal, non-thinking part of the brain is aware of the pregnancy almost immediately? These hormonal communications - aren't they significant even if we can't put them into conscious thought or words?
Yes, these are a lot of questions, and I apologize. But I have been looking at it from this point of view as I have researched the psychological consequences of killing. It has been my contention that the psychological concept of "baby" is what we are aborting; therefore, there is no way to procure an abortion without psychological denial mechanisms, such as the euphemisms you point out. In Vietnam veterans, we found that teaching the soldiers to use denial in order to overcome their resistance to killing sets them up to develop PTSD at a higher rate than seen in previous conflicts. I think we do the same in abortion, and would appreciate your insight.
I agree with you that we do use denial defense mechanisms to help mothers kill their babies and I like the analogy you use in comparing them to the Viet Nam veterans, who develop PTSD at a higher rate than seen in previous conflicts due to the use of denial.
ReplyDeleteYou ask a lot of questions, but they are great questions. It sounds like you have some wonderful ideas for a thesis or for further research. I am unaware of any research that has been done in this area. Please keep me updated on your findings.