‘Abortion is safer than having a baby, doctors say’
The draft guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is for all doctors, nurses and counsellors advising women contemplating terminations.
Its first recommendation on “what women need to know” instructs health professionals: “Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term.”
The guidance also says that women who are deciding whether to have an abortion must be told that most do not suffer any psychological harm. Until now, their advice has been that while rates of psychiatric illness and self-harm in women are higher among those who had an abortion, there was no evidence that termination itself was likely to trigger psychological problems.
While few dispute that terminations carry fewer physical risks to a woman than those of pregnancy, the impact of abortions on psychological health is highly contentious.
Never before has official advice to doctors and nurses in Britain instructed them to use such comparisons to help pregnant women decide whether to keep a child.
How does a doctor initially determine whether or not a women is abortion minded? Is it her financial situation? Her marriage status? Her age? Her race? Because without a direct statement of intent, I can see a lot of women, both the abortion vulnerable and those not even considering it, being told by their doctor “Abortion is safer than pregnancy” and being fairly outraged by it. Not to mention the inaccuracy of the statement.
Speaking in a personal capacity, Prof Patricia Casey, a consultant psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “The message this sends out is very worrying. There are more than 30 studies showing an association between psychological trauma and abortion.”
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Brigitte adds hard medical fact to the debate: Usually, when an abortion is successful, a baby dies. We should make sure to mention that, too.
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Andrea adds: It is my strong feeling (read Giving Sorrow Words) that many women are looking not for a reason to abort but rather a reason not to. After all, in the UK and Canada everyone knows how to go off and get an abortion. It’s not altogether easy to envision doing the opposite in the early stages of an unwanted pregnancy.








When I was just pregnant with my first I was honest with my physician, and said, when he asked if I was happy about it, “Not yet, but I will be when I get my mind around it.”
I’ll never forget his answer. “You know, abortion is a personal decision between a woman and her doctor.” No mention that my husband might have a stake in the decision as well. Just made it quite clear that, in his opinion, abortion was a perfectly acceptable, even perhaps desirable option.
The thing is, when a doctor suggests something, you really start to consider it. They are the professionals. They have the knowledge and expertise that we don’t.
I should really let this go. It’s been 11 years and I’m still disgusted. Thing is, I don’t know as I will ever be that brutally honest with a doctor again. I know there are good doctors out there, but, as a whole, I don’t really trust the medical profession when it comes to women’s health and reproduction.
Maybe I was naive to trust them in the first place.
I’m sorry you had to go through that, Melissa. And I do find it hard to trust doctors on these issues too.
Thanks for your concern, Andrea. It really wasn’t that much of an ordeal for me. I have a supportive husband and family.
My real indignation was that that was the way he responded to a MARRIED woman, who said that she would be happy once she wrapped her mind around the fact that she was pregnant.
How do you think he would respond to the worried woman who comes in and says “Oh no. I can’t be pregnant. My parents are going to kill me.”?
Might I add that this was the resident ob-gyn at the University health clinic.
Suddenly, the reason that you never saw a pregnant woman on campus clicked into fine focus.