carolaa Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Forgive me if this has already been discussed. I did a quick perusal of topics after being away for a couple weeks and didn't see this one. Another claim proven to be a myth. Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28050494/from/ET/ Here's the first 2 paragraphs (I don't know the legalities of copying the entire article): "WASHINGTON - No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. "A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shane Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Post-abortion syndrome is a very real disorder although it impacts only a minority of those the have abortions. It is similar to soldiers going off to war. Most soldiers can go to war, kill people and come back and with a little time, adapt to society. But there are some that suffer post traumatic stress syndrome so bad that they need a lot of counseling and years to adapt. Some never do. Over the years that I have been involved in 12-step recovery groups I have met dozens of women that suffered from post-abortion syndrome. While they are the minority of women that have had abortions, the disorder - among other things - has done serious damage to their lives. Anyone need only to volunteer at a local crisis pregnancy center to learn how real post-abortion syndrome is. The way the depression is dismissed by abortion activist groups is to tie it to something besides the abortion. They will point out that those that suffer from post-abortion depression were having emotional problems with the fetus' father, or financial problems, or dealing with a lot of stress, or held deep religious beliefs, etc. The fact is that a lot of women do suffer from depression after having an abortion. Abortion activist groups want us to believe that the depression has nothing to do with the abortion as the timing of the depression could easily lead us to believe. And there is no "PROOF" that the abortion is causing the depression. But really, for us in the real world it doesn't really matter,,, does it? A depressed woman needs our help. Arguing over which came first the chicken or the egg doesn't help the depressed woman. Crisis pregnancy centers do help these woman. So while organizations like Planned Parenthood help women get abortions, organizations like Care Net help women pick up the pieces after abortions. Quote Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com Author of Peculiar Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shane Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Another claim proven to be a myth. Read the article again. Nothing was proven to be a myth or to be fact. The point the MSNBC article is trying to make is that earlier studies which have shown mental health issues connected to abortion did not use high quality methods. Quote Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com Author of Peculiar Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olger Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Biblical counselors encounter high depression scores in women who have had an abortion, all the time. I have too. That's as far as I can go, because of confidentiality. It will also greatly affect how the parent relates to the first born child. Don't underestimate the consequences of this moral issue. og Quote "Please don't feed the drama queens.." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Bravus Posted February 8, 2009 Moderators Share Posted February 8, 2009 Could depression be associated with ending up in situations that lead to unwanted pregnancies in the first place? Just trying to look at the cause/effect connection from all directions. Truth and good evidence are better than anecdotes and low quality evidence, even (or maybe especially) in the service of a good cause. There are plenty of excellent and valid reasons to avoid abortion without needing to stretch the truth or rely on poor research. Quote Truth is important Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shane Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Quote: Could depression be associated with ending up in situations that lead to unwanted pregnancies in the first place? That is just the thing,,, there are so many factors that can cause depression, there is really no way to pin it down on one event - like abortion. That is why the Supreme Court admitted that there is no way to measure it. The type of women, as a rule, that are going to have an abortion are probably themselves more prone to depression in the first place. I am speaking of women that are in rocky relationships, drug addicts, alcoholics, working in the sex industry, from broken homes, etc. Of course it would be stretching the truth to claim abortion alone causes depression among these women after they have undergone the procedure. However it would also be naive to believe that abortion plays no role in depression among those that suffer post-abortion depression. What has the pro-abortion people up in arms is that the Supreme Court used the impact on women's mental health as one of the reasons to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion laws. So now the pro-abortion groups are out to prove there is no impact on women's mental health. Yet that is a narrower study than abortion in general. Now we are talking only about women that have abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy. That really becomes a much small number as most abortions are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Quote Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com Author of Peculiar Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolaa Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 I have no doubt that the pro-abortion groups will have a heyday with this report. However, it was not pro-abortion groups who reviewed the studies. It was Johns Hopkins, a reputable, scientific institution. I agree with Bravus. There are plenty of good reasons to encourage women not to have abortions, in most cases, without resorting to bad science. Spreading misinformation doesn't benefit the prolife cause in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shane Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Pro-abortion groups encourage reputable, scientific organizations like Johns Hopkins to do what they do. These studies take money which come from grants and/or donations. Follow the money and it normally is very telling. The Supreme Court is the one that made the ruling that is giving these pro-abortion groups heartburn. So if anyone is spreading misinformation it is the Supreme Court of the United States. Of course they have been wrong before but I think it is rather common sense that a woman cannot abort their child in the last trimester and not be phased by it. Quote Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com Author of Peculiar Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolaa Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 Yes, it would be good if every research report would list the funders of the research. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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