Minnesota Planned Parenthood Gets Infertility Ed Grant, But Abortions Cause It
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 6, 2009
St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) — The Minnesota Department of Health has announced a new set of grants to four agencies to use to educate and prevent infertility. State officials awarded federal grant money to Planned Parenthood even though the abortions it does cause higher rates of infertility among women.
The money is part of the federal Infertility Prevention Project (IPP) and the grants cover 2010-2013 and Planned Parenthood was one of several agencies to seek the funds.
The state health department received approximately $830,000 from the federal Centers for Disease Control to award over the four-year period and Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota received $310,000.
The state grant to Planned Parenthood was nearly twice as large as those to other agencies such as county health clinics, Children’s Hospital, and West Side Community Health Services.
The director of one pro-life group said the grant is ironic given the fact that abortions increase the risk of infertility.
"It is ironic that the leading abortionist in Minnesota is now receiving grants from the federal government to prevent infertility," Scott Fischbach, the head of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, told LifeNews.com.
"There is no end to the taxpayer dollars that Planned Parenthood will access for any imaginable program," he continued. "Ultimately all the dollars the Planned Parenthood receives goes towards the promotion of their abortion agenda."
Research shows that abortion can lead to infertility by increasing the risk of miscarriages.
A 1986 report in the medical journal Epidemiology reveals women with a history of abortion have a greater risk of fetal loss than women who had no previous abortions. Women with two prior pregnancies carried to term and no abortions had the lowest risk, while women with two prior abortions had the highest risk.
Also, a 1991 British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology article revealed that women with a history of abortion had a 1.5-1.7 times higher risk of ectopic pregnancy than women who had previously carried a pregnancy to term.
According to the Elliot Institute, an Illinois group that studies abortion’s effects on women, about three to five percent of women who get abortions are left inadvertently sterile as a result of an abortion. The risk of sterility is even greater for women who are infected with a venereal disease at the time of the abortion.
Even Planned Parenthood of Australia acknowledges the future risk of problem pregnancies caused by abortion.
Its web site includes consent forms that list 12 serious complications from a first trimester abortion.
It says that some complications include: "infections … a tear in the cervix that may require stitches … incompetent cervix/stenosed cervix (too tight or too loose cervix which may impair future fertility), Asherman’s syndrome (cessation of periods and adhesions in uterus that may impair future fertility), depression or mood disturbance, suicide. …"
Although the consent forms do not say so, infection and a damaged cervix are recognized risk factors for premature birth.
The risk of post-abortion problems in future pregnancy is also seen in countries with abnormally high abortion rates, such as Russia and Vietnam.
Vladimir Serov, the deputy director of the Russian Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Perinatology Center at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, told the Russian media source Regnum that 120,000 women are injured each year from legal abortions.
He said numerous Russian women suffer from sterility, endometriosis and other problems following abortions.
This has led to a significant problem of premature births and Serov said Russian women typically have 160,000 miscarriages a year and there are 60,000 premature births annually.
Vietnam is experiencing high rates of infertility among women there. https://www.lifenews.com/int383.html
Dr. Le Thi Phuong Lan, deputy director of the Central Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynaecology’s Reproductive Assistance Centre, has noticed the recent infertility problems. He said that a survey conducted by Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City found that women who had abortions were 5.2 percent more likely to suffer from infertility.
Georgette Forney, the director of the Silent No More Awareness campaign, had an abortion at 16 and has spoken with thousands of women who have had abortions and regret their decisions. She knows of many who have had future pregnancy problems because of their abortions.
She previously told LifeNews.com, "Hearing woman after woman speak about the problems created by abortion really puts this issue in perspective."
"Each woman’s story is different but the problems we faced; the nightmares, substance abuse, sterility, suicidal thoughts, self-hatred and relationship difficulties show the immenseness of the pain."
Despite the proven link between abortion and infertility, the Associated Press, ABC News and the Chicago Tribune have all denied such a link exists.
ACTION: send your complaints to the Minnesota Department of Health by going to https://www.health.state.mn.us/webmaster/mail.html
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