73 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838. [Back]
75 See generally E. Joanne Angelo, Psychiatric Sequelae of Abortion: The Many Faces of Post-Abortion Grief, 59 LINACRE Q. 69 (1992). See also David A. Grimes, Second-Trimester Abortions in the United States, 16 FAM. PLAN. PERS. 260 (1984); Myre Sim & Robert Neisser, Post-Abortive Psychoses: A Report from Two Centers, in THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ABORTION (David Mall & Walter F. Watts eds. 1979); ANNE SPECKHARD, THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL STRESS FOLLOWING ABORTION (1987). [Back]
76 Carl L.Tischler, Adolescent Suicide Attempts Following Elective Abortion: A Special Case of Anniversary Reaction, 68 PEDIATRICS 670, 670-71 (1981). [Back]
77 BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 298; SPECKHARD, supra note 75, at 56. [Back]
78 One of many examples of women describing their suicidal impulses due to an abortion is that of Jane writing twelve months after her abortion:
And I just have no words to describe what I went through when I woke up from the anaesthetic. I cry as I write this. I wanted to slice myself up, to get a gun and blow my head off. I wanted to do something violent and bloody to myself - I wanted to literally blow myself apart. How could I have agreed to an abortion? How did I let that happen? I ask myself those questions every day.
I did not feel I deserved to live. All I thought about was how I would kill myself, when I would kill myself. I wrote goodbye letters to my family, my good friend, and my flatmate and researched the most efficient and effective way to kill myself - I wasn't going to make any mistakes. Afterall, if I can kill my baby, I can sure as hell kill myself - and I deserve it. Because I couldn't even look after my baby when it was right there deep inside of me. Couldn't even do that.
If my mother hadn't been going on a trip to Antarctica, which I knew meant the world to her, I would have killed myself. I am quite sure of this. But I thought I would wait until after her trip. If I killed myself beforehand she wouldn't go. . . . The abortion has blown my life apart, blown my entire self/psyche/soul/belief in myself apart. It has devastated me and I don't know how long this goes on for.
Melinda Tankard Reist, Giving Sorrow Words: Women's Stories of Grief After Abortion 53-55 (2000). See also Burke & Reardon, supra note 64, at 39, 172-76. [Back]
79 One of the most recent examples was the Suicide of Brad Draper, 44, who on September 10, 2002, shot himself in the head in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kansas. The Suicide occurred on the first anniversary of the abortion. Three months earlier, Draper published an obituary to his aborted son in the community paper that read, "Zachary Duncan Draper was beautiful as his mother, loved by God and others. My little baby boy didn't make it to his Daddy's arms. I never got to hold and kiss him, tell him stories or read him rhymes. I love you Zachary and look forward to seeing you in heaven." Kyle J. Cox, Abortion Touches Us All, TELEGRAPH HERALD, Nov. 18, 2002, at A4. Several case studies of eighteen-to-twenty- two-year-old males who became suicidal following news of their girlfriends' or wives' abortions are found in JC Dubouis-bonnefond & JR Galle-tessonneau, Psychological aspects of voluntary induced abortion among fathers drafted into military service, 14 PSYCHOL. MED. (Paris) 1187-89 (1982), available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db =PubMed&list_uids=12268237&dopt=Abstract (last visited Apr. 17, 2004); see also Angelo, supra note 75, at 76. [Back]
80 B. Garfinkel et al., Stress, Depression and Suicide: A Study of Adolescents in Minnesota (University of Minnesota Extension Service 1986). [Back]
81 Elizabeth Rosenthal, Women's Suicides Reveal China's Bitter Roots: Nation Starts to Confront World's Highest Rate, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 24, 1999, at A1. [Back]
83 Michael R. Phillips et al., Suicide Rates in China, 1995-99, 359 THE LANCET 835, 836 (2002). [Back]
84 David C. Reardon, Suicide Rates in China, 359 THE LANCET 2274, 2274-75 (2002). [Back]
85 Gissler, supra note 7, at 653. [Back]
86 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838 tbl.3. [Back]
87 R.F. Badgley et al., Report of the Committee on the Operation of the Abortion Law, Government of Canada, Minister of Supply and Services 319 (1977). [Back]
88 Jeff Nelson, Interagency Memorandum, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services regarding Data Request from Delegate Marshall (Mar. 21, 1997) (source on file with the author). [Back]
89 Tischler, supra note 76, at 670 -71; Angelo, supra note 75; BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 140, 170, 184. [Back]
90 Joel Osler Brende, Post-Trauma Sequelae Following Abortion and Other Traumatic Events, 7 ASSOCIATION FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN VALUES AND SOCIAL CHANGE NEWSLETTER 1-8 (1994) (subsequently renamed the RESEARCH BULLETIN). [Back]
91 Elizabeth R. Morrissey & Marc A. Schuckit, Stressful Life Events and Alcohol Problems Among Women Seen At a Detoxication Center, 39 J. STUD. ALCOHOL 1559, 1567, 1570 (1978); Richard W. Wilsnack et al., Women's Drinking and Drinking Problems: Patterns from a 1981 National Survey, 74 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1231 (1984); Albert D. Klassen & Sharon C. Wilsnack, Sexual Experience and Drinking Among Women in a U.S. National Survey, 15 ARCHIVES SEXUAL BEHAV. 363 (1986). Both of the preceding two studies report on a national survey which found that the percentage of women who admitted a history of abortion was significantly higher among women identified as being heavy (13%) or moderate (13%) drinkers than among light drinkers (5%) or abstainers (4%). See Wilsnack et al., supra; see Klassen & Wilsnack, supra. See Tommijean Thomas et al., Psychosocial Characteristics of Psychiatric Inpatients With Reproductive Losses, 7 J. HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR & UNDERSERVED 15, 18 (1996); Drower & Nash, supra note 65, tbl.VII; Priscilla K. Coleman et al., History of Induced Abortion in Relation to Substance Use During Pregnancies Carried to Term, 187 AM. J. OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 1673 (2002); J. Kuzma, & D. Kissinger, Patterns of Alcohol and Cigarette Use in Pregnancy, 3 NEUROBEHAVIORAL TOXICOLOGY & TERATOLOGY 211 (1981). [Back]
92 Louis G. Keith et al., Substance Abuse in Pregnant Women: Recent Experience at the Perinatal Center for Chemical Dependence of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, 73 OBSTETRICS GYNECOLOGY 715, 717 (1989); Thomas et al., supra note 91, at 15-23; Drower & Nash, supra note 65, at 604-8; Hortensia Amaro et al., Drug Use Among Adolescent Mothers: Profile of Risk, 84 PEDIATRICS 144, 147 (1989); Oro & Dixon, Prenatal Cocaine and Methamphetamine Exposure: Maternal and Neo-Natal Correlates, 111 PEDIATRICS 571 (1987); Deborah A. Frank et al., Cocaine Use During Pregnancy: Prevalence and Correlates, 82 PEDIATRICS 888 (1988). K. Graham & G. Koren, Characteristics of Pregnant Women Exposed to Cocaine in Toronto between 1985 and 1990, 144 CANADIAN MED. ASS'N J. 563 (1991). See generally Coleman et al., supra note 91. [Back]
93 David C. Reardon & Philip G. Ney, Abortion and Subsequent Substance Abuse, 26 AM. J. DRUG & ALCOHOL ABUSE 61, 68 (2000). [Back]
94 Brenda Major et al., Personal Resilience, Cognitive Appraisals, and Coping: An Integrative Model of Adjustment to Abortion, 74 J. PERS. SOC. PSYCHOL. 735 (1998) (self-assessment research shows that at least a minority of women report that they used drugs and alcohol as a means to cope with their feelings about the abortion); see also BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 167-72; CANDACE DE PUY & DANA DOVITCH, THE HEALING CHOICE: YOUR GUIDE TO EMOTIONAL RECOVERY AFTER AN ABORTION 57, 130 (1997); JEANETTE VOUGHT, POST-ABORTION TRAUMA: 9 STEPS TO RECOVERY 111-12 (1991). [Back]
95 Gissler, supra note 7, at 654 tbl.III [Back]
96 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838. [Back]
97 Horan, supra note 22, at 1455. [Back]
98 BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 167-72; R.M. Tolman, Protecting the Children of Battered Women, 3 J. INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE 476, 476-483 (1988). 99 Elaine Hilberman & Kit Munson, Sixty Battered Women, 2 VICTIMOLOGY 460, 462 (1977-1978). [Back]
99 Elaine Hilberman & Kit Munson, Sixty Battered Women, 2 VICTIMOLOGY460, 462 (1977-1978). [Back]
100 Cara J. Krulewich et al., Hidden from View: Violent Deaths Among Pregnant Women in the District of Columbia, 1988-1996, 46 J. MIDWIFERY & WOMEN'S HEALTH 4, 7 (2001 [Back]
101 Julie A. Gazmararian et al., The Relationship Between Pregnancy Intendedness and Physical Violence in Mothers of Newborns, 85 OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 1031 (1995); Hortensia Amaro et al., Violence During Pregnancy and Substance Use, 80 AM. J. PUBLIC HEALTH 575 (1990); J. McFarlane et al., Abuse During Pregnancy and Femicide: Urgent Implications for Women's Health, 100 OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 27, 27-36 (2002). [Back]
102 Curiously, research has shown that women who have less conflict over a decision to abort subsequently have higher levels of hostility. D.T. Moseley et al., Psychological Factors That Predict Reaction to Abortion, 37 J. CLINICAL PSYCHOL. 276, 277-78 (1981). The researchers observed that "[a] contradiction arises from the fact that if the decision was relatively easy, why the high level of hostility? It may be difficult simultaneously to feel guilt and hostility, and hostility is considered to be a major defensive response to guilt." Id. at 279. If hostility is employed as a defensive reaction to unresolved abortion issues, it may contribute to aggressive behaviors that may make post-abortive women more prone to accidents and homicide in addition to non-fatal injuries to themselves and others. [Back]
103 BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 295 questions 7 & 8. The totals reflect the combined responses of those who indicated that they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. [Back]
104 Id. at 298 question 19. [Back]
105 Id. at 299 question 3. [Back]
106 David C. Reardon, Abortion and Domestic Violence, 4 POST-ABORTION REV. 13 (1996). [Back]
108 Daniel Reynolds, Detective Says Woman Killed Over Abortion, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REV., May 22, 1999, at C1. [Back]
109 Man pleads in shooting death, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REV., Mar. 13, 2001, available at http://library.triblive.com/interconnect/intercon.dll (last visited Apr. 17, 2004). [Back]
110 Mika Gissler & Elina Hemminki, Pregnancy-Related Violent Deaths, 27 SCANDINAVIAN J. PUBLIC HEALTH 54 (1999). [Back]
111 Reardon, supra note 8, at 835. [Back]
112 This calculation assumes that the women who did not have abortions would have the same risk of death from violent causes as those who have deliveries, which was 195.4 deaths per 100,000 women over eight years. [Back]
113 Gissler, supra note 7, passim. [Back]
114 E-mailed explanation from Mika Gissler, researcher with the Health Service Research Unit, STAKES, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Helsinki, Finland to David C. Reardon (Mar. 8, 2000) (on file with the author). [Back]
115 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838. [Back]
116 D. Berkeley et al., Demands Made on General Practice by Women Before and After an Abortion, 34 J. ROYAL COLLEGE GEN. PRACTITIONERS 310, 313 (1984). Another study examined treatment rates three months before and after abortion and found a thirty-six percent increased rate of hospital admissions following abortion. The elevated hospitalization rates were statistically significant. Truls Ostbye et al., Health Services Utilization After Induced Abortions In Ontario: A Comparison Between Community Clinics and Hospitals, 16 AM. J.MED. QUALITY 99 (2001). [Back]
117 Warren B. Miller et al., Testing a Model of the Psychological Consequences of Abortion, in THE NEW CIVIL WAR: THE PSYCHOLOGY, CULTURE, AND POLITICS OF ABORTION 235, 244 (Linda J. Beckman & S. Marie Harvey eds., 1998). [Back]
118 Phillip G. Ney et al., The Effects of Pregnancy Loss on Women's Health, 38 SOC. SCI. & MED. 1193, 1193-94 (1994). [Back]
119 Michael Iriwn et al., Life Events, Depressive Symptoms and Immune Function, 144 AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 437 (1987). [Back]
120 Ney et al., supra note 118, at 1193-1200. [Back]
121 CATHERINE A. BARNARD, THE LONG TERM PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ABORTION 61 (1990); Ellen W. Freeman et al., Emotional Distress Patterns Among Women Having First or Repeat Abortions, 55 OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 630 (1980); Jesse R. Cougle et al., Generalized Anxiety Following Unintended Pregnancies Resolved Through Childbirth and Abortion: A Cohort Study of the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, J. ANXIETY DISORDERS (forthcoming 2004). Anxiety following abortion is reported by as many as eighty-two percent of women who experience post-abortion maladjustments, with many reporting symptoms of general anxiety related to fear of punishment from God, fear of another pregnancy, fear of another abortion, fear of others learning of the abortion, fear of making decisions, and preoccupation with thoughts of death. BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 291-92. [Back]
122 BARNARD, supra note 122, at 56-58. In the Elliot Institute survey of women who experienced post-abortion maladjustments, forty-five percent reported bouts of insomnia with this reaction statistically associated with nightmares. BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 125. [Back]
123 Mark A. Blais et al., Pregnancy Outcome and Impact on Symptomatology in a Cohort of Eating-Disordered Women, 27 INT'L J. EATING DISORDERS 140 (2000); VOUGHT, supra note 94, at 110; BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 187-200, 293. See generally SPECKHARD, supra note 75. [Back]
124 Judith S. Wallerstein et al., Psychological Sequelae of Therapeutic Abortion in Young Unmarried Women, 27 ARCHIVES GEN. PSYCHIATRY 828 (1972). In a survey of women who had suffered from post-abortion maladjustments, forty-seven percent describe themselves as becoming promiscuous following their abortions. BURKE & REARDON, supra note 64, at 297. [Back]
125 See sources cited and accompanying text supra note 91. [Back]
126 See sources cited and accompanying text supra note 92. [Back]
127 Drower & Nash, supra note 65, passim; S. Kullander & B. Kallen, A prospective study of smoking and pregnancy, ACTA OBSTETRICA ET GYNECOLOGICAL SCANDINAVICA 50, 83-94 (1971); Susan Harlap & A. Michael Davies, Characteristics of Pregnant Women Reporting Previously Induced Abortions, 52 BULL. WORLD HEALTH ORG. 149 (1975); Ann Aschengrau Levin et al., Association of Induced Abortion With Subsequent Pregnancy Loss 243 JAMA 2495 (1980); Erik B. Obel, Pregnancy Complications Following Legally Induced Abortion: An Analysis of the Population With Special Reference to Prematurity, 26 DANISH MED. BULL. 192 (1979); A. Lopes et al., The Impact of Multiple Induced Abortions on the Outcome of Subsequent Pregnancy 31 AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND J. OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, 41 (1991); Jerker Liljestrand et al., Characteristics of Young Female Smokers in a Swedish Primary Health Care Area, 11 SCANDINAVIAN J. PRIMARY HEALTH CARE 157 (1993); Olav Meirik & Karl-Gosta Nygren, Outcome of First Delivery After 2nd Trimester Two-Stage Induced Abortion: A Controlled Historical Cohort Study, 63 ACTA OBSTETRICIA ET GYNECOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA 45 (1984); Carol J. Hogue, Low Birth Weight Subsequent to Induced Abortion: A Historical Prospective Study of 948 women in Skopje, Yugoslavia, 123 AM. J. OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 675 (1975); Carol Madore, A Study on the Effects of Induced Abortion on Subsequent Pregnancy Outcome, 139 AM. J. OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 139 (1981); Margaret T. Mandelson et al., Low Birth Weight in Relation to Multiple Induced Abortions, 82 AM. J. PUBLIC HEALTH 391 (1992). [Back]
128 Richard Henshaw et al., Psychological Responses Following Medical Abortion (Using Mifepristone and Gemeprost) and Surgical Vacuum Aspiration: A Patient-Centered, Partially Randomised Prospective Study, 73 ACTA OBSTETRICIA ET GYNECOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA 812, 817 (1994). [Back]
129 Thomas W. Strahan, Women's health and abortion: Risk of premature death in women from induced abortion, preliminary finding, 5 (2)ASSOCIATION FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN VALUES AND SOCIAL CHANGE NEWSLETTER 1-8 (1993) (subsequently renamed the RESEARCH BULLETIN) [hereinafter Women's health and abortion]. [Back]
131 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838. [Back]
132 David C. Reardon & Jesse R.Cougle, Depression and Unintended Pregnancy in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth: A Cohort Study, 24 BRIT.MED. J. 151, 151- 52 (2002). As there is a correlation between depression and guilt following abortion, evidence that women who had abortions after it was legalized by Roe v. Wade in 1973 are more likely to express feelings of guilt than women who had abortions before 1973 suggests that legalization of abortion may be associated with higher risk of postabortion depression. See Douglas Brown et al., Prolonged Grieving After Abortion: A Descriptive Study, 4 J. CLINICAL ETHICS 118 (1993). Legalization of abortion may have increased the risks that undergo "unwanted" abortions in response to the pressure of other persons. When abortion was not readily available, the hurdles women had to go through to find a legal or illegal abortion may have served as a mechanism for screening out women who were ambivalent and for reducing the pressure from others to have an abortion. Since 1973, high levels of ambivalence are common among women seeking an abortion. See MARY K. ZIMMERMAN, PASSAGE THROUGH ABORTION: THE PERSONAL AND SOCIAL REALITY OF WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES (1977); M.B. Bracken, A Causal Model of Psychosomatic Reactions to Vacuum Aspiration Abortion, 13 SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY 135 (1978); DAVID C. REARDON, ABORTED WOMEN, SILENT NO MORE 16-17 (1987). [Back]
133 Brenda W. J. H. Pennix et al., Depression and Cardiac Mortality, 58 ARCHIVES GEN. PSYCHIATRY 221 (2001); Robert M. Carney et al., Depression and Coronary Heart Disease: A Review for Cardiologists, 20 CLINICAL CARDIOLOGY 196 (1997); K. Ranga Rama Krishnan, Depression as a Contributing Factor in Cerebrovascular Disease, 140 AM. HEART J. 70 (2000); O'Connor et al., Depression and Ischemic Heart Disease, 140 AM. HEART J. 63 (2000). [Back]
134 Robert W. Linkins & George W. Comstock, Depressed Mood and Development of Cancer, 132 AM. J. EPIDEMIOLOGY 962, 962 (1990). [Back]
135 Joel Brind et al., Induced Abortion as an Independent Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: A Comprehensive Review and Meta-Analysis, 50 J. EPIDEMIOLOGY & COMMUNITY HEALTH 481 (1996). Twenty-eight studies examining data relevant to breast cancer and prior reproductive history are examined in this meta-analysis. [Back]
136 Numerous studies show that there is a twofold to threefold increased risk of cervical cancer associated with prior history of abortion. The increased risk of cervical cancer associated with prior abortion history may be mediated through numerous factors. As previously noted, smoking and promiscuity, which are risk factors for cervical cancer, are known to increase following abortion. Abortion may also have a direct impact via mechanical trauma and infection associated with the surgery, chronic inflammatory lesions, and general endocrine stress. See Larissa I. Remennick, Induced Abortion as Cancer Risk Factor: A Review of Epidemiological Evidence, 44 J. EPIDEMIOLOGY & COMMUNITY HEALTH 259 (1990). See also A. Hildesheim et al., HPV Co-Factors Related to the Development of Cervical Cancer: Results from a Population-Based Study in Costa Rica, 84 BRIT. J. CANCER 1219 (2001); Ramiro Molina et al., Oral Contraceptives and Cervical Carcinoma in Situ in Chile, 48 CANCER RESEARCH 1011 (1988); F. Parazzini et al., Reproductive Factors and the Risk of Invasive and Intraepithelial Cervical Neoplasia, 59 BRIT. J. CANCER 805 (1989); THOMAS W. STRAHAN, DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF ABORTION: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH COMMENTARY 214-19 (3d ed. 2001). [Back]
137 STRAHAN, supra note 136, 206-27. [Back]
138 Women's Health and Abortion, supra note 129. [Back]
139 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838. [Back]
140 Damiano D. Abeni et al., Deliveries, Abortion and HIV-1 Infection in Rome, 1989-1994, 13 EUR. J. EPIdEMIOLOGY 373, 373-374 (1997). A Desgrees et al. HIV-1 Infection and Reproductive History: A Retrospective Study among Pregnant Women: Adidjan, Cote d'Iviire, 9 INT'L J. STD & AIDS 452 (1998). [Back]
141 Lars Heisterberg, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Following Induced First-Trimester Abortion, 35 DANISH MED. BULL. 64 (1988); Jette Led Sorensen et al., Early- and Late-Onset Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Among Women with Cervical Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection at the Time of Induced Abortion--A Follow-Up Study, 22 INFECTION 242 (1994); Susan D. Hillis et al., Delayed Care of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease as a Risk Factor for Impaired Fertility, 168 AM. J. OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 1503 (1993). [Back]
142 Jay A. Levy, Transmission of AIDS: The Case of the Infected Cell, 259 JAMA 3037, 3037 (1988). [Back]
143 Judith A. Stein et al., Psychosocial Correlates and Predictors of AIDS Risk Behaviors, Abortion, and Drug Use Among a Community Sample of Young Adult Women, 13 HEALTH PSYCHOL. 308, 308-15 (1994). [Back]
144 John M. Thorp et al., Long-Term Physical and Psychological Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: Review of the Evidence, 58 OBSTETRICAL & GYNECOLOGICAL SURV. 67 (2003). [Back]
145 See Strahan, supra note 136, at 168-204; Thomas W. Strahan, Detrimental Effects of Abortion: Supplement No. 1 (Supp. 2002). [Back]
146 Thomas W. Strahan, Induced Abortion as a Contributing Factor in Maternal Mortality or Pregnancy-Related Death in Women, 10 RESEARCH BULLETIN 1 (1996). [Back]
147 David C. Reardon et al., Psychiatric Admissions of Low-Income Women Following Abortion and Childbirth,168 CANADIAN MED. ASS'N J. 1253, 1255-56 (2003); Priscilla K Coleman et al., State-funded abortions vs. deliveries: A comparison of outpatient mental health claims over five years, 72 COLEMAN AM. J. ORTHOPSYCHIATRY 141-52 (2002); Henry P. David et al., Post-Abortion and Postpartum Psychotic Reactions, 13 FAM. PLAN. PERSP. 88, 89 (1981). [Back]
148 Reardon, supra note 8, at 838. The odds ratio for death from mental disease was 3.21, 95% CI 1.11 to 9.27. Id. [Back]
149 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 149 n.44 (1972). [Back]
150 John F. Murphy & Kieran O'Driscoll, Therapeutic Abortion: The Medical Argument, 75 IRISH MED. J. 304, 305-06 (1982). While it is known that some illnesses increase the risk of death during pregnancy or delivery, there does not appear to be any studies that have demonstrated lower mortality rates among women with a particular class of disease who elect abortion. At least some researchers have concluded that while it may be inadvisable for women with these diseases to become pregnant, once they are pregnant there is no evidence to support the view that abortion poses less risk to their health than careful management of their pregnancy. Id. [Back]
151 Id. According to the authors,
Among the 21 maternal deaths, 7 were not connected with pregnancy and for this reason would not have been prevented by therapeutic abortion, 11 were a direct result of pregnancy but, as these cases suffered from complications which could not have been forseen, the question of therapeutic abortion would not have arisen, and 3 were the result of chronic disease which deteriorated to such a degree as to lead to a fatal outcome.
Id. at 305. In a careful analysis of each of the three cases where chronic disease was present, the researchers concluded that a therapeutic abortion would not have been recommended in any of these cases. They also noted that there is a severe absence of research indicating when, if ever, abortion might actually reduce the risk of death for pregnant women with severe health problems, particularly since the abortion itself may involve as much or more risk than childbirth. [Back]
152 M. Lanska et al., Mortality From Abortion and Childbirth, (letter), 250 JAMA 361-362 (1983). [Back]
153 S. Taffel et al., Trends in the United States Cesarean Section Rate and Reasons for the 1980-1985 Rise, 77 AM. J. PUBLIC HEALTH 955 (1987). [Back]
154 Murphy & O'Driscoll, supra note 150, at 305 (noting that even in cases such as Eisenmenger's Syndrome, which poses a serious risk to a pregnant woman's life, the same disease that makes delivery problematic makes any surgery, including abortion, problematic to the point where the surgery may pose risks that equal or exceed those associated with a spontaneous delivery. This observation highlights an important problem: Even after decades of experience with abortion, there have not been any case-control studies published showing that abortion has statistically significant benefits compared to childbirth. This is true in regard to both the general population of healthy women and in regard to the population of unhealthy pregnant women. [Back]
155 David A.Grimes et al., Teaching Critical Appraisal to Medical Students in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 92 OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 877, 880 (1998). [Back]
156 Roe, 410 U.S. at 163. [Back]
157 Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914, 937 (2000). [Back]
158 See generally Grimes et al., supra note 155. [Back]