The Elliot Institute is calling for a hearing concerning the ignored link between abortion and higher rates of mental illness that the research group feels is long overdue.
Dr. David Reardon heads the Elliot Institute, an organization that conducts original research on the effects of abortion on women, men, families, and society. He suggests that an exhaustive study in The British Journal of Psychiatry and the fact that former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop recommended that it be funded 22 years ago show that the hearing is both necessary and long overdue.
"The reason it's especially timely now is that a study has just been published by the British Royal College of Psychiatrists that includes a meta-analysis of 22 studies that shows that abortion may be a cause of ten percent of mental health problems being treated [in] women, and up to 35 percent of suicidal behavior among women," says Reardon.
He believes the federal government ought to pay attention to the study that covers nearly 900,000 women from six countries, and he urges it to update the publications that fail to recognize the serious consequences of abortion. For example, he notes that women who aborted are 81 percent more likely to experience mental health problems and 55 percent more likely than women who delivered an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy to have problems.
"Well, the problem is it's always been so politically correct to pretend that abortion doesn't harm women," the Elliot Institute founder notes. "This is a major study published by a major journal, yet it received almost no coverage in U.S. media. If the results had shown that carrying an unplanned pregnancy to term was associated with higher psychological issues, that would have been front-page news."
So to help give Congress a nudge to conduct the hearings, Reardon is calling on the public to sign a petition found on his organization's website.
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
