Subject: Canadian Research: Abortion More Dangerous than Pro-Abortion Claims
Source: Report Newsmagazine; August 20, 2001

Canadian Research: Abortion More Dangerous than Pro-Abortion Claims
by Eli Schuster

It is no surprise that pro-choice partisans do their best to portray the
aborting of unborn human life as routine and safe. For example, the
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League's (CARAL) Web site claims, ``Under
normal medical conditions, abortion is a very safe procedure.'' It does,
however, admit, ``rare, serious complications requiring follow-up
treatment can occur.'' It also acknowledges recent studies suggesting a
link between abortions and the development of breast cancer, but calls
these studies ``inconsistent and inconclusive.'' However, according to
Isabelle Begin, vice-president of the pro-life group Respect de la Vie
Outaouais (RVO) of Hull, Que., abortions are far more dangerous to women
than groups such as CARAL admit.

In February, Ms. Begin's group was sued by an abortion clinic for
publishing a pamphlet claiming that one out of 25 women receiving a legal
abortion in Canada is in subsequent need of up to seven days of hospital
care. The clinic claimed the pamphlet was ``fallacious, morbid and
alarmist.'' The clinic presented a Statistics Canada table placing the
abortion complication rate at 1.1%, far lower than RVO's claimed 4%.

In late July, however, the clinic dropped the suit. Ms. Begin believes it
was because her group did an effective job of rebutting the clinic's
evidence in court. ``I genuinely think they must have all been brainwashed
by the abortion industry's safe legal abortion myth,'' she says. ``They
are not a thorough kind of people and perhaps they never took the time to
read the endnotes at the bottom of the Statistics Canada complication
table they quote.''

RVO demonstrated to the court that the StatsCan study cited by the clinic
represented only those abortions performed in hospitals and did not
include the nearly one-third of abortions performed in clinics.
Furthermore, only 75% of hospitals report abortions to the Statistics
Canada Therapeutic Abortions database. Of those, only a limited number
declare medical complications, and even then, only ``immediate''
complications are taken into account. Another StatsCan study,
``Second-trimester abortions: Trends and medical complications,'' suggests
an abortion performed at five-to-six months gestation runs a 22% risk of
serious complications, up to and including death for the mother.

A medical researcher by training, Ms. Begin cites several reasons
abortions are dangerous. ``A pregnant woman should never have surgery, let
alone major abdominal surgery like abortion,'' she states. ``Her blood
coagulation factors are extremely vulnerable, and she can easily bleed to
death. Shock, coma and death can happen within a few minutes after the
onset of hemorrhaging, yet clinics can't be equipped for emergency blood
transfusions.''

The pro-life advocate notes that suction machines often used for the
procedure can damage a woman's uterus and even cause blood poisoning by
sucking in fecal material from the intestines. Blood poisoning can also
occur when abortions are incomplete. ``Cadaver parts remain inside the
mother's womb and general blood poisoning [septicemia] sets in,'' Ms.
Begin says. ``That's often fatal.''

Officials with the Canadian Medical Association and the Society of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists were not available for comment on the
issue.