Abortion's long-term effects

Sir,

Surveys consistently reveal that most people don’t like the idea of abortion, but accept it because they believe it helps women. Even Barack Obama said last year in a presidential debate that he supports a ban on late-term abortions, as long as it has an exception for the health and life of the mother.

Consider the effects of abortion on the health of a woman’s cervix and uterus. The cervix is a ring-shaped muscle at the bottom of the uterus. It is the opening through which sperm enters the uterus, and out of which a baby passes during birth. During pregnancy, the cervix is tightly closed. Its job is to make sure the baby stays safely inside the womb during the nine months of preparation for birth. During the birth process, the cervix relaxes and opens to allow the baby to pass. Abortion is not a natural process.

To kill and extract the baby, the cervix must be forced open. According to David Reardon’s book ‘Aborted Women, Silent No More’, this forcing “virtually always causes microscopic tearing of the muscles, and occasionally results in severe ripping of the uterine wall.” Reardon mentions one study where 1 in 8 abortions resulted in the need for stitches for a cervix cut during the abortion process.

Reardon continues: “Cervical damage is extremely frequent in young women pregnant for the first time, because the cervix is much more rigid in women who have not previously given birth.” Sadly, some 60% of abortions are done on first pregnancies. That means these young women are setting themselves up for later problems in childbearing.

What kind of problems might they experience in later pregnancies? Dr. Reardon’s statistics:
l One study found the risk of a miscarriage between the third and sixth month of pregnancy is 10 times higher for women who had an abortion than for those who hadn’t;
l Risk of premature delivery (the baby should have stayed in the womb and developed longer) increases eight to 10 times after an abortion;

l Another study revealed that 48% of women who aborted their first child had complications with later pregnancies;
l A study at Vanderbilt University (USA) found that after one abortion, the rate of improper placement of the placenta (the connection between mother and child in the womb) increased 7 to 15 times. This improper placement increases the chance that the baby will be malformed or die during birth, and that the mother will bleed excessively during delivery.

l Uterine damage due to abortion means aborted women suffer three times as many delivery problems in later live births, as compared to non-aborting women.
Most folks don’t like abortion, but tolerate it “for the sake of the mother”. Tragically, the real effects of abortion on women’s health are catastrophic. May all people of goodwill reject the false promises of abortion and instead build a culture of love and life. Building that abortion-free culture of life will, in fact, protect the health of mothers.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com

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