Elliot Institute Major Accomplishments for 2006

Dear Friends,

Through your support, we were blessed during the last year to accomplish the following major activities:

• We published Giving Sorrow Words: Women's Stories of Grief After Abortion by Australian author Melinda Tankard Reist. This book includes 18 personal accounts from women who have had abortions (and is based on the experiences of more than 200 others) and examines the attitudes, pressures, policies and injustices leading to abortion and the trauma many experience.
• Our “Abortion is the Unchoice” public relations/outreach campaign to raise awareness of unwanted, coerced, and forced abortions, disinformation, and subsequent trauma, injury and death; is in its final stages of development. 2006 highlights include:

o        Production of two television ads, which are now airing on EWTN, and four radio ads.o        Production of a series of 12 print ads, which are available in full-color, black-and-white/spot color versions, posters, and co-op versions that can include information from the sponsoring organization. Pro-life groups are starting to distribute these ads in newsletters, bulletins, and other materials and several organizations are planning to run them as newspaper ads in 2007.o        Updating our web site at www.unchoice.info with new research and material. Visitors can view the ads; access research, articles, and testimonies; find helpful tips and guides about how to use this material effectively; and download hundreds of free supporting materials for distribution, including fact sheets, booklets, and promotional flyers.

• We distributed hundreds of books, pamphlets, fact sheets, and other resources, and over 25,000 copies of Hope & Healing, our 12-page newspaper insert on post-abortion issues. We also published four issues of The Post-Abortion Review, distributed 11 issues of our email newsletter, The Elliot Institute News, and sent out numerous news releases regarding our studies, other researchers’ studies, or related commentary. We also participated in print and radio interviews and answered numerous requests for information and assistance from individuals.
• Two of our studies related to post-abortion issues were published in journals of medicine or psychology. The findings show that:

o        Up to four years following abortion or delivery, women who had abortions are more likely to be treated for sleep disorders than are women who gave birth. The difference was greatest during the first 180 days after pregnancy, when aborting women were approximately twice as likely to seek treatment for sleep disorders. Sleep disorders are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, so these findings are consistent with the expectation that the increase in sleep disorders may be associated with abortion trauma. (Sleep) o        Women considering elective surgery, such as abortion, consider all information about physical or psychological risks to be very relevant to their decisions. Fully 95 percent of patients wished to be informed of all risks statistically associated with a procedure, even if the causal connection between the procedure and risk has not been fully proven. This finding will be especially important in lawsuits against abortion providers, who routinely argue that, without proof that abortion directly causes problems such as depression or breast cancer, women would prefer not to be given such “worrisome” and “unnecessary” information. (Journal of Medical Ethics)

• We have begun a number of analyses of a major national data set to examine the effects of abortion on the physical and mental health of women.
• We worked with post-abortion ministries to promote our model legislation to make it easier to hold abortionists liable for failing to screen women for known factors that put them at risk for problems after abortion. God willing, we will see it passed in 2007 in at least one state.
• While our overall efforts remain focused on post-abortion issues, this year we were blessed with two opportunities to address other important issues of medical ethics:

o        We published a survey, case study, and literature review showing that hospitals and nursing homes may be contributing to the onset and/or prolongation of non-responsive states in brain-damaged patients. We found that the majority of health care facilities surveyed are ignoring the standard of care for intubated non-responsive patients, which calls for warming the oxygen received by these patients to near body-temperature levels. Typically, however, these facilities actually deliver chilled air (up to 30 degrees below body temperature) directly into the lungs. Chilling of the aortic blood is directly associated with chilling of the brain, which is likely to cause significant changes in brain function. In a small number of cases described in our report, removal of the chilled oxygen was followed by recovery from the “persistent vegetative state.” (Medical Science Monitor)o        We launched a new initiative to pass state, national, and international preemptive bans on “human engineering,” including the manufacture, alteration, and destruction of human embryos in the lab. While advocates of human embryo experiments insist they are seeking “miraculous cures,” they are in fact seeking to perfect the techniques that can be used to create “designer babies” and give control of “human evolution” to scientists and bio-technicians. Educational materials on the threat of human bio-engineering, eugenics and transhumanism and information on our efforts to address this threat can be found at our new website at www.elliotinstitute.org.

• Our three major websites (www.afterabortion.info, www.unchoice.info, and www.elliotinstitute.org) had over 4 million hits, delivering pages to over 300,000 unique visitors.

People like you are the backbone of our ministry.

These are the accomplishments of everyone affiliated with the Elliot Institute, whether as one of our generous donating partners or as one of our small committed staff. We are especially thankful for, and proud of, our sustaining partners. Their faithful commitment to provide ongoing support sustains not only our bank accounts, but our also our spirits throughout the long years. For those of you reading this report who are already among our donating partners, we again extend our thanks. We pray that you will continue to participate in this ministry in 2007. Please also consider sharing this report with friends and family members. Perhaps they will join us in this work.For those who have not yet joined our efforts, we ask that you will prayerfully consider doing so. With a ministry as small as ours, whether you give $30 or $10,000, your donations make a huge difference. And no matter what you give, we will work to make sure that when you read our next year-end report in 2007, you will be proud of your part in this great effort.

If you would like to make a donation to support this work, you can do so by clicking here. Donations can also be mailed to: Elliot Institute, PO Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791, or made by phone at 1-888-412-2676.

Thank you so much for your support. And please remember us, our efforts, and our families in your prayers. In turn, we continue to remember you, and all of our supporters, in our prayers.