Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping!
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Posted on 02/24/2006 6:58:15 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
Professor David Fergusson, director of the Christchurch Health and Development Study in New Zealand, is firmly pro-choice. But I suspect the good professor might understand if I point out that, lately, he’s been getting a little taste of what it’s like to be pro-life.
Fergusson and two colleagues, L. John Horwood and Elizabeth Ridder, conducted a study on abortion and mental health. And they didn’t find what they expected to find. Their report states, “Those having an abortion [under age 25] had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviours and substance use disorders.” Their report goes on to say, “The findings suggest that abortion in young women may be associated with increased risks of mental health problems.”
Talk about irony. We’re used to hearing about the “mental health” aspects of abortion, of course—but usually, we’re being told that a woman’s mental health is in danger if she doesn’t have an abortion. At the very least, this new study forces pro-choicers to question the all-too-common assumption, an assumption that now is putting young women in danger.
Not that most pro-choicers want to hear this, of course—and particularly not now, with the Supreme Court just having agreed to hear an appeal of the partial-birth abortion ban case, where the issue turns on exceptions about the mother’s health. This is why I said that Dr. Fergusson is learning something about what it’s like to be pro-life. This well-regarded researcher and his team normally have no trouble at all getting their work published. But in this case they had to go to four different journals before they could find one that would publish their study. Fergusson has told interviewers that he knows it’s because his findings are too “controversial”—so controversial that New Zealand’s Abortion Supervisory Committee warned him against publishing his work, not for scientific reasons, but for political ones.
Well, Fergusson himself dislikes the idea that pro-lifers will use his work, and he knows that his research could have a devastating effect on the abortion movement in his country. In New Zealand, as the Herald explained, “Every abortion requires two ‘certifying consultants’ to approve it on certain grounds, usually that a woman’s mental health would be [otherwise] endangered.” You can see what the implications would be if the greater “mental health” risk turns out to be having the abortion.
My hat is off to Dr. Fergusson. Despite the controversy, and despite the fact that his results disagreed with his own beliefs, Fergusson was determined to publish them anyway. And he told the Herald, “It verges on scandalous that a surgical procedure that is performed on over one in 10 women has been so poorly researched and evaluated, given the debates about the psychological consequences of abortion.”
That, my friends, is a true professional and a true scientist speaking. It’s people like this who give science a good name. He’s not willing to ignore the elephant in the middle of the room just because no one else wants to talk about it. Instead, he insists on getting the truth out in the open. And that’s what science ought to be all about—not just in New Zealand, but here.
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I am starting to think that the lessons involved in abstinance are somewhat the same lessons needed to succeed otherwise in life. I mean that discipline, self control znd impulse control are desirable traits whereas license and reckless abandon don't workkout that well. I listened at length to a dear friend from Holland, yesterday, making the argument that the Catholic church teaching made women have more children than they could handle. Isn't that all based on the assumption that peole should couple whenever they want? I'll bet that people who have no control over their sex lives lack control in other areas, too. The timr to master this is adolescence.
Excellent article. If only more scientists were as bold and honest.
Excellent point. Reponsible people with self-control and perseverance will usually succeed in life.
Another point which occurred to me is that these results are simply common sense: It's natural that women who have killed their babies will show symptoms of unhappiness afterward. The ones who's mental stability is really in question are the ones who *don't* regret what they did.
" I grew up in a church that taught me that I must be clean before I can approach God. But Jesus came to me just as I was....a sinner... and He redeemed me by His grace and not by my works. "
Sounds like the same Gospel that got me. "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy Cross I cling", great hymn that got it right.
You are a gift from God. Bless you.
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...
So glad to see it on the forum, and grateful for the ping, cp.
bump
bump
bump
It's in the News.
You are very welcome!
BTTT!
"Exactly. Maybe the reason it couldn't egt printed is because it prevents a shaky causality. Women who are having uinprotected sex in their youth probably have a screw loose going in, abortion or no."
Could be they're just horny.
Bottom line, people want to minimize the expense rung up by their actions, without considering that even if they can get society to give you a pass on it, your rational mind isn't BS'd that easily. Your conscience ends up picking at that scab until your soul dies of infection.
I have NEVER been able to figure out what kind of moral gymnastics a mother of three goes through after having had a couple of prior abortions.
Mothers telling these kids, "I love you with all my heart," and "There is nothing I wouldn't do for you." What they should be telling them is, "It's a damn good thing you weren't my first."
Not surprising.
Remember when researchers thought they had found the gene responsible for homosexuality? Gays, who have been saying for years that being gay is genetically determined and not simply a lifestyle choice came unglued.
They denounced the research that seemed to prove their long-held claims.
Why? They were afraid that parents might selectively abort children that carried the Gene. Yet they continue to support abortion and claim being gay is determined at birth.
Go figure...
Or they could tell them, at an appropriate age, "I made a horrible mistake, and I will do anything necessary to prevent your making the same mistake."
WOW! Praise the Lord!!
Yep, thanks for providing those links. Of course, only a moron would believe you could sacrifice a child and it would have no (or positive!) reprecussions. Sure, a scared girl who is de facto under duress can be talked into that crap, but the idea that scientists and health professionals believe it is dubious to me.
Our local pregnancy center is a CareNet affiliate. Great organization.
Amazing testimony, leenie. God bless you.
The Perils of Peer Review.
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