By Dave Andrusko
Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D.
A short post to finish National Right to Life News Today for Monday. We’ve discussed many, many times how pro-abortionists believe that to give an inch is to give a mile. By that I mean they believe that to agree with anything that pro-lifers—or neutral sources, for that matter—say is the ultimate slippery slope, no matter how clear the evidence is on our side.
That leaves them in the ironic position of always insisting that pro-lifers are “anti-science” at the same time they are adamant that we act as if we know nothing more today about the unborn today than we did 40 years ago. To add insult to injury, they are equally adamant that women experience no complications from their abortions because…well, because if they did, pro-abortionists would have to retool their mantra that abortion is “good” for women.
Let’s take two examples, one involving the unborn child, the other her mother. A few years back a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was adamant that they unborn cannot experience pain until at least the 29th week! Does that make ANY sense at all, all the more so in the era of fetal surgery?
But about the downside of abortion for women? That is so potentially explosive it requires personal attacks on pro-lifers who cite studies clearly demonstrating that abortion has a negative emotional, psychological, and relational legacy for many women. To take just one example, there’s the assault by Robin Marty on the pro-abortion site Rhrealitycheck.org.
She clobbers, among others, Dr. Priscilla Coleman, who has compiled an excellent track record documenting abortion’s negative impact on women. What’s interesting is that Marty argues that testimony at certain hearings is “stacked” (never mind that you often have one panel taking one perspective, and another panel the other).
But in hammering Coleman, Marty conveniently overlooking how infrequently the bias of “experts” who distort the professional literature to support the argument that abortion is harmless is called out. It’s just attack, attack, attack.
Take a recent example: does abortion “help” a woman with a preexisting mental health problem? There is no evidence that it does. Period.
In fact, as Dr. Coleman explained in recent testimony, there are over 30 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles showing that women who suffer from pre-existing mental health problems are at a high risk for serious post-abortion adverse reactions.
The point is a simple one: there is a boatload of evidence that for a certain percentage of women, abortion not only costs an unborn child his or her life, it exacts a life-time toll on the mother.