The bitter harvest of induced abortion

Babette Francis

Contents - Mar 2013 - Buy a copy now Homily: Benedict XVI's 2012 Annunciation homily - Pope Benedict XVI STOP PRESS: Vale, Pope Benedict! - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around The World The bitter harvest of induced abortion - Babette Francis 1000 UK priests sign joint letter against same-sex 'marriage' - AD2000 Report Religious persecution occurs in democracies - Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò Women priests and bishops: Anglicanism's crisis of identity - David Wetherell True reform in the Church: Yves Congar's golden mean - Andrew Kania Medieval parish life: influential roles of religious orders - Frank Mobbs New African-American pro-life movement Obituary: Creos Roman: may he rest in peace - Bishop Anthony Fisher OP Priestly celibacy: being one with Christ and His mission - Father John O'Neill PP Books: CONTEMPLATING CHRIST WITH LUKE by Cardinal George Pell - Brother Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: BECOME WHAT YOU ARE: Growing in Christian Character, by Bishop Julian Porteous - Brother Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: HOLY MEN AND WOMEN OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND BEYOND, by Pope Benedict XVI - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Icon for the Year of Grace: 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus' - Anne Lastman

France, China, Mexico - the evidence keeps mounting - abortion not only kills babies, it exacts a heavy toll on the physical and mental health of their mothers. The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women's organisation founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.

In a press release in December 2012, Karen Malec, President of the Coalition, stated that studies from France and China reported that breast cancer risk climbs with the number of abortions.

The French study led by Julie Lecarpentier was on women with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which are associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancers and showed "the clearest dose effect of any abortion-breast cancer study" according to endocrinologist Professor Joel Brind of Baruch College, City University of New York. This study, which included the esteemed scientist Nadine Andrieu of the Curie Institute, is available at http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/14/4/4R99

For those who are not statisticians, "dose effect" means that the risk of breast cancer increases with the number of abortions. Demonstrating a dose effect is considered an "important measure of credibility" for establishing a cause-effect relationship.

China's One-Child Policy

Karen Malec reported that Communist China's one child per couple policy is at least partially responsible for its escalating breast cancer rates, according to two recent studies. Researchers expect an epidemic of 2.5 million cases of breast cancer by 2021 among the mothers of the 'One Child Generation' who will then be between the ages 55 and 69.

Canadian researcher, Brent Rooney MSc of the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, reports that China has seen an alarming breast cancer rate jump for women under age 50. (URL:http://biztechreport.com/story/1391-breast-cancer-setting-early-amongst-chinese-women).

"For the first 80 years of the 20th century China was known for having a very low breast cancer rate compared to Western countries because Chinese women often had more than two children, did long term breastfeeding and often had a first full-term delivery at a young age.

Over the last 20-25 years those low breast cancer rates no longer apply to women in China's cities, but breast cancer rates are still low in China's rural areas where the one-child-policy is not strictly enforced [References available on request].

And what of the survivors, the one child generation themselves? In research funded by the Australian Research Council, authors L. Cameron et al in a paper titled "Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy" report that China's One-Child Policy and the effects of growing up without any siblings have produced less trusting, less trustworthy, more risk-averse, less competitive, more pessimistic and less conscientious individuals.

The main text of the research states: "China's One-Child Policy (OCP) restricts the number of children that urban couples can have to one, with exceptions for those from ethnic minorities or with a severely disabled child. The policy has given rise to a land of "little emperors" whose parents dote on them exclusively. This has led to widespread concern within China about the social skills of this generation and the observation that these children tend to be more self-centred and less cooperative.

"This can be seen in developments such as employers including phrases like "no single children" in job advertisements. In March 2007, 30 delegates in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) called on the government to abolish the policy. Their concerns centred on "social problems and personality disorders in young people."

Mexico: In January this year Matthew Hoffman, Latin America correspondent for LifeSiteNews reported that Mexico's most eminent newspaper El Universal published an article on 21 January, on the psychological devastation of abortion: "Sadness, depression, fear of sterility, guilt, drug abuse and suicide" are just some of the effects suffered by women who have abortions in Mexico City.

The article also spoke of the reasons that lead women to have their unborn children killed: a woman is impregnated by her boyfriend, who then abandons her upon learning of the pregnancy; the child is the result of adultery and his mother wishes to hide it from her husband; a young student decides that a son or daughter will be inconvenient for her career aspirations.

But "no matter how resolute and firm" the women might be, "the abortion causes them remorse, frustration, dissatisfaction," gynecologist Mario Lucas told the newspaper.

"Many are worried that they won't be able to become pregnant again. They feel guilt and are overwhelmed by sadness ... They cry and blame themselves. They think that they have committed murder, that they are the worst. They isolate themselves, have recurring nightmares or insomnia, angst, and depression."

Remorse

One woman interviewed by the newspaper, whose name is given only as "Lucia," says that her suffering will "always remain as remorse, the thorny question of whether I did the right thing or the wrong thing, if it was the best thing to do. After resting [following the abortion] you continue your life, but privately, it's different. It does hit you. You question yourself, you feel nostalgia. You see children on the street, mothers with babies. It's difficult, sad."

Sarah Crawford of Texas Right to Life writes: "As a woman, I have been told by feminists, politicians, and President Obama himself, that abortion liberates women ...

"But as an almost 25-year-old, I know better. Abortion has claimed the lives of an entire third of my generation ... Equality for women will never be gained at the expense of inequality for the unborn. Abortion is a cheap cop-out to real progress for gender equality."

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 26 No 2 (March 2013), p. 6