A reader asks:

Dear Father:

I have 2 children and I am 5 months pregnant again; my husband keeps insisting that I have an abortion. I know it is wrong and that, besides the sin, abortion has grave consequences; could you remind me of them so that I can explain them to my husband? Thank you.

Answer:

Dear Madam:

Regarding the psychological consequences of abortion, you may read the answer we have already given when speaking of the “Post-Abortion Syndrome”

In addition, you may find it interesting to read the following, highly relevant commentary, titled: “Study confirms that abortion has more severe effects than those already known”. It reads as follows:

Breast cancer, pelvic infection, infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, and the resulting premature births —with a high rate of children born with cerebral palsy— are some of the grave effects unknown to the women who decide to have an abortion.

A study by the de Veber Institute for Bioethics in Canada revealed that the complications of abortions are usually not reported, and thousands of women are allowed to undergo these procedures without knowing the physical and psychological risks they face.

The Institute, based in Toronto, published a report titled “Women’s Health after Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence”, which summarizes more than 500 studies carried out over the past 20 years.

According to the study, the complications of abortion are not only medical; rather, although it is presented as relief from depression, stress, or a crisis caused by pregnancy, women who undergo the procedure are more likely to commit suicide after an abortion than after giving birth.

“Without knowing all this, how can a woman give informed consent to an abortion?”, asks Ian Gentles, professor of history at York University in Toronto and one of the authors of the study.

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, professor of humanities and women’s studies at Emory University, considered that the study “is overwhelmingly clear in pointing out that the women who seek abortions in the United States and Canada do not know the risks they run” (ACI Prensa, April 2, 2002).

Author: Fr. Miguel Ángel Fuentes

Source: The Theologian Responds