Read the news release here. Then revisit our post on previous abortions and the risk of preterm birth.

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Rebecca adds: Tsk tsk, Véronique. Don’t you know that sharing scientifically established facts is just another way of imposing patriarchal values on women, to scare them out of exercising their right to choose?

Seriously – it bears repeating that if any other necessary surgery, let alone an elective procedure like an abortion, were done exclusively on women, and more often on minority women, without studying its long term consequences, or without sharing the facts about those consequences that are known, feminists and all sane people would be up in arms. Consider the work that’s been done on unnecessary hysterectomies, for instance, or on the virtues of radical mastectomy compared to lumpectomy for cancer. A great deal of thought has gone into considering these procedures not only in terms of their short term medical consequences but also their longer term effect on women’s physical and mental health, and sexual health. None of this discussion has yet taken place about abortion.