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Abortion and low birth weight, preterm delivery

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There’s an article today in the papers about the birth control pill being linked to low birth weight. (It’s supposed to be here, however, at time of posting this, the National Post web site is down.)

That’s not a study or a link I’m familiar with, and so not having seen the study I’d rather not comment on this link.

However, the article also says:

Babies born with a low birth weight or prematurely — a growing problem in Canada whose cause is not always clear — are more likely to suffer health problems.

It is clear through more than one study that an abortion is linked to subsequent preterm delivery. Read about it here, here or here.

We’re not allowed to talk about any adverse health effects the result of abortion. So it’s important to highlight these things, and learn about them, as they come up.

Autism linked to premature birth

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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.

 

Women as guinea pigs

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I’ve talked to countless women who believe abortion has no risks whatsoever. And yes, the charge is very real that somehow when I come up with valid, peer-reviewed studies showing otherwise it’s a pro-life conspiracy. Preterm birth the result of a prior abortion is very real. Read about it here.

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Andrea adds: I addressed this issue before here. And I will repeat: Information is not a scare tactic. It is information, pure and simple, that women are not getting. I wonder if those working in clinics even know. They should of course, and I hold them fully and completely accountable for lying to women through their silence. Save for really seeking this information out, it is almost impossible to get. And once one finds it, the accusations of it being false or used to “trick” women into not getting an abortion begin.  

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Tanya adds emphasis: The above article states:

The Nuremberg Code was adopted in 1964. The code insists on animal studies before exposing human beings to any procedure. All surgical procedures in Canada have been tested on animals. Except one. There are no published animal studies on vacuum aspiration abortion.

I feel like this is something we should be yelling from rooftops. How can the issue of informed consent even be addressed when all the information has yet to be collected? Vacuum aspiration abortion is literally and indisputably inhumane according to Canadian standards of medicine. It’s anti-woman!

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Patricia says: It’s interesting to note which community provides a disproportionately high number of these “guinea pigs”, at least in the US. Kay writes: “Black American women, although only 12% of the American population, undergo 35.2% of all abortions.” Again, shouldn’t feminists be screaming from the rooftops (to quote Tanya) about this misuse (abuse) of a vulnerable population?

Information is not a scare tactic

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This study, published in January in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health shows a substantive link between abortion and subsequent preterm births and low birth weights.

The Medical Post reported about this study on February 5. (It’s a registration required site so I’ll just quote from the article here.)

With increasing number of abortions, there was an increasing risk for both premature birth and low birth weight, Dr. Adera told the Medical Post. That is one major indication of a causal connection. […]

We believe this study confirms that both induced and spontaneous abortions are risk factors both for low birth weight and for premature births. And therefore we believe that women need to be informed about these potential risks by their doctors.

This has been known for a while. Researchers have cited the example of Poland, where abortion is illegal.  

Poland dramatically reduced its rates of premature birth, maternal mortality and infant mortality within a few years after its abortion rate declined by 98% between 1989 and 1993 (as a result of the passage of an abortion ban). “If induced abortion significantly elevates pre-term birth risk, one would expect Poland’s pre-term birth rate to slump 5–10 years after the induced-abortion rate plunge,” [researchers] wrote. They say data from UNICEF found that, between 1995 and 1997 (after abortion declined by 98% from 1989 – 1993), Poland’s pre-term birth rate dropped by 41.8% and maternal mortality decreased 41.4%, and infant mortality was down by 25.0%.

This is important because in Canada, 17 per cent of abortions are done on girls age 10-19, 54 per cent on women age 20-29. In short, it’s likely these women are aborting their first child, with the hope of having another one later. Preterm birth is a risk factor for all kinds of complications, as is low birth weight. When babies experience complications, it is personally distressing to young mothers. It’s also a stress on our health care system. (This, in my estimation, falls a very distant second as a reason to make the information public. But dollars and cents matter, especially as our health care system declines.)

No, the information should be public so women can know and learn. And women are not hearing this information. I don’t bring it up as a scare tactic. Take a look at the study and decide for yourself. 

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