{"id":224103,"date":"2020-05-25T13:45:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T18:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=224103"},"modified":"2020-05-25T00:21:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T05:21:24","slug":"post-abortion-trauma-real-researchers-denying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/post-abortion-trauma-real-researchers-denying\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-abortion trauma is real, and researchers do women no favors by denying it"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Abortion and its relation to women\u2019s mental health continues to be an ongoing controversy. In a 2000\u00a0<\/span>study<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of women who obtained abortions, Dr. Brenda Major, an abortion proponent, could not deny that a sample of women in her study showed signs of post-abortion trauma (or post-abortion syndrome, PAS). Two years after their abortions, Major noted 1.4 percent of women in her study appeared to suffer from this trauma, but Major was dismissive of the high depression scores of post-abortive women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Vincent Rue <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> of the research, \u201cEven at the low rate identified in this study, the impact is tremendous. With 40 million abortions since 1972, this would translate into 560,000 cases of PAS.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though it may sound small, 1.4 percent is not an insignificant finding, and this should have motivated Major and her team to investigate further\u2014especially when <\/span>20 percent of women<\/span><\/a> in the study were found to be struggling with clinical depression after abortion, and 31 percent of women said they would not<\/strong> choose to abort a second time, or were unsure if they would choose to do so again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers neglecting to conduct a deeper analysis of their own results seems abnormal. This appears to be just one example of the biases behind the results of Major\u2019s study.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Very few of the women Major <\/span>sampled<\/span><\/a> reported any positive effects from their abortions, with most women saying their decision did not benefit them at all. Within just a two year period, women\u2019s feelings of relief decreased while negative emotions increased. In Major\u2019s follow-up study of 442 women who had abortions, Major attempted to measure their depression by a single score. The first score was taken one hour after a woman\u2019s abortion, then one month later, and then again after two years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Research shows post-abortion trauma is very real, and women aren\u2019t alone<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Major would declare her study found some post-abortive women struggle with negative emotions, but most women after two years \u201cdo not experience psychological problems or regret.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, <\/span>approximately<\/span><\/a> 50 percent of women refused to participate<\/em> in the study\u2019s follow-up evaluation, or they could not be contacted. For most of the women who agreed to do the assessment, their depression scores were significantly higher than what had been initially reported one hour after their abortions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, 24.5 percent of women who remained in the two-year follow-up had scores beyond the cutoff for clinical depression on the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) scale. <\/span>Major<\/span><\/a> dismissed this finding, suggesting it was comparable to a <\/span>20% lifetime prevalence rate<\/span><\/a> of depression in women who are 15-35 years old.\u00a0<\/span>But the part of this study Major cited was assessing women\u2019s rates of depression throughout their lifetimes<\/em>. Major only analyzed the emotional state of women for two years<\/em>. It\u2019s also interesting for Major to use this study to attempt to verify her argument regarding post-abortive depression. Unintentionally, Major proved the point she was trying to refute.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Within the <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> analyzing female depression rates, the authors found symptoms of current (30 day) major depression was 8.2% for women ages 15-24, and 4.3% for women are 25-34. This means the rates of depression Major found in women two years after their abortions were 3 to 5 times higher than the general population of women.<\/span><\/p>\n

Major\u2019s <\/span>response<\/span><\/a> to women who attribute their abortion to struggles with depression or anxiety was skepticism. She claimed studies purporting a link between abortion and mental health rely on \u201cbiased samples\u201d of post-abortive women who have \u201cself-identified\u201d as depressed. Major asserted women suffering from post-abortion trauma are not representative of the general population of women who have abortions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Strong evidence exists that people can perceive a causal connection between events in their lives when none, in fact, exists,\u201d Major <\/span>said<\/span><\/a>. \u201cThe infamous witchcraft trials of Salem, MA, in which young women came to believe that physical symptoms they were experiencing were caused by witchcraft, provide a compelling example of this fallacy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To Major, women suffering from post-abortion trauma are confused about the cause of their own personal distress. This is beyond insulting and demeaning. <\/span>Theresa Bonopartis<\/span><\/a>, founder of the abortion healing group Lumina, has issued this response to repeated dismissals of post-abortion trauma like her own:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Historically, psychologists have listened to women and affirmed our insights into our own emotional struggles. No one would accuse a victim of sexual abuse of being confused about the source of her emotional turmoil. But when it comes to women talking about their abortion experiences, now we are suspect?!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Take a look inside the world\u2019s largest post-abortion healing ministry<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Major’s misrepresentation of researchers like <\/span>Rue<\/span><\/a>\u2014<\/span>who discovered that symptoms of post-traumatic stress were attributable to women\u2019s abortions\u2014betrays an improper analysis of other study\u2019s findings. Major\u2019s claim that the women Rue used in his study merely self-identified as depressed fails to take into consideration that Rue observed the emotional state of women with any history of pregnancy loss. Based on this, Rue found higher levels of stress and a decrease in coping abilities in women who had abortions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s more striking is that Major violated <\/span>APA ethics rules<\/span><\/a> by repeatedly <\/span>refusing<\/span><\/a> to share data from her studies so it could be reanalyzed and reviewed by other researchers. Since Major\u2019s study was federally funded,\u00a0the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requested copies of Major\u2019s report.\u00a0<\/span>Major <\/span>declined<\/span><\/a>, saying, \u201cIt would be very difficult to pull this information together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on what he\u2019s seen of Major\u2019s study, <\/span>Elliot Institute Director David Reardon<\/span><\/a> believes Major\u2019s reluctance to share her data is because Major \u201cselectively reported her findings.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Reardon noted several tables containing negative post-abortion reactions were \u201cobscured\u201d in Major\u2019s report. For example, a number of women in Major\u2019s study reported they had started drinking or taking drugs to cope with negative feelings about their abortions. Major neglected to share these pertinent details in her published studies, and her withholding of the data prevented a closer look at these findings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, <\/span>pro-choice studies<\/span><\/a> like Major\u2019s tend to be dismissive of abortion\u2019s emotional side effects, even when their research proves otherwise. Instead of treating post-abortion trauma like an anomaly, researchers should feel motivated to investigate abortion\u2019s consequences instead of rejecting them outright.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abortion and its relation to women\u2019s mental health continues to be an ongoing controversy. In a 2000\u00a0study\u00a0of women who obtained abortions, Dr. Brenda Major, an abortion proponent, could not deny that a sample of women in her study showed signs of post-abortion trauma (or post-abortion syndrome, PAS). Two years after their abortions, Major noted 1.4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":617,"featured_media":191953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPost-abortion trauma is real, and researchers do women no favors by denying it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/post-abortion-trauma-real-researchers-denying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Post-abortion trauma is real, and researchers do women no favors by denying it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Abortion and its relation to women\u2019s mental health continues to be an ongoing controversy. In a 2000\u00a0study\u00a0of women who obtained abortions, Dr. Brenda Major, an abortion proponent, could not deny that a sample of women in her study showed signs of post-abortion trauma (or post-abortion syndrome, PAS). 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