Study: Abortion Has More Negative Parenting Impact Than Pregnancy Loss

by Amy Sobie
July 6, 2009

LifeNews.com Note: Amy Sobie is the editor of The Post-Abortion Review, a quarterly
publication of the Elliot Institute. The organization is a widely respected leader in research
and analysis of medical, mental health and other complications resulting from abortions.

A new review of studies examining various types of prenatal

loss and the effects on subsequent parenting has concluded that abortion may be "particularly
damaging to the parenting process."

The article, published in Current Womens Health Reviews, looked at already published
studies on miscarriage, induced abortion and adoption. The author, Priscilla Coleman of
Bowling Green State University, focused on psychological reactions to these various types of
loss and discussed how they might affect a mothers relationship with children born after the
pregnancy loss.1

It is now known that women usually begin feeling maternal attachment in the early stages of
pregnancy. The paper notes that despite the increased responsibilities and stress involved in
raising children, "numerous studies have documented positive psychological characteristics
associated with motherhood including increases in life satisfaction, self-esteem, empathy,
restraint, flexibility and resourcefulness in coping, and assertiveness." Losing a child before
or at birth, for any reason, however, "can be a profound source of suffering."

While all forms of pregnancy loss can cause emotional distress that can impact future
parenting, the available research indicates that emotional responses after induced abortion are
more likely to go unresolved and to persist for a longer time period.

While "society understands that women who miscarry or relinquish a child through adoption
may experience sadness and grief; however, grief after socially sanctioned because abortion
is not acknowledged by our culture as a human death experience," and help to deal with the
experience is usually not offered.

"In many cases, women may suppress thoughts and emotions related to an abortion, because
they have not been able to process and or/openly express negative emotions," Coleman wrote,
adding that the lack of acknowledgement and support after abortion gives the "covert
message that others would rather not hear what we have to say, and this makes it difficult to
even identify our reactions to our losses."
Finding help and support after abortion is further hampered by the belief that, unlike other
forms of pregnancy loss, abortion is optional and therefore women experience less distress
afterwards. However, having an abortion is "sometimes quite inconsistent with the womans
true desires" (one survey found that 64 percent of American women who had abortions
reported feeling pressured to abort), and many women, especially those who feel conflicted
or didnt want the abortion, do feel emotional distress afterwards.

"The best evidence regarding negative effects of abortion indicates that 20-30 percent will
experience serious psychological problems," Coleman wrote. "With 1.3 million U.S.
abortions performed annually, a minimum of 130,000 new cases of abortion-related mental
health problems appear each year."

And while abortion advocates frequently argue that abortion is better than carrying an
unplanned pregnancy to term, the evidence suggests otherwise.

Studies of women with unplanned pregnancies found that women who aborted had higher
risks of depression, substance abuse and anxiety, and teens who aborted an unintended
pregnancy were more likely to experience negative mental health outcomes than their peers
who carried to term. Further, a recent New Zealand study led by a pro-choice researcher
found no evidence that abortion provided any mental health benefits to women even in cases
of unplanned pregnancy.

How Abortion Can Impact Parenting

The paper described a number of ways that a previous abortion can effect a womans
relationship with her living children:

Increased depression and anxiety. Abortion has been linked to higher rates of maternal
depression and anxiety before and after birth, which may effect the womans relationship
with her children. In addition, depression is a common predictor for child abuse.

Sleep disorders and disturbances. Women who have had an abortion are more likely to
experience sleep disorders compared to women who carry to term, and one survey found that
many women attributed the sleep disorders to a past abortion. These sleep disturbances
"could render the high energy demands of parenting more complicated."

Substance abuse. Studies have found that women who had an abortion were more likely to
engage in substance abuse, and also more likely to smoke or use drugs or alcohol while
pregnant. Mothers who abuse drugs or alcohol are more likely to "engage in authoritarian and
punitive parenting practices," and parental substance abuse increases the risk that the children
will suffer abuse or neglect.

Child abuse. Abortion has been associated with lower emotional support for ones children
and with a higher risk of child abuse and neglect.

Abortion has also been linked to higher rates of suicide and to a wide range of mental health
disorders. Coleman was also the lead author of a study published in The Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, which found that the children of women who had abortions have
less supportive home environments and more behavioral problems than children of women
without a history of abortion.2
While the review noted that not every woman may experience psychological problems after
abortion that will carry over into their personal relationships, "some women will have
carryover effects into the parenting realm." The paper pointed to a need for better screening
and awareness of possible psychological problems after miscarriage, adoption and abortion,
and for more research to examine the effects of abortion.

Learn more: For more information on the impact of abortion, download and share our free
"Recent Research" fact sheet.

Citations

1. PK Coleman, "The Psychological Pain of Perinatal Loss and Subsequent Parenting Risks:
Could Induced Abortion Be More Problematic Than Other Forms of Loss," Current Womens
Health Issues 5: 88-99, 2009.

2. PK Coleman, DC Reardon, JR Cougle, Substance use among pregnant women in the

context of previous reproductive loss and desire for current pregnancy, British Journal of
Health Psychology 10: 255-268, 2005.

http://www.lifenews.com/2009/01/01/nat-5193/

Did You Know?

1. From Roe v. Wade in 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions were
performed in the United States an average of about 1.4 million abortions per year.
[84] At 2008 abortion rates, three in ten US women will have an abortion before age
45. [13]

2. Although the Catholic and Lutheran churches oppose abortion, more of their members
believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases versus illegal in all or most cases
(51% vs. 45%, Lutheran; 48% vs. 45%, Catholic). [151]

3. A woman's risk of dying from having an abortion is 0.6 in 100,000, while the risk of
dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher (8.8 in 100,000). [3] The mortality
rate of a colonoscopy is more than 40 times greater than that of an abortion. [122]

4. 8.5% of abortions reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010
were undergone by women who had three or more previous abortions. [83]

5. More US state abortion restrictions were enacted between 2011 and 2013 (205 in
total) than were adopted during the whole previous decade (189). [105]
Pro & Con Arguments: "Should Abortion Be Legal?"

PRO Legal Abortion

1. The US Supreme Court has declared abortion to be a "fundamental right"

guaranteed by the US Constitution. The landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade,
decided on Jan. 22, 1973 in favor of abortion rights, remains the law of the land. The
7-2 decision stated that the Constitution gives "a guarantee of certain areas or zones of
privacy," and that "This right of privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman's
decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." [49]

2. Reproductive choice empowers women by giving them control over their own
bodies. The choice over when and whether to have children is central to a woman's
independence and ability to determine her future. [134] Supreme Court Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor wrote in the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, "The
ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation
has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives." [8] Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissenting opinion in Gonzales v.
Carhart (2007) that undue restrictions on abortion infringe upon "a woman's
autonomy to determine her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature."
[59] CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, JD, stated that Roe v. Wade was "a
landmark of what is, in the truest sense, womens liberation." [113]

3. Personhood begins after a fetus becomes "viable" (able to survive outside the
womb) or after birth, not at conception. [31] [32] Embryos and fetuses are not
independent, self-determining beings, and abortion is the termination of a pregnancy,
not a baby. A person's age is calculated from birth date, not conception, and fetuses
are not counted in the US Census. The majority opinion in Roe v. Wade states that
"the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment [of the US Constitution],
does not include the unborn." [49]

4. Fetuses are incapable of feeling pain when most abortions are performed.
According to a 2010 review by Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists, "most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain
perception." The cortex does not become functional until at least the 26th week of a
fetus' development, long after most abortions are performed. This finding was
endorsed in 2012 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, [1]
which stated that that there is "no legitimate scientific information that supports the
statement that a fetus experiences pain." [142] According to Stuart W. G. Derbyshire,
PhD, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham (England), "...fetuses cannot
be held to experience pain. Not only has the biological development not yet occurred
to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the
development of pain experience, is also yet to occur." [10] The "flinching" and other
reactions seen in fetuses when they detect pain stimuli are mere reflexes, not an
indication that the fetus is perceiving or "feeling" anything. [135] [145]
5. Access to legal, professionally-performed abortions reduces maternal injury and
death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions. According to Daniel R. Mishell, Jr., MD,
Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Keck School of
Medicine, University of Southern California, before abortion was legalized women
would frequently try to induce abortions by using coat hangers, knitting needles, or
radiator flush, or by going to unsafe "back-alley" abortionists. [150] In 1972, there
were 39 maternal deaths from illegal abortions. By 1976, after Roe v. Wade had
legalized abortion nationwide, this number dropped to two. [7] The World Health
Organization estimated in 2004 that unsafe abortions cause 68,000 maternal deaths
worldwide each year, many of those in developing countries where safe and legal
abortion services are difficult to access. [11]

6. Modern abortion procedures are safe and do not cause lasting health issues such
as cancer, infertility, and mental health problems. A 2012 study in Obstetrics &
Gynecology found a woman's risk of dying from having an abortion is 0.6 in 100,000,
while the risk of dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher (8.8 in 100,000).
The study also found that "pregnancy-related complications were more common with
childbirth than with abortion." [3] The American Medical Association and the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated "Abortion is one of the
safest medical procedures performed in the United States." They also said the
mortality rate of a colonoscopy is more than 40 times greater than that of an abortion.
[122] The National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and
the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists all refuted the claim that
abortion can lead to a higher probability of developing breast cancer. [22] A 1993
fertility investigation of 10,767 women by the Joint Royal College of General
Practitioners and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that
women who had at least two abortions experienced the same future fertility as those
who had at least two natural pregnancies. [14] Studies by the American Psychological
Association (APA), the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC), and
researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health all concluded that
purported links between abortion and mental health problems are unfounded. [152]

7. Abortion gives pregnant women the option to choose not to bring fetuses with
profound abnormalities to full term. Some fetuses have such severe disorders that
death is guaranteed before or shortly after birth. These include anencephaly, in which
the brain is missing, and limb-body wall complex, in which organs develop outside
the body cavity. [12] It would be cruel to force women to carry fetuses with fatal
congenital defects to term. Even in the case of nonfatal conditions, such as Down
syndrome, parents may be unable to care for a severely disabled child. Deborah Anne
Driscoll, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of
Pennsylvania, said "many couples... dont have the resources, dont have the
emotional stamina, dont have the family support [to raise a child with Down
syndrome]." [9]

8. Women who are denied abortions are more likely to become unemployed, to be
on public welfare, to be below the poverty line, and to become victims of
domestic violence. A University of California at San Francisco study found that
 women who were turned away from abortion clinics (because they had passed the
gestational limit imposed by the clinic) were three times more likely to be below the
poverty level two years later than women who were able to obtain abortions. 76% of
the "turnaways" ended up on unemployment benefits, compared with 44% of the
women who had abortions. The same study found that women unable to obtain
abortions were more likely to stay in a relationship with an abusive partner than
women who had an abortion, and were more than twice as likely to become victims of
domestic violence. [114] [73]

9. Reproductive choice protects women from financial disadvantage. Many women

who choose abortion don't have the financial resources to support a child. 42% of
women having abortions are below the federal poverty level. [13] A Sep. 2005 survey
in the peer-reviewed Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health asking women
why they had an abortion found that 73% of respondents said they could not afford to
have a baby, and 38% said giving birth would interfere with their education and
career goals. [19] An Oct. 2010 University of Massachusetts at Amherst study
published in the peer-reviewed American Sociological Review found that women at
all income levels earn less when they have children, with low-wage workers being
most affected, suffering a 15% earnings penalty. [136]

10. A baby should not come into the world unwanted. Having a child is an important
decision that requires consideration, preparation, and planning. The Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment stated that unintended pregnancies are
associated with birth defects, low birth weight, maternal depression, increased risk of
child abuse, lower educational attainment, delayed entry into prenatal care, a high risk
of physical violence during pregnancy, and reduced rates of breastfeeding. [75] 49%
of all pregnancies among American women are unintended. [50]

11. Abortion reduces welfare costs to taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office
(CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency, evaluated a proposed anti-abortion bill that
would ban all abortions nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and found that the
resulting additional births would increase the federal deficit by $225 million over nine
years, due to the increased need for Medicaid coverage. Also, since many women
seeking late-term abortions are economically disadvantaged, their children are likely
to require welfare assistance. [129] [130]

12. Abortion reduces crime. According to a study co-written by Freakonomics co-

author Steven D. Levitt, PhD, and published in the peer-reviewed Quarterly Journal
of Economics, "legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime
reductions." Around 18 years after abortion was legalized, crime rates began to drop
abruptly, and crime rates dropped earlier in states that allowed abortion earlier.
Because "women who have abortions are those most at risk to give birth to children
who would engage in criminal activity," and women who had control over the timing
of childbearing were more likely to raise children in optimal environments, crime is
reduced when there is access to legal abortion. [20]
 13. Abortion is justified as a means of population control. Philosopher Peter Singer,
MA, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, defended abortion as a way to
curb overpopulation. [137] The United Nations estimated that the world's population
will increase to 9.3 billion by 2050, which would be "the equivalent of adding another
India and China to the world," according to the Los Angeles Times. [131]
Malnutrition, starvation, poverty, lack of medical and educational services, pollution,
underdevelopment, and conflict over resources are all consequences of
overpopulation. [21] With 43.8 million abortions performed worldwide in 2008 [74],
the population increase if abortion were unavailable could be substantial. [132]

14. Many religious organizations and people of faith support women's reproductive
choice. Although many religious groups oppose abortion, the United Methodist
Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of
Congregations are all officially pro-choice. [139] [140] [141] The Bible, despite
interpretations to the contrary, contains no explicit condemnation of abortion, and
does not portray the killing of a fetus as equivalent to the killing of a human being. In
Exodus 21:22-25, the crime of causing a woman to miscarry is treated as a property
crime, whereas killing the woman is considered murder and is punished with the death
penalty. [33] While the Catholic and Lutheran churches oppose abortion, more of
their members believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases versus illegal in all
or most cases (51% vs. 45%, Lutheran; 48% vs. 45%, Catholic). [151] Joe Biden, 47th
US Vice President, stated in Oct. 2012 that "I accept my churchs position on
abortion... But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and
Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others..." [138]

CON Legal Abortion

1. Abortion is murder. The killing of an innocent human being is wrong, even if that
human being has yet to be born. Unborn babies are considered human beings by the
US government. The federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was enacted "to
protect unborn children from assault and murder," states that under federal law,
anybody intentionally killing or attempting to kill an unborn child should "be
punished... for intentionally killing or attempting to kill a human being." The act also
states that an unborn child is a "member of the species homo sapiens." [126] At least
38 states have passed similar fetal homicide laws. [127]

2. Life begins at conception, so unborn babies are human beings with a right to life.
Upon fertilization, a human individual is created with a unique genetic identity that
remains unchanged throughout his or her life. This individual has a fundamental right
to life, which must be protected. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who
discovered the chromosome abnormality that causes Down syndrome, stated that "To
accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into
being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion... The human nature of the human being
from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental
evidence." [15] [16]
3. Fetuses feel pain during the abortion procedure. Maureen Condic, PhD, Associate
Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy and Adjunct Associate Professor of
Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, explains that the "most
primitive response to pain, the spinal reflex," is developed by eight weeks gestation,
and adds that "There is universal agreement that pain is detected by the fetus in the
first trimester." [18] According to Kanwaljeet J. S. Anand, MBBS, DPhil, Professor
of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology and Neurobiology at the University of Tennessee Health
Science Center, "If the fetus is beyond 20 weeks of gestation, I would assume that
there will be pain caused to the fetus. And I believe it will be severe and excruciating
pain." [24] Bernard N. Nathanson, MD, the late abortion doctor who renounced his
earlier work and became a pro-life activist, stated that when an abortion is performed
on a 12-week-old fetus, "We see [in an ultrasound image] the childs mouth open in a
silent scream... This is the silent scream of a child threatened imminently with
extinction." [145]

4. Abortion is the killing of a human being, which defies the word of God. The
Bible does not draw a distinction between fetuses and babies: the Greek word brephos
is used in the Bible to refer to both an unborn child and an infant. [30] By the time a
baby is conceived, he or she is recognized by God, as demonstrated in Jeremiah 1:5:
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee..." [133] The Sixth Commandment of the Bible's Old
Testament, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13), applies to all human beings,
including unborn babies. [23] In the Hindu religion, the holy text Kaushitaki
Upanishad states that abortion is an equivalent misdeed to killing ones own parents.
[148] The BBC states that "Traditional Buddhism rejects abortion because it involves
the deliberate destroying of a life." [149]

5. The decision in Roe v. Wade was wrong and should be overturned. US Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated that the right to privacy defended in Roe v. Wade
is "utterly idiotic" and should not be considered binding precedent: "There is no right
to privacy [in the US Constitution]." [153] [154] In his dissenting opinion in Roe v.
Wade, Justice William H. Rehnquist stated that an abortion "is not 'private' in the
ordinary usage of that word. Nor is the 'privacy' that the Court finds here even a
distant relative of the freedom from searches and seizures protected by the Fourth
Amendment to the Constitution..." [49] Furthermore, the 14th Amendment bars states
from depriving "any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
[155] The Supreme Court overreached in Roe v. Wade when it excluded unborn
children from the class of "persons." [156] [157]

6. Abortions cause psychological damage. A 2008 peer-reviewed study published in

the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health found that "Young adult women who
undergo... abortion may be at increased risk for subsequent depression." [44] A peer-
reviewed 2005 study published in BMC Medicine found that women who underwent
an abortion had "significantly higher" anxiety scores on the Hospital Anxiety and
Depression Scale up to five years after the pregnancy termination. [69] A 2002 peer-
reviewed study published by the Southern Medical Journal of more than 173,000
American women found that women who aborted were 154% more likely to commit
 suicide than women who carried to term. [26] A 1996 study published in the British
Medical Journal reported that the mean annual suicide rate amongst women who had
an abortion was 34.7 per 100,000, compared with a mean rate of 11.3 per 100,000 in
the general population of women. [45] An Apr. 1998 Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology study of men whose partners had abortions found that 51.6% of the men
reported regret, 45.2% felt sadness, and 25.8% experienced depression. [27]

7. Abortions reduce the number of adoptable babies. Instead of having the option to
abort, women should give their unwanted babies to people who cannot conceive. The
percentage of infants given up for adoption in the United States declined from 9% of
those born before 1973 to 1% of those born between 1996 and 2002. [53] As a result
of the lack of women putting their children up for adoption, the number of US infant
adoptions dropped from about 90,000 in 1971 to 18,000 in 2007. [46] Around 2.6
million American women were trying to adopt children as of 2002, according to the
US Department of Health and Human Services. [76]

8. Selective abortion based on genetic abnormalities (eugenic termination) is overt

discrimination. Physical limitations don't make those with disabilities less than
human. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 [54] provides civil rights
protection to people born with disabilities so they can lead fulfilling lives. The
National Down Syndrome Society states that "people with Down syndrome live at
home with their families and are active participants in the educational, vocational,
social, and recreational activities of the community. People with Down syndrome are
valued members of their families and their communities, contributing to society in a
variety of ways." [66] The increase in abortions of babies with Down syndrome (over
80% of women choose to abort Down syndrome babies [70]) reduced the Down
syndrome population by 15% between 1989 and 2005. [67]

9. Women should not be able to use abortion as a form of contraception. It is

immoral to kill an unborn child for convenience. [116] The Guttmacher Institute
reported that half of all women having abortions every year have had at least one
previous abortion, [13] while 8.5% of abortions reported to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in 2010 were undergone by women who had three or more
previous abortions. [83] This suggests that many women are using abortion as a
contraceptive method. [78] Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt, PhD, wrote that
after abortion was legalized, "Conceptions rose by nearly 30 percent, but births
actually fell by 6 percent, indicating that many women were using abortion as a
method of birth control, a crude and drastic sort of insurance policy." [38]

10. If women become pregnant, they should accept the responsibility that comes
with producing a child. People need to take responsibility for their actions and
accept the consequences. Having sexual intercourse, even when contraceptive
methods are used, carries with it the risk of a pregnancy. [128] The unborn baby
should not be punished for a mistake made by adults. If women are unprepared to care
for their children, they should at least put them up for adoption.
11. The original text of the Hippocratic Oath, traditionally taken by doctors when
swearing to practice medicine ethically, forbids abortion. One section of the
classical version of the oath reads: "I will not give a woman a pessary [a device
inserted into the vagina] to cause an abortion." The modern version of the Hippocratic
Oath, written in 1964 by Luis Lasagna, still effectively forbids doctors from
performing abortions in the line, "Above all, I must not play at God." [25]

12. Abortion promotes a culture in which human life is disposable. The legalization of
abortion sends a message that human life has little value. [144] Pope Francis
condemned "'the throwaway culture'" in Jan. 2014, stating that "what is thrown away
is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are
discarded as 'unnecessary'. For example, it is frightful even to think there are children,
victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day..." [143] House Representative
Randy Hultgren (R-IL) wrote in Jan. 2014 that "When we tell one another that
abortion is okay, we reinforce the idea that human lives are disposable, that we can
throw away anything or anyone that inconveniences us." [36]

13. Allowing abortion conflicts with the unalienable right to life recognized by the
Founding Fathers of the United States. The Declaration of Independence states that
"[A]ll men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
[51] Abortion takes away from the unborn the unalienable right to life that the
Founding Fathers intended for all human beings. [115]

14. Abortion disproportionately affects African American babies. In the United

States, black women are 3.3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion,
according to the Guttmacher Institute. [68] In New York City in 2012, more black
babies were aborted (31,328) than had live births (24,758). [77]

15. Abortion eliminates the potential societal contributions of a future human being.
According to Heisman Trophy-winning football player Tim Tebow, "the reason I'm
here" is because his mother ignored the advice of doctors who recommended an
abortion. [117] It has also been reported that the mothers of entertainers Celine Dion,
Cher, and Justin Bieber were either advised to have abortions or were considering the
procedure, but chose to give birth to their babies instead. [118] [120] [119]

16. Abortion may lead to future medical problems for the mother. A June 2003 study
published by the peer-reviewed International Journal of Epidemiology estimated that
about 15% of first-trimester miscarriages are attributed to a prior history of induced
abortion, and stated that "Induced abortion by vacuum aspiration is associated with an
increased risk of first-trimester miscarriage in the subsequent pregnancy." [34] A
2013 Chinese study published in the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Cancer found
an association between breast cancer and a history of abortions [71]. A Feb. 2014
study published in the peer-reviewed Cancer Causes and Control found that abortion
"is significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer" and that "the risk
of breast cancer increases as the number of [abortions] increases." [72]
http://abortion.procon.org/