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OTTAWA, May 29, 2001 (LSN.ca) – While medical journals have been hesitant to publish studies showing abortion’s link to breast cancer, researcher Brent Rooney has discovered no such difficulty in studies showing a link between abortion and preterm birth. Rooney has compiled a list of twenty-seven studies published in major medical journals showing a significantly elevated risk of premature birth from prior induced abortions.

Medical research indicates that preterm birth increases the risk of respiratory distress and asthma, Cerebral Palsy and death. Moreover, a preterm birth is often a LBW (Low Birth Weight) one (a birth weight under 2500 gms which is 5 pounds 8 ounces), with LBW infants having over twenty two times the risk of infant death compared with an infant with a birth weight exceeding 2500 gms. (Pediatrics, Dr. B Guyer, Dec. 1999;104:1229-1246).

In late February, Rooney wrote Health Minister Allan Rock explaining that since preterm births are a serious health problem women should be made aware of these risks prior to consenting to abortions. Rooney notes that consent forms for abortions in Canada lack any such information warning of the preterm birth risk for subsequent children.

The risk factors are by no means minor. A Danish study with over 61,000 women as subjects, published in Dec. 1999 in the respected medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, found a 99 percent increased relative risk of a very preterm birth (gestation less than 34 weeks) for women with at least one previous induced abortion compared to women with no induced abortions. The studies showing the link have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, British Medical Journal, The New England Journal Of Medicine, American Journal of Public Health and others.

For a complete listing of the journals and the specific citations see Rooney’s website at:  https://vcn.bc.ca/~whatsup/