Excellent letter by Bernadette of Women Hurt in today's Irish Times

There is an excellent letter in today's Irish Times from Bernadette Goulding of Women Hurt. 

Sir, – Mary Favier of Doctors for Choice (Opinion, February 25th) raises the absence of the voices of post-abortive Irish women at the recent Oireachtas hearings on abortion. As an Irish woman who had an abortion, I wish to raise a voice that is often ignored, that is the voice of the thousands of women who have been deeply hurt by their abortion.I know from my own experience and from working with other women who have suffered after abortion that the grief is nearly always hidden.There is no body, no funeral, no graveside, no family and friends to grieve your loss. I regularly meet women who are suffering serious mental trauma after an abortion. People in favour of abortion sometimes blame this on social, cultural or religious conditioning.However, I have found the same suffering in many other countries where I have worked with post-abortive women.I, and women like me, would be failing mothers, fathers, medical professionals, legislators, and society in general if we did not share our experience of abortion and how it impacted so negatively on our lives. We are not women crying over “products of conception”. We are crying over the loss of our babies, the children that will never sit at our dinner table, never have a birthday party or hold their own child.Abortion damages women and ends the life of an unborn child. Women like me feel invisible in this debate and feel ignored by many of the women’s groups that are supposed to represent all women. The denial surrounding abortion regret is something that we need to deal with as a society and the voices of women who have experienced abortion and suffered as a result are voices that must be consulted as this debate continues. – Yours, etc,BERNADETTE GOULDING,
Women Hurt,
Sussex Road, Dublin 4.

Woman hurt by abortion speaks at Vigil For Life

On Saturday, over 25,000 people gathered at Merrion Square in Dublin for the 'Vigil For Life' event.

One of the speakers at the Vigil For Life was Bernadette Goulding, a woman hurt by abortion. Bernadette is a founding member of Women Hurt, a group that seeks to reach out to women who have been hurt by abortion.

Bernadette told her story of having an abortion aged 19 in England and the trauma and suffering she endured over several years as a result of the abortion. She said: 

 "Abortion changed my whole life. Before the abortion, I was never told how much I would grieve and mourn the loss of my baby. Nobody mentioned anything about the emotional scars I would carry with me from that day forward."

You can read her story in full here.

Bernadette speaking at the Vigil For Life

Bernadette urged people to oppose the current plans to legalise abortion in this country, because abortion is inhuman to women, as well as their unborn babies. She echoed one of the themes of the vigil:  love them both.

Distress After Abortion Linked to Increased Mental Health Problems, Study Finds

Women Reporting Negative Emotions 40-80 Percent
More Likely to Have Mental Health Disorders

Nov. 5, 2009

A new study on mental health problems after abortion has found that women who report negative reactions to abortion are at higher risk for mental health problems.

The paper, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that more than 85 percent of women who aborted reported at least one negative reaction to abortion, such as such as sorrow, grief, regret or disappointment; and approximately 35 percent reported five or more negative reactions.

The high numbers are of concern because the paper also found that the risk of mental disorders among women who had negative reactions to abortion was 40 to 80 percent higher than among women who didn't abort.

The results came from an ongoing survey that tracked women in the Christchurch area of New Zealand from birth to age 30. A subsample of about 530 women were given questions about their pregnancy history and mental health outcomes, including being asked whether the pregnancy was unwanted or unplanned, and their initial reaction to the pregnancy at the time.

Overall, more than 86 percent of women who had abortions also reported at least one positive reaction, such as feelings of relief, happiness or satisfaction. When the responses are broken down into categories, however, more women were likely to respond "not at all" when asked if they felt happiness (58 percent "not at all" vs. 23 percent "very much") or satisfaction (60 percent vs. 20 percent) about the abortion.

The research team concluded that "many women experience a mixture of both positive and negative emotions about having an abortion," but said that that the results don't support the belief that abortion is better for women than unwanted or unplanned pregnancy.

"There is no evidence in this research that would suggest that unwanted pregnancies that come to term were associated with increased risks of mental health problems or that abortion mitigated the risks of mental health problems in women having unwanted pregnancy," the authors noted.
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Source: AfterAbortion
David M. Ferugsson, L. John Horwood and Joseph M. Boden, "Reactions to abortion and subsequent mental health," The British Journal of Psychiatry 195: 420-426 (2009).

Psychiatric Disorders Linked to Abortion for Fetal Anomalies

Nov. 10, 2009

A study of women who experienced serious complications during pregnancy found that women who undergo late abortions due to fetal anomalies are more likely to experience psychiatric disorders compared to women who give birth prematurely.

The study of 170 German women, published in the Archives of Women's Mental Health, found that 22 percent of women were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder after abortion, compared to 18 percent of women who gave birth to a baby with very low-birth-weight (VLBW) and 6 percent of women who had a healthy full-term pregnancy.

The abortions took place in the second or third trimester after an adverse diagnosis was given. VLBW was defined as having a birth weight of less than 1500 grams (about 3pounds) or a birth before 32 weeks' gestation. The women in the study were interviewed by mental health clinicians at 14 days, 6 months and 14 months after the end of the pregnancy.

While the three groups of women "did not differ significantly" on psychiatric disorders prior to abortion or delivery, the researchers noted a difference afterwards, with women who had abortions having the highest rates of psychiatric disorders. Further, 16 percent of women who had abortions had psychiatric disorders 14 months later, compared to 7 percent of women with preterm births and none of the women with healthy pregnancies.

The disorders found among women who had abortions included acute stress disorders, eating disorders, affective disorders and anxiety disorders, with depression and anxiety predominating over time. Just over 64 percent of aborting women in the study developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, a finding comparable to a survey published in the Medical Science Monitor that found 65 percent of women who aborted reported symptoms of PTSD that they attributed to their abortions.

The authors reported that for most women, abortions in the 2nd or 3rd trimester after a negative fetal diagnosis "are major life events" that can cause ongoing problems even months after the event. They called for more resources and better screening to help identify those who might be at risk for problems after abortion and need psychological support.
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A. Kersting et. al., "Psychological impact on women after second and third trimester termination of pregnancy due to fetal anomalies versus women after preterm birth--a 14-month follow-up study," Archives of Women's Mental Health 12:193-201 (2009).

Source: AfterAbortion.org