On March 3, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space held a hearing on the physical and emotional impact of abortion on women.
Stating that the hearing “is about mom,” Chair Sam Brownback (R-KS) said that while members may be on different sides of the abortion issue, “We all agree on the sanctity of the mother.”
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reviewed all of the issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the subcommittee, declaring, “I can’t understand where this committee has jurisdiction over this subject.” Sen. Brownback explained that the subcommittee controls some federal research and development (R&D) funding, and the purpose of the hearing is to decide whether there needs to be more research on the impact of abortion on women.
The subcommittee first heard testimony from Georgette Forney of the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life (NOEL). She shared her personal experience of having an abortion when she was 16, then changing her pro-choice position twenty years later and forming NOEL to counsel other women who have had an abortion. Stating, “What I have learned from personal experience and from thousands of other women is that abortion does not solve problems; abortion just creates different problems.” Mrs. Forney cited a number of articles published in medical journals since December 2001 that found a correlation between abortion and later emotional distress in women, including higher rates of long-term clinical depression; more mental health problems; increased substance abuse; difficulties bonding with future children; and the need for psychiatric hospitalization.
Testifying on behalf of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Reverend Dr. Roselyn Smith-Withers has counseled women for fifteen years both before and after they have undergone an abortion. She explained that research “has shown that, while some women may experience sensations of regret, sadness or guilt after an abortion, the overwhelming responses are relief and a feeling of having coped successfully with a difficult situation.” Dr. Smith-Withers also pointed to studies documenting negative effects of unintended childbearing on the woman and her family. “Women who have had unwanted births sustain lower quality relationship[s] with all of their children, affecting the children’s development, self-esteem, personality, educational and occupational attainment, and mental health and future marital relationships. Mothers with unwanted births are substantially more depressed and less happy than mothers with wanted births. The negative effects of unintended and unwanted childbearing persist across the course of life, with mothers with unwanted births having lower quality relationships with their children from late adolescence throughout early adulthood,” she stated.
Dr. Elizabeth Shadigan, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics at the University of Michigan, summarized her own research on the long-term health effects of abortion on women. She stated that women who have had an abortion have an increased risk of breast cancer because there is a loss of the protective effect of a first full-term pregnancy (fftp). Dr. Shadigan explained a scenario in which an eighteen-year-old woman has an abortion and then delays her fftp until she is thirty-two compared to another eighteen-year-old woman who carries the pregnancy to full term. “Having an abortion instead of a full-term pregnancy at age 18 can almost double her five-year and lifetime risk of breast cancer at age 50, regardless of race,” she stated. Dr. Shadigan also said that women who have had an abortion are at higher risk of placenta previa, a condition of pregnancy in which the placenta covers the cervix requiring a caesarean section to deliver the child; pre-term birth or low birthweight; and suicide. Pointing out that there is no mandatory reporting of abortion complications in the United States, Dr. Shadigan argued, “Statements made regarding the physical safety of abortion are based upon incomplete and inaccurate data.”
Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rush Medical College, Dr. Nada Stotland disputed claims of a link between abortion and mental illness. She stated, “My professional experiences reflect the scientific findings; women do best when they can decide for themselves whether to take on the responsibility of motherhood at a particular time, and when their decisions are supported. No one can make the decision better than the woman concerned. Mental illness can increase the risk of unwanted pregnancy, but abortion does not cause mental illness.” With regard to a correlation between abortion and breast cancer, Dr. Stotland noted, “The most highly regarded and methodologically sound study on the purported link between abortion and breast cancer indicates that there is no relationship between induced abortion and breast cancer.” She also pointed out that the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization had both come to the same conclusion. Referring to Dr. Shadigan’s scenario, she said that a link between delaying one’s fftp and an increased risk of breast cancer is an established fact, but “it has nothing to do with the abortion.”
During the question and answer session, most witnesses agreed that more research is required to determine the emotional and physical impact of abortion on women, but Dr. Stotland pointed out that it would be difficult to conduct the research without violating a woman’s privacy. After further questioning by the chair, she argued that research also should be done to determine the emotional impact on women of laws that restrict access to abortion and contraception.
