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Abortion statements misleading and inaccurate
Monday, 2 November 2009
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I write in response to a letter by Lynn Coles (Write Back, October 29) which contained inaccurate information regarding abortion.
First, the assertion that extensive research demonstrates there are long-term psychological and emotional consequences following abortion. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in a report in 2009, have said: "Evidence-based reviews have consistently concluded that safe, elective, early abortion does not pose a substantial mental health risk and has fewer adverse psychological (consequences) than childbirth. In addition, WHO is on the record stating that following abortions that there is 'frequent pyschological benefit'."
Second, the statement that health trusts are not "equipped to deal with post-abortion trauma". Post-abortion trauma, or post-abortion syndrome, is not an internationally recognised condition. WHO, while it recognises post-natal depression in its International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, does not recongnise post-abortion syndrome in the ICD-10 list of psychiatric conditions.
Third, the misleading statement at a Health Committee meeting last year, that approximately 2,000 affidavits were given to committee members. The statement suggested these affidavits were from Northern Irish women.
Indeed they were not, but were 3,000 legal affidavits from American women supplied from the Justice Foundation in the United States.
GRACE GLENNY
Advocacy officer, Family Planning Association
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It's all so simple in your world, William. Use a diaphragm or abstain. What about if the diaphragm doesn't work ? What about a woman who is raped ?
NO-ONE has the right to force a woman to remain pregnant and give birth against her will. How can you honestly advocate affording more rights to a foetus than to a grown woman ?
Posted by KS | 03.11.09, 13:31 GMT
bottom line! Women have the right to:
1 wear a diaphragm.
2.abstain from intercourse.
After that ,it's all about the baby.
strange thing about Glenny and Family "planning".It's all about the women and abortion.Some plan.
U.N. statistics? Ever hear that "figures never lie but liars know how to figure?
Posted by william | 03.11.09, 04:21 GMT
Thankyou Grace for contributing a little common sense and debunking pro-life propoganda.
'Pro-lifers' rely on miss-information and lies to justify a position based on religious ideology which is not remotely rooted in reality. The fact they constantly try to hide their religious grounding to try and cover-up bias is all people need to know about these groups.
Common sense will always prevail in the end.
It is those who get caught in the middle who suffer in the meantime. Those women who are forced to travel to the mainland (needless additional stress), those women who are fed false information and indoctrinated into making decisions which may not be in their own (or their potential childs) best interest I could go on.
The only way forward is fair impartial information and support for those who need it, not barbaric naming and shaming as the Pro-Lifers prefer.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by M S | 02.11.09, 11:39 GMT
If the "Pro-life" lobby are concerned about the mental well-being of women who have chosen to have an abortion perhaps they could stop subjecting them to continuous abuse?
Posted by Chris | 02.11.09, 09:19 GMT