(CV) Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, pro-abortion activists have preyed on the heartstrings of Americans claiming: “Pregnancies are actually more dangerous than abortions.”
Is this true? Is it more dangerous for a woman’s body for her to grow and bear a child than to terminate its life before birth? Are the risks of pregnancy greater than the risks of abortion?
CatholicVote dug into a few stats to find out.
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The baby
Up to 40% of women who have an abortion retain “products of conception” (RPOC). RPOC “refers to fetal or placental tissue that remains in your uterus after a pregnancy. RPOC is more common when a pregnancy ends early. RPOC can lead to bleeding, infection, and other problems. Medication or minor surgery can treat RPOC,” the Cleveland Clinic reported.
The premature ending of a pregnancy through chemical or medicinal abortion is thought to be the main cause of this phenomenon, as RPOC is found in less than 1% of full-term pregnancies.
Keeping the baby
Pregnancy, while hard on the body of a woman, can produce positive effects as well.
FemmePro OB/GYN reported that women who go through pregnancy can experience menstrual cramp relief once their cycle starts again, reduced risk of some cancers, and improved heart health with a 10% reduced risk of developing heart disease later in life if you have a history of breastfeeding.
Women who have given birth may also develop multitasking skills and are up to 94% less likely to develop Multiple sclerosis (MS).
Aborting the baby
In contrast, women who have an abortion at the very least will have negative consequences due to the interruption of the hormone process Medical News Today reported. The most common negative emotions experienced are:
- Guilt
- Anger
- Shame
- Remorse or regret
- Loss of self-esteem or self-confidence
- Feelings of isolation and loneliness
- Sleep problems and nightmares
- Relationship problems
- Thoughts of suicide
The Laguna Treatment Hospital reported that women who have an abortion are 81% more likely than other women to struggle with mental health after their “treatment.” They were:
- 34% more likely to develop an anxiety disorder
- 37% more likely to experience depression
- 110% more likely to abuse alcohol
- 155% more likely to commit suicide
- 220% more likely to abuse marijuana
While an increase in women’s deaths during pregnancy has been reported, the causes of death have little to do with the pregnancies themselves, and more with the lack of support the American health system gives to women after they have a child. Most of these maternal deaths – 80% in fact – are preventable.
Chemical abortion risks
Most people think of abortion as an invasive procedure performed in a clinic. Since the pandemic, however, there has been a rise in chemical abortions – abortions performed with the use of drugs such as mifepristone. Over 50% of all abortions are now chemical.
It is difficult to find research on the aftermath of early-stage chemical abortions, due to the lack of data and the lack of will to procure that data. Chemical abortions present far more risks than even surgical abortions the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) reported.
- Chemical abortion has a complication rate four times that of surgical abortion, and as many as one out of five women will suffer a complication.
- Three to seven out of every 100 women who choose chemical abortion early in pregnancy will need follow-up care to finish the abortion, with as many as 7 – 10% needing follow-up care for chemical abortions in the first trimester after 63 days of pregnancy and up to 39% requiring surgery if accidentally taken in second trimester.
- As many as 15% of women will experience hemorrhage, and 2% will have an infection. The risk of incomplete abortion and infection increases with increasing gestational age.
- Chemical abortion drugs are more likely to send women to the emergency room: the rate of chemical abortion-related emergency room visits increased over 500% between 2002-2015.
- Chemical abortions are over 50% more likely than surgical abortions to result in an ER visit within 30 days affecting one in twenty women.
- Mifepristone cannot treat an ectopic pregnancy and can mask the symptoms of tubal rupture, putting women at risk of severe bleeding and death. Approximately 2% of all pregnancies are ectopic.
- If an Rh-negative woman is not administered Rhogam if indicated at the time of her chemical abortion, she could experience isoimmunization which would cause serious risks to future pregnancies.
- Some abortion advocates encourage women to lie to their doctors if they need urgent care and say they are having a miscarriage. However, if a chemical abortion is miscoded as a miscarriage in the ER (which occurred 60% of the time in one study), the woman is at significantly greater risk of needing multiple hospitalizations and follow-up surgery.
“Science demonstrates that chemical abortion is more dangerous for women. Data from states which track complications shows that as chemical abortions increase, so do the most serious complications resulting from chemical abortion,” Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) president Charles A. Donovan stated.
A 2009 comparative study found that “medical termination is associated with a higher incidence of adverse events,” and concluded that chemical abortions are even more dangerous than mechanical ones.
Editor's note: This article was published by CatholicVote and is reprinted with permission. Charles Donovan serves on the Board for heartbeat International, which manages Pregnancy Help News.
