Senate Hearing to Explore Abortion's Harm to Women

As the US Senate prepares to examine the mounting evidence that abortion causes psychological and medical problems for women, pro-abortion lobbyists are poised to downplay the evidence as politically and religiously motivated. One pro-abortion activist who is scheduled to testify at the hearing, Rev. Rosselyn Smith-Winters, represents the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, an organization that, according to its webpage, is "defiantly absolutist in defending every abortion as a divinely ordained right."

Another scheduled speaker, Dr. Nada Stotland, a Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rush Medical, wrote in a 1998 book that "abortion does not cause emotional problems or mental illness." In 1999, she wrote that attempts to attach such problems to abortion are part of a "one-sided agenda that is a clear and heartless danger to women's psychological and physical health." In a number of publications, Stotland has argued that post-abortive psychological problems were the result of pre-abortion mental conditions that are now falsely linked to abortion.  Based upon such prior statements, it is expected that both Smith-Winters and Stotland will downplay the reported suffering of post-abortive women in order to protect the legal standing of the procedure.

The hearing, chaired by Senator Brownback (R-Kansas), will be held on Wednesday, and marks an increased interest in the effects of abortion on women. A number of advocates for post-abortive women will testify at the hearings, presenting research linking abortion to serious psychological and medical problems. Michaelene Jenkins, the Executive Director for the Life Resource Network Women's Task Force, has written and spoken extensively on the harms of abortion on women, and believes that many women have abortions "not so much out of choice, but out of desperation or as a last resort… [and] many are left with physical or emotional scars that negatively affect their lives for years and sometimes decades."

Another scheduled speaker, Georgette Forney, the Executive Director for the National Organization of Episcopal for Life (NOEL) and the Co-founder for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, takes a similar stance. Both Jenkins and Forney will be sharing stories of the personal ramifications of their own abortions.

Dr. Elizabeth Shadigian, a doctor and researcher at the University of Michigan School of Medicine and the author of "Long-Term Physical and Psychological Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: Review of the Evidence will testify the link between higher mental health problems and abortion-a link that is not present in the case of miscarriages. "The fact that the effects are seen after induced abortion rather than before, indicates either common risk factors for both choosing abortion and attempting suicide, such as depression, or harmful effects of induced abortion on mental health. This phenomena is not seen after spontaneous abortion [miscarriage]."

The hearing comes at a time when there is a growing push by government and non-governmental organizations alike to account for the long-term effects and health implications of abortion. Abortion proponents have long resisted any statistical analysis of the effects of abortion on women, which has become the most common medical procedure performed on American women.

CULTURE & COSMOS
March 2, 2004      Volume 1, Number 29
Copyright---Culture of Life Foundation. Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

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Updated on RARTL March 2004