Herald Sun,

25 November 2004,

by Babette Francis

Dear Mr Howard,

An abortion inquiry is needed because science has progressed far since the 1970's. There are new 4D images of life in utero, showing fetuses bouncing around, sucking thumbs, smiling. These delightful little beings are human and alive - we cannot justify their slaughter. Abortion is not just "between a woman and her doctor" - taxpayers are forced to subsidize it - so how many do we fund?

We also have three decades of data on the damage to women. Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano, plaintiffs in Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton, which gave the US abortion on demand, bitterly regret their involvement in these cases. Both say they were mislead and manipulated by their feminist lawyers, and are petitioning the US Supreme Court for reversals. Their petitions are based on accumulated evidence that abortion harms women: 5,347 pages of affidavits from women cite a host of medical and emotional problems.

Abortionists avoid showing clients ultrasounds of their fetuses - in any other area of surgery this would be regarded as malpractice. A new Medicare item for ultrasounds offered through pregnancy support centres is needed.

In April 2004 the NSW Supreme Court shattered the myth od "safe, legal abortion" when Justice Michael Grove ruled the brain damage of a Sydney girl, confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, resulted from her mother's uterine rupture - a complication from a prior abortion about which she had not informed her obstetrician. The rupture caused hemorrhage depriving the baby's brain of oxygen.

Dr. David Reardon, Elliott Institute, USA, which studies abortion complications, says the procedure is linked with cervical and uterine damage, premature delivery, labour complications, and abnormal development of the placenta in subsequent pregnancies, all causes of handicaps in newborns.

He disputes the claim that abortion is safer than childbirth. In "Deaths associated with abortion compared to childbirth - A Review" Reardon and co-authors cite two major studies based on extensive records which link death certificates to records for pregnancy, childbirth and abortion. The first is a study of all women aged 15-49 in Finland who died in 1987-1994: "As Finland has socialized medicine and a computerized central registry, the completeness of these records is excellent: women who carried a pregnancy to term were half as likely to die in the year following their pregnancy as women who were not recently pregnant. The reduced risk of dying held true across all major categories: natural causes, suicide, accidents and homicide. By contrast, women who had induced abortions were 3.7 times more likely to suicide in the year following abortion than non-pregnant women and 6.5 times more likely to commit suicide than women who had given birth.

The second record-based study linked to Medicaid records for 173,279 Californian women who had state-funded abortions or deliveries in 1989 to death certificates from 1989 to 1997. This study showed the elevated risk of death associated with abortion persists beyond one year. Aborted women were 61% more likely to die from all causes over the eight years examined. There is less than one in a thousand chance these findings are due to chance.

Induced abortion produces unnatural physical and psychological stress that results in a negative impact on women's general health ...Deaths from conditions created or aggravated by abortion complications such as etopic pregnancy, pelvic disease, depression, suicide, pre term birth and breast cancer should all be considered in comparisons of morality rates.

Funding abortion providers for "counseling" is like funding car salesmen in the hope they will advise clients to buy bicycles or use public transport - an unacceptable conflict of interest. Women should nor be left vulnerable to profit-motivated abortionists or coercion by partners. They deserve the support of family relationship centres offering parenting plans based on the commendable model envisaged in your Government's "Reforms to family Law".

ACTION

1. Try to understand what the aggravating factors are that drive women to seek an abortion.

2. Write a letter of support to Tony Abbott MHR, parliament House, Camberra, ACT 2600

3. Write to the Prime Minister urging him to take action to reduce abortion.