UFI News Release
For Immediate Release: October 3, 2007
Contact: Dennis Durband, (480) 632-5450
PRO-CHOICE ORGANIZATIONS PRESENT FALSE IMAGE OF ‘SAFE ABORTIONS'
MESA, Ariz. – Pro-choice organizations are routinely presenting a false sense of safety in portraying legal abortions as “safe abortions.” Planned Parenthood International, Marie Stopes International (MSI) and other organizations report that 68,000 women die annually from “unsafe abortions” -– which they define as any abortion that is unhygienic, is carried out by untrained practictioners, uses inappropriate methods or is performed where healthcare systems cannot provide adequate care. “Unsafe abortions” are purported to occur mainly in undeveloped nations.
The upcoming “Global Safe Abortion Conference 2007” sponsored by MSI will feature the themes of access to safe abortion as a human right and the impact of unsafe abortion worldwide.
The premise of “safe and legal abortions” is largely myth. Abortions performed in legal venues in developed nations too frequently result in complications and injury and sometimes in death. The reporting of death due to “safe and legal” abortions is under-reported by government agencies. When death is associated with abortion, it is virtually never listed on a death certificate. Deaths due to abortion in the U.S. are often attributed to organ failure and other causes.
Dr. Gunta Lazdane, European regional adviser to WHO on reproductive health and research, said that legal abortions are not safe: “Up to 20 percent of maternal deaths are due to abortion; even in those situations where abortion is legal there is a question whether ‘safe' abortion is safe.”
Dr. Elizabeth Shadigian, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School, told the South Dakota Task Force on Abortion that approximately 10 percent of women undergoing induced abortion will suffer immediate complications. One-fifth of those complications are considered life threatening. Rates of complications increase with greater gestational age of the pregnancy, she said.
Since the legalization of abortion in various nations of the world, abortion clinics have been under-regulated and many thousands of women have suffered from any of dozens of complications. Several legal abortion practitioners have been imprisoned over abortion deaths and injuries. In the U.S., the number of ectopic pregnancies increased four-fold since legalization of abortion in 1973. Government-funded abortions have resulted in higher rates of health complications than privately-financed abortions. Furthermore, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration associated the deaths of eight women with the abortion drug mifepristone. One in five post-abortive women suffered from diagnosable post-traumatic stress disorder. The risk of both breast and cervical cancer increases among women who have undergone abortions. In addition, legal abortion clinics have been described as unsanitary, lacking in trained medical personnel and incapable of adequately responding to patient complications.
Post-abortive women are often subject to risks of physical and psychological harm long after the abortion.
For additional information on the health and safety hazards associated with legal abortion, please see the United Families International "Fact Sheet on Legal Abortions.”
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