Suicide after abortion
Suicide after abortion
ABORTION AFFECTS WOMEN'S HEALTH
After an abortion, a number of behavioural and social outcomes have been observed which affect women's health and their ability to deal adequately with certain situations. Those who are most at risk of developing significant post-abortion psychological problems have already been listed. Post-abortion behaviours may be self-destructive and may even, as several studies have shown, include suicide, both actual and attempted.
In 1995 Gilchrist (66) examined psychiatric complications following abortion and found that the relative risk for self-harm among the aborting group of his study cohort was 1.7, i.e. they were 70% more likely to self-harm than the non-aborting group. Similarly, Speckhards study of 30 women post-abortion, found that 65% had suicide ideation and 31% had attempted suicide.
FINNISH STUDY
A major Finnish study undertaken by Gissler (67) using data from hospitals and government death certificates, established that the suicide rate in the year following childbirth, and the suicide rate in the year following an abortion, were dramatically different. The figures below represent the suicide rate per 100,000 women in Finland:
1. Associated with childbirth 5.9
2. Associated with miscarriage 13.1
3. Associated with abortion 34.7
4. Mean annual rate for all women 11.3
This comprehensive study, which examined the records of almost 600,000 women, discovered a suicide rate among women who aborted nearly six times greater than among women who gave birth to their babies and three times higher than the general suicide rate. They concluded that "childbearing prevents suicide" and that the increased risk of suicide after an abortion may indicate the "harmful effects of abortion on mental health." According to the authors "rather than being a relief, an abortion may be additional proof of their worthlessness and might contribute to suicidality and to the decision to commit suicide."
This prestigious study also claims that only 11% of the suicides following pregnancy had this connection stated in the death certificate. They conclude that there is a substantial under-reporting of suicide as an outcome of pregnancy, especially following abortion.
The researchers also comment on the connection between post-abortion suicide victims and social class. They note that there are higher post-abortion suicide rates among women in the lower social classes.
NEGATIVE AFTER-EFFECTS
Abortion researcher David C Reardon68 (author of Aborted Women: Silent no More) studied a sample of women who had abortions and who suffered negative after-effects. From these women, "60% had experienced suicidal ideation, 28% had attempted suicide and 18% had attempted suicide more than once, often several years after the event."
He goes on to say that, "actual data suggests that abortion is far more likely than pregnancy and childbirth to drive an unstable woman to suicide." He also quotes statistics from a chapter of Suiciders Anonymous and concludes that 1400 of 1800 post-abortion women who sought help from this support group were between the ages of 15 and 24. Reardon, a clinical and research psychologist, also suggests a reason why post-abortive women may develop suicidal tendencies.
"Perhaps one reason for the strong abortion-suicide link exists in the fact that in many ways abortion is like suicide. Just as a suicidal person is crying out for help when she tells others of her death wish, so a woman who is distressed over a pregnancy is crying out for help when she tells others she is considering abortion." (69)
WELSH STUDY
A recent study addressing the link between suicide and abortion was conducted in Wales, among a population of 408,000 between 1991 and 1995. Morgan and colleagues (70) studied hospital admissions for attempted suicide among women who had abortions, women who had miscarriages and women who gave birth.
For women who miscarried or delivered, the authors found that the risk of suicide decreased after the event, while for women who aborted, the risk grew from minor before the abortion, to major after the procedure. Their data "suggest that a deterioration in mental health may be a consequential side effect of induced abortion."
They found that women who had induced abortions were 225% more likely to commit suicide than women who had normal deliveries.
US STUDY
A similar study (71) was conducted in the U.S. in 1997. Death certificates were compared with medical records for 173,279 women who underwent a state-funded delivery or induced abortion in 1989. Four years later the annual suicide rate was found to be 160% higher (7.8 compared to 3.0) among the women who aborted than among the women who gave birth.
The following are the figures for the U.S. annual suicide rate per 100,000 women aged from 15-44.
1. All women 5.2
2. Women who aborted 7.8
3. Women who delivered their baby 3.0
In the three countries; Wales, Finland and the U.S.A, research unmistakingly indicates that abortion increases the relative risk of suicide. On the contrary, the same research suggests that carrying a pregnancy to term greatly reduces the risk of suicide.
References
Suicide
66. Gilchrist et al, "Termination of pregnancy and psychiatric morbidity," British Journal of Psychiatry, 1995 August, 167(2):243-8
67. Gissler et al, "Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-1994, register linkage study," British Medical Journal 1996 December 7, 313(7070): 1431-4
68. Reardon D, "Aborted Women Silent no More," Chicago, Loyola University Press, 1987, p 129
69. Reardon D, "The Abortion/Suicide Connection," The Post-Abortion Review, Summer 1993; 1(2); p 1
70. Morgan et al, "Suicides after pregnancy, Mental health may deteriorate as a direct effect of induced abortion," British Medical Journal, 1997 Mar 22, 314 (7084); 902-3
71. Reardon D C, Ney P G, Scheurer F J, "Suicide Deaths Associated with Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of 173,279 low income American women," Archives of Women's Mental Health 2001, 3 (4) Suppl 2:104
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