Unlike any other procedure
Online posting: July 25, 1997
Published in print: November 1, 1997 (CMAJ 1997;157:1197)
Re: Ensuring access to abortion in an era of cutbacks, by
Dr. Marion G. Powell, CMAJ 1997;156:1545-7 [full text / résumé]
Powell writes, "Nor has abortion ever been considered equivalent
to other surgical procedures." Truer words were never written.
Those who perform, promote or support abortions have never taken
seriously the medical tradition that the onus of proof lies with
those who provide a medical, surgical or psychiatric procedure to
show beyond a reasonable doubt that it is both safe and effective
treatment for a recognized illness before they perform it.
The Irish College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has
stated there are no surgical or medical reasons to perform an
abortion. Standard psychiatric texts state that abortions are
contraindicated in psychiatric illnesses.[1] The Canadian
Psychiatric Association has stated that justifying abortions by
using a psychiatric rubric is to be deplored.[2] There are no
proven social benefits. Although once touted as a solution for
the child-abuse problem, there are no fewer abused children than
before elective abortions were introduced. There is no evidence
that abortion improves the health of children.[3] In Eastern
Europe, "this widespread use of induced abortion has a negative
influence on reproductive and general public health."[4]
Well-documented hazards stem from abortion. The worst we have
discovered is that children whose parents had abortions are
immersed in deep conflicts that result in difficult-to-treat
anxiety and depression. These conflicts include survivor guilt,
anxiety about the future, lowered self-esteem, distrust of
parents and authority, dislike of children, sense of alienation
from adults and pessimism about the future. They arise because
children know or strongly suspect that they had aborted siblings
and because their life depended upon being wanted. It is not lost
on children that if the first right of every child is to be
wanted, then if you are no longer wanted you have no right to
exist.
Instead of pretending that abortions are therapeutic, we
should investigate, analyse and control them, as we do for other
surgical procedures. Until those who promote induced abortion
have disproved the reported hazards and shown beyond a reasonable
doubt that it is safe and effective for some pathologic
condition, no physician should have anything to do with the
procedure.
Philip G. Ney, MD, MA
Victoria, BC
iiplcarr@IslandNet.com
References
- Babikian HN. Abortion. In: Freedman AM, Kaplan HI, Sadock
BI, editors. Comprehensive handbook of psychiatry. 2nd ed.
Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins; 1975:1496-1500.
- Smith CM. Abortion policy. Can Psychiatr Assoc Bull
1981;13(4):2-3.
- Agdenstein S. Perinatal and infant mortality: trends and
risk factors in Norway 1967–1990. Acta Obstet Gynecol
Scand Suppl 1994;160:1-30.
- Bruyniks NP. Reproductive health in central and eastern
Europe: priorities and needs. Patient Educ Couns
1994;23(3):203-15.
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