Subject: Human Rights Groups Should Support Women, Not Abortion, Expert Says
For Immediate Release
Human Rights Groups Should Support Women, Not Abortion, Expert Says
Amnesty International Asked to Join Rape and Incest Victims’ Petition for Congressional Hearings
Springfield, IL (Nov. 28, 2006) -- A leading expert on abortion complications is urging Amnesty International to delay adoption of a proposal to support an international right to abortion in cases of rape or incest.
“When people are ignorant of the real needs of victims, acts intended to be compassionate may cause far more harm than good,” said Dr. David Reardon, who has co-authored more than a dozen studies on the psychological complications of abortion, including one study of 192 women who had experienced sexual assault pregnancies.
“The first and best thing the voting members of Amnesty International, the U.S. Congress, and legislators around the world can do for women impregnated through sexual assault is to listen to them,” said Reardon, who directs the Springfield, IL-based Elliot Institute. “The second best thing they can do is to reassess the abortion issue in light of what they hear, instead of just assuming abortion is a panacea for sexual assault victims.”
Reardon is asking Amnesty International to use its influence to support a petition by the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Pregnant by Sexual Assault (WPSA), asking Congress to hold hearings on the issue of sexual assault pregnancies and abortion. WPSA members say that because women who have actually had a sexual assault pregnancy have never been given a forum to describe their real experiences, public policies fail to offer pregnant sexual assault victims the care and support they need.
Amnesty, which has almost two million members from 74 countries, is to vote on a policy that would change its previously neutral stance on abortion. The organization said it is “not debating whether women have the right to terminate pregnancies under any circumstances.” However, it is considering whether to adopt policies supporting access to health care for women suffering abortion-related complications, the removal of criminal penalties against abortion, and allowing abortion in cases of rape and incest or to save the mother’s life.
Legalization May Increase Pressure to Undergo Unwanted Abortions
Amnesty also said that women who experience rape or incest are often doubly stigmatized if they become pregnant, and that “many feel they have no option but to terminate their pregnancies.” But Reardon said that it is exactly these hostile social attitudes about rape and incest pregnancies that increase the pressure on sexual assault victims to undergo unwanted abortions. Further, in many cases having an abortion violates the woman’s core moral beliefs and magnifies the risk of severe traumatic reactions to the procedure.
“Research on risk factors for psychological complications after abortion show that women with a history of trauma or who feel pressured to undergo an unwanted abortion are more likely to be at risk for severe reactions to abortion,” Reardon explained. “As the women who have been there will testify, abortion following a sexual assault pregnancy is more likely to make their lives worse rather than better. Women who have already been subjected to violence should not be pressured by social expectations to undergo the additional trauma of abortion.”
Reardon pointed to a survey of 192 women who became pregnant through sexual assault, which was published in a book he co-authored entitled Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions, and Children Resulting from Sexual Assault. Nearly 80 percent of the women who had abortions reported that abortion was not a good solution for them, with most saying it had caused more harm than good in their lives.
“The widely accepted idea that abortion is necessary or beneficial in cases of rape or incest speaks volumes about our individual fears, but it does not reflect the actual reality of those who have actually become pregnant following sexual assault,” he said.
Abortion Causes More Harm than Good, Rape Victims Report
“Our survey found that most women who had abortions felt that this was a very harmful solution for women who became pregnant through sexual assault,” Reardon said. “On the other hand, among women who carried to term, none of them reported any regret about having the baby and many said that giving birth actually helped them find resolution and healing.”
Abortion following incest, Reardon says, nearly always violates the wishes of the pregnant girl.
“In most of these cases, the girl not only sees the pregnancy and expected birth as an opportunity to expose and escape the abuse, but she also hopes that the birth of her baby will bring her the true loving relationship she desires,” he explained. “Instead, she is either forced to have an abortion by the perpetrator and is then returned to the abuse, or she is pushed and pressured by her parents and by experts to accept the abortion as the best or only thing that can be done and suffers a further traumatic reaction linked to the death of her child.”
Kathleen DeZeeuw, who raised her son after becoming pregnant through rape at the age of 16, agrees with Reardon that attentive listening must precede any plans to help sexual assault victims. She says abortion advocates have used the issue of sexual assault pregnancy to push for abortion without considering the real needs of the women involved.
“I feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest,“ she wrote in Victims and Victors. “I feel we're being used to further the abortion issue, even though we've never been asked to tell our side of the story.“
“Women who have gone through the trauma of rape or incest need to be counseled, cared for, and listened to," she added. "A woman is most vulnerable at a time such as this and doesn't need to be pounced on by yet another act of violence. She needs someone to truly listen to her, care for her, and give her time to heal."
Legalization May Increase Pain and Suffering of Women
Reardon is also concerned that Amnesty International is echoing the unsubstantiated claim that legalizing abortion will reduce the risk of death and injury from illegal abortions. He argues that legalization of abortion simply makes it easier for women to be pressured into unwanted, dangerous abortions.
A survey published in the Medical Science Monitor found that among American women having abortions, 64 percent reported feeling pressured to abort by others. Reardon said that the pressure faced by women can range from abandonment, lack of support and emotional blackmail to intense coercion and violence.
“Legalization of abortion increases the social expectation that women should have abortions in certain cases; for example, when the male partner does not want the child,” he said. “One of the unintended effects of legalizing abortion has actually been an increased risk of violence against women. Numerous studies have shown an elevated risk of physical abuse when women become pregnant."
“Indeed, the leading cause of death among pregnant women is homicide,” he continued. “In many of these cases, witnesses have testified that the killing was motivated by the woman’s refusal to have an abortion.”
Further, Reardon said, legalizing abortion will only increase the pain and suffering of women.
“The number of legal abortions performed following legalization in the U.S. is ten to 15 times higher than the number of illegal abortions that were performed in the 1950’s and 60’s, but there has not been a corresponding drop in complications,” he explained. “Instead, we have documented an increase in mental and physical health problems associated with abortion, including higher rates of death.”
A number of major record-based studies from the U.S. and Finland have shown that abortion is associated with an elevation in death rates compared to women who give birth, miscarry, or do not become pregnant. The sharpest elevation in death rates in the year following an abortion occurs in the areas of deaths from suicide and accidents, but death rates from other causes are also elevated.
“Peer-reviewed studies have linked abortion not only to higher death and suicide rates, but also to higher rates of depression, substance abuse, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts, psychiatric hospitalization, premature deliveries, and many other difficulties,” Reardon said. “These complications may be even more harmful to individuals, families, and societies where women have less access to the medical and psychiatric care needed for proper post-abortion recovery programs.”
Expanding Civil Liability May Be Key to Stopping Dangerous Abortions
While Amnesty has proposed decriminalizing abortion in order to protect women from injury and death due to illegal abortions, Reardon said that such a measure would actually increase the risk to women as abortion rates increase.
“Human rights groups like Amnesty need to be far more cautious about accepting the propaganda claims of population control zealots who promote abortion as a tool for social engineering,” he said. “Increasing abortion rates will not help women; it will only further hurt them.”
Instead, he argues that the best resource for women would be to give them the right to hold abortionists civilly liable for the death of the unborn child and for any other injuries the mother might suffer. As part of his proposal, he believes that women who have abortions should be exempt from criminal prosecution because in most cases the abortion is the result of coercion, fear, desperation, or violence.
“In addition, if women are exempt from prosecution, they will be more likely to testify against dangerous abortion practitioners in criminal and civil proceedings,” he said. “If abortionists face the double threat of both criminal prosecution and lawsuits from injured women and their families, illegal abortionists will close up shop.”
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