Obama Deputy Attorney General Nominee: Childbirth Worse Than Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 29, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — President Barack Obama has come under fire for pro-abortion nominations for various positions and now he is drawing heat for nominating a pro-abortion Deputy Attorney General. His nominee David Ogden, is drawing criticism for authoring a Supreme Court brief dismissing negative effects from an abortion.
During the campaign, Obama came under heavy criticism for a comment saying he did not want his daughters punished with a pregnancy — intimating that abortion would be the preferred course of action.
Now, Obama has appointed a top Justice Department official who appears to feel the same way.
Millions of women deal with a multitude of problems following an abortion, ranging from medical issues to mental health consequences.
But, in legal papers filed during the consideration of a 1992 Supreme Court case, Ogen claimed women don’t deal with negative experiences resulting from an abortion.
Ogden wrote and filed an amicus brief on behalf of the American Psychological Association for the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Casey v. Planned Parenthood.
In it, Ogden argued, "Abortion rarely causes or exacerbates psychological or emotional problems. When women do experience regret, depression, or guilt, such feelings are mild and diminish rapidly without adversely affecting general functioning."
"The few women who do experience negative psychological responses after abortion appear to be those with preexisting emotional problems," Ogden claimed.
"In sum, it is grossly misleading to tell a woman that abortion imposes possible detrimental psychological effects when the risks are negligible in most cases," Ogden claimed.
The Obama nominee appears to believe that childbirth is worse for women than an abortion.
"The evidence shows that she is more likely to experience feelings of relief and happiness, and when child-birth and child-rearing or adoption may pose concomitant (if not greater) risks or adverse psychological effects," he surmised.
These conclusions differ from research both at the time and since then that confirm women experience much greater mental health problems following an abortion.
Three studies released at the end of 2008 counter Ogden’s claims.
Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University, and her colleagues published a study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research showing an abortion-mental health link exists.
The research team found induced abortions result in increased risks for a myriad of mental health problems ranging from anxiety to depression to substance abuse disorders.
The number of cases of mental health issues rose by as much as 17 percent in women having abortions compared to those who didn’t have one and the risks of each particular mental health problem rose as much as 145% for post-abortive women.
For 12 out of 15 of the mental health outcomes examined, a decision to have an abortion resulted in an elevated risk for women.
"What is most notable in this study is that abortion contributed significant independent effects to numerous mental health problems above and beyond a variety of other traumatizing and stressful life experiences," they concluded.
Also, researchers at Otago University in New Zealand reported their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry and found that women who have abortions have an increased risk of developing mental health problems.
The study found that women who had abortions had rates of mental health problems about 30% higher than other women. The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance abuse disorders.
Abortions increased the risk of severe depression and anxiety by one-third and as many as 5.5 percent of all mental health disorders seen in New Zealand result from women having abortions.
A third study, from a team at the University of Queensland and published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, found women who have an abortion are three times more likely to experience a drug or alcohol problem during their lifetime.
The study showed that women who had experienced an abortion were at increased risk of illicit drug and alcohol use compared with women who had never been pregnant or who gave birth.
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