Study: Women denied abortion may face long-lasting health problems

A new study conducted at the University of California has found that women denied abortion suffer worse health problems in subsequent years than those granted one.

The new study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Five years after seeking an abortion, women whose requests were denied were found to have reported higher rates of chronic pain and overall poor health than those whose requests were granted in their first or second trimester.

The researchers, who sought to examine the health detriments of abortion following moves by US States to outlaw the act, based the study on 3,000 women who had requested abortion at 30 centres in the United States.

After interviewing the women about their health on the basis of preset parameters, 20 percent of those who were granted abortion reported their health thereafter as being fair in comparison with the 27 percent of women who were denied abortion.

Although the parameters for examining the women’s health were self-reported, the researchers said the findings suggest the sheer fact that a woman’s requesting an abortion should suggest that her risk of childbirth complications may be heightened.

“Maternal mortality is high in the United States but, still, maternal death is an uncommon event – about one-tenth of one percent. But, in this study, 1.2 percent died,” Lisa Harris and Vanessa Dalton of the University of Michigan, said.

“These small but startling numbers of deaths are too few to compare the abortion and birth groups. However, they raise the question of whether seeking an abortion is itself a marker of unmeasured risk factors for premature death.”

Meanwhile, ever since the ban of child abortion by Kay Ivey, Alabama governor of the United States, a flurry of criticisms and protests have abounded – one of them being from Rihanna, Barbadian singer and businesswoman.

“To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God,” Ivey had said in the event of the bill’s signing.