Pregnancy Center, Pro-Life Groups Blast APA Abortion-Mental Health Report
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 13, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The American Psychological Association is quickly enduring heavy criticism from pro-life organizations and a group that helps women in unplanned pregnancies. The organization released a heavily politicized report looking the other way at mental health risks associated with abortions.
The panel’s report concluded some women may feel a sense of loss or regret following an abortion, but concluded that women suffer no mental health risks in general.
Melinda Delahoyde is the president of Care Net, a network of pregnancy centers that help women before an abortion decision but also counsel thousands of women who have experienced an abortion.
She tells LifeNews.com the APA report contradicts the daily contact those thousands of centers have women post-abortive women who’s lives have been wrecked emotionally by an abortion.
“The APA has completely disregarded credible research that shows abortion increasing the risk of clinical depression, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” she said.
“The report’s conclusion also flies in the face of what pregnancy centers see every day," Delahoyde said.
Delahoyde told LifeNews.com that one of the ramifications the APA decision has for women is that abortion centers nationwide will likely hold up the report as evidence that abortion has no mental health complications and tell women considering an abortion that their lives will not be adversely affected by having one.
The report will have “devastating consequences on women if health professionals follow the APA and withhold potentially lifesaving information about the risks of abortion," she said.
Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, told LifeNews.com that the APA is no on record a second time ignoring the problems women endure following abortions.
"Many of the experts we’ve talked to who reviewed the APA release found that the conclusion just doesn’t add up when you examine the evidence," he said.
"The heavy pro-abortion bias seen in the selection criteria of studies reviewed and the ever shifting standards of evaluation suggest that the APA reached its conclusion first and then made their report fit that predetermined ending," he explained.
Perkins says the report "purposely ignores the high prevalence of women affected by repeat abortions or the equally high number of women in the U.S. who have felt ‘coerced’ into their abortions."
The FRC leader says there is a growing body of evidence showing women suffer psychologically from abortions and he pointed out that the Supreme Court acknowledged that fact in its decision last year affirming the national partial-birth abortion ban.
He concludes: "The APA’s report does a disservice to the well-being of women, and to the profession the APA claims to represent."
Related web sites:
Care Net – https://www.care-net.org
Family Research Council – https://www.frc.org
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