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Author Claims Depression Unlinked to Abortion; Expert Disputes Findings

BOULDER, Colorado, October 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – US researchers have contradicted the bulk of research that supports a correlation between depression and abortion.

Nancy Felipe Russo, a Arizona State University-Tempe psychology professor, and Sarah Schmiege, a research associate at the University of Colorado-Boulder, claimed in their joint findings that there is a lower risk of depression in women who abort their first unwanted pregnancy v. women who want their children and who do not abort them.

Dr. David Reardon, whose research inspired this subsequent study, told LifeSiteNews.com that this new look at statistics from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth is misleading and inaccurate because firstly, they eliminated women who originally wanted to carry their children to term but then did not; and secondly, the new research added into the group women who subsequently went on to have other abortions.

Reardon and colleagues landmark 2003 study revealed that, on an average of eight years after an abortion, women whose first pregnancies ended in abortion were 65 percent more likely to be at high risk of clinical depression after controlling for age, race, marital status, history of divorce, income, number of years of formal education, and a pre-pregnancy measure of psychological state.

Margaret Cuthill, Director of the UK’s British Victims of Abortion, said, “I believe this is just another study to reinforce to the abortion lobby and to persuade women in crisis that abortion is a valid option. I don’t have to reinforce that abortion hurts women – I see it daily. I look forward to the time when either more hurting women will speak out or someone will ask a different set of questions.”

See a compendium of studies linking depression and abortion:
http://www.afterabortion.org/news/index.htm

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