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After an abortion

By Cheryl Wetzstein
December 19, 2007

Does abortion harm women? Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt has created a task force to answer this simple question.

The problem is that many people see this question as a no-brainer that was answered long ago: Legal abortion doesn't harm women; it saves their lives, say pro-choice groups and many medical and mental health organizations.

Others say that 35 years of experience have raised serious questions about abortion's effects on disease and future pregnancies. There is even concern that abortion causes a condition dubbed "post-abortion syndrome."

"I certainly would begin with the presumption that abortion has a negative impact on Missouri children, Missouri women and Missouri men because it's harmful to society," Mr. Blunt, a pro-life Republican, said in October when he was first asked about the Governor's Task Force on the Impact of Abortion.

"The evidence for the devastation wrought by abortion is everywhere," said Georgette Forney, co-founder of Silent No More, a network for people who have suffered because of abortion. Mr. Blunt "is doing a great service, not only for his state, but for women all over the country," she said.

Is it true that evidence is "everywhere" that abortion harms women? And if so, why do medical and mental health groups maintain that abortion's benefits to women far outweigh any risks?

The debate goes back to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which was predicated on the belief that making abortion a legal medical service would protect women's health.

"The most important benefit [of Roe] was the end of an era that supported the proliferation of 'back-alley butchers' who were motivated by money alone and performed unsafe, medically incompetent abortions that left many women dead or injured," Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a 2006 policy paper.

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