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"A young woman about 20 years old came to the ER because she was feeling very sick. She'd become increasingly ill ever since the abortion she'd had about a week earlier. I had her admitted to the hospital from the ER with a severe pneumonia. The following days revealed that the pneumonia was just a part of the problem—she had overwhelming sepsis, which is infection throughout her entire body which had, at its source, the abortion. ...

... "This woman died. The admitting physician never reported the incident as abortion-related, nor did she inform the abortion provider of the results of his 'care.' He was still practicing, without the slightest idea that his intervention had led to his patient's death.

"The medical diagnosis reads 'severe pain'—the real cause is abortion. The record reads 'vaginal bleeding”—the real cause is abortion. The operative note says 'ruptured ectopic pregnancy and internal hemorrhage'—the real cause is abortion. The autopsy states 'cause of death—overwhelming sepsis'—the real cause is abortion." – Emergency room physician Lenora Berning, M.D., Abortionists Not Held Accountable for Mistakes

"After the inspectors left, it was business as usual. The very next abortion patient ended up in the emergency room ..." –Mark Crutcher, Lime 5: Exploited by Choice

“Teens are suffering adult-sized pain with a child's coping skills. [Abortion providers] tell them to ‘get over it’… My dream is to get this pain out in the open ... to help give women the freedom to acknowledge that abortion hurts." –Terri, who had an abortion as a teenager

"As the host of documentaries on abortion, I have met many women who carry deep psychological scars. In fact, I have met so many that I now believe that there are only two kinds of women who have had abortions: those who have hit the emotional wall and those who will." –Jane Chastain, columnist and radio host

" You cannot deny that something is being created … a psychological price is paid. … Something happens on the deeper levels of a woman’s consciousness... I know that as a psychiatrist."  –Dr. Julius Fogel, a psychiatrist and obstetrician who personally performed over 20,000 abortions

“Far too many women are walking into abortion clinics only to be wheeled out on a gurney,” said Newman. “The steady stream of ambulances running to and from our nation’s abortion clinics proves that abortion is not safe and that more needs to be done in the states to hold incompetent abortionists accountable for their negligence until the heinous practice of abortion can be completely ended. ...

"So far this year there have been ambulances called to abortion clinics in Bakersfield, Orange, and Sacramento, California; Denver, Colorado; Wilmington, Delaware; Germantown, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; and Albuquerque, New Mexico." Read more: Botched Abortion Epidemic Continues ...

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"She was crying as she entered the clinic, she cried throughout the procedure, and was sobbing as she left. No one at the clinic asked her any questions ... Had they inquired about her health history they may have seen her as the high-risk patient that she was ... Her three children are growing up without their mom because no one wanted to ask questions." –Julie

"Our mom made my sister have an abortion. At age 14 my sister became a completely different person. She got into very hard drugs and would use them every day. She had attempted suicide at least 3 times that I know of and has horrible huge scars on her arms from one of the attempts." –Anonymous

"The thought of abortion in our family is a terrible thing. Our granddaughter, age 21, had an abortion. Three months later her father found her hanging from the cross beams in the basement. We did not know ... about the abortion until a week before her death when she tried suicide by cutting her wrist. ... she told her mother what she had done. They took her to the hospital ... kept her five days, released her ... three days later she killed herself. She said her boyfriend made her do it [the abortion] ... She dearly loved children ... She was always taking care of some friend's children. ... If someone could have talked with her, she might be alive today." –A Grandmother

Read More Personal Stories

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Higher risk of death

* A new record based study has found that having multiple abortions increases the risk of maternal death.

* Higher death rates for women after abortion have been found in  large record based studies from three countries: the U.S., Finland and Denmark. 

* Compared to women who give birth, women who abort have an higher risk of death from all causes, which persists for at least eight years, a U.S. record based study found. Higher risk of death from suicide and accidents were most prominent.

Deaths Associated with Abortion

A review of published studies on death rates after abortion

Abortion Is Nearly Four Times Deadlier Than Childbirth
New studies unmask high maternal death rates
 

Why U.S. abortion mortality statistics don't tell the whole story, and some women's deaths are overlooked

Death Rate of Abortion Three Times Higher than Childbirth: 13-year Population Study in Published in Top OB/Gyn Journal

Abortion Linked to Elevated Mortality Rate Among Women

Women Are Dying, Too

Substance Abuse
Women who abort are five times more likely to subsequently abuse drugs or alcohol than women who deliver. - American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2000

Clinical Depression
Compared to women who carry their first unintended pregnancies to term, women who abort their first pregnancies are at significantly higher risk of clinical depression as measured an average of eight years after their first pregnancies. - British Medical Journal, 2002

Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
65 percent of American women studied experienced multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which they attributed to their abortions. - Medical Science Monitor, 2004

Breast Cancer

Abortion-Breast Cancer: 53 of 66 Studies in 54 Years Show Link (10/18/11 by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, published at LifeNews.com)

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Physical Risks Page

Physical Risks Fact Sheet   shorter version   longer version

More Fact Sheets and Resources

3. JAMA 285(11): 1455:1459 (2001); J. Mcfarlane et. al., "Abuse During Pregnancy and Femicide: Urgent Implications for Women's Health." Obstetrics & Gynecology 100: 27-36 (2002).

4. Gissler M., et. al., “Pregnancy Associated Deaths in Finland 1987-1994 -- definition problems and benefits of record linkage,” Acta Obsetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica 76:651-657 (1997).

5. Kaunitz, "Causes of Maternal Mortality in the United States, Obstetrics and Gynecology 65 (5), May 1985; Frank, et.al., "Induced Abortion Operations and Their Early Sequelae," Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners 35(73):175-180, April 1985; Grimes and Cates, "Abortion: Methods and Complications", in Human Reproduction, 2nd ed., 796-813; M.A. Freedman, "Comparison of complication rates in first trimester abortions performed by physician assistants and physicians," Am. J. Public Health 76(5):550-554, 1986).

6. See Strahan, T. Detrimental Effects of Abortion: An Annotated Bibliography with Commentary (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2002) 168-206. Or visit the Thomas W. Strahan Memorial Library at  www.abortionrisks.orgg for a bibliography of studies.

7. Dr. Lenora Berning, "Abortionists Not Held Accountable for Mistakes," The Post-Abortion Revieww, 8(2) April-June 2000. See also How Safe Is Abortion??

8. Gissler, Hemminki & Lonnqvist, "Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-94: register linkage study," British Journal of Medicine 313:1431-4, 1996, and M. Gissler, “Injury deaths, suicides and homicides associated with pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000,” European J. Public Healthh 15(5):459-63, 2005. See also DC Reardon et. al., “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women,” Women,” #8221; #8221; #8221; #8221; Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41, Aug. 2002.

9. For more information, see the article The Aftereffects of Abortion. Also, visit the Thomas W. Strahan Memorial Library at www.abortionrisks.orggg. For more information on abortion and breast cancer, including information on new studies, visit the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.

10. DC Reardon et. al., “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women,” Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41, Aug. 2002.

11. DC Reardon, et. al., "Psychiatric admissions of low-income women following abortions and childbirth," Canadian Medical Association Journal 168 (10): May 13, 2003.