The following comes from a September 3 Catholic News Agency article:
Abortion during the late teen and early adult years raises a woman’s risk of mental health problems and may be linked to almost one in ten cases of these women’s mental disorders, a new study says.
“Evidence from the United States confirms previous findings from Norway and New Zealand that, unlike other pregnancy outcomes, abortion is consistently associated with a moderate increase in risk of mental health disorders during late adolescence and early adulthood,” said the study’s abstract.
The study, conducted by sociology professor Donald Paul Sullins of The Catholic University of America, was published July 22, 2016 in the peer-reviewed Sage Open Medicine journal.
After adjusting for demographic differences and other factors, the study found that abortion during these years elevated a woman’s risk of mental health disorder by 45 percent.
“One-eleventh of the prevalence of mental disorders examined over the period were attributable to abortion,” the study’s abstract said.
The study sought to examine any links between pregnancy outcomes like birth, abortion or miscarriage and mental health outcomes for U.S. women during the transition to adulthood. It drew on a national study of 8,005 women that surveyed them three times at average ages of 15, 22 and 28.
To a statistician, this sounds like a very poor description of the study. ” abortion during these years elevated a woman’s risk of mental health disorder by 45 percent.” directly implies abortion causes increased mental health disorder.
Rule one of statistical association is that association does not imply causation. Association may indicate an area for investigation to determine the reasons for causation. The article above fails to cite reasons for causation. It only cites an apparent statistical association.
I haven’t read the study but one also wonders whether they also followed the cohort who went ahead and bore the child out of wedlock. There is a funny way that studies have of pulling numbers out of a hat without proper control groups. I don’t know if that is a factor here or not.
A few years ago, I was asked by a real estate agent to do some interior design work for a woman. The real estate agent made some vague warning reference about this woman acting a little “nutty” at times. Yes, the word “nutty” was the real estate agent’s descriptive word. I made an appointment and went to the house and met this very beautiful woman. I found her lying on the couch with terrible back pain. She was a very talented artist, and at that time, I did not think that she needed any *interior design* help because her lovely artwork showed that she had an eye for color, space, and design. continued…
continued…This woman asked if I could come back the following morning and I told her I couldn’t because I was joining Catholics to pray and do sidewalk counseling. She asked me what that meant and when I told her, she casually responded. “Oh, I had an abortion 10 years ago, it was a boy, but I’m fine with it.” She caught me off guard and now I was remembering what the real estate agent had warned me about. There it was, the mental illness that is talked about in the above article. After several more weeks of helping her and witnessing much interior suffering, one day I gently asked her if she had ever truly come to terms with what she had done in having an abortion. continued….
continued…I was prepared for her to throw me out but she didn’t. She responded, “I don’t know what you mean.” I asked her if she ever felt an interior sense of grief for what she had done. She responded, “What would I be grieving?” I responded, “You would be grieving the fact that in not remaining as close to God as you could have, you made a choice that you would have never made had you remained close to God, and because of that choice a 10 year old boy is not here on this earth today.” That was a hard truth for her to hear. After all these years of denial and saying “Oh, I’m fine with it.” continued…..
Continued…Now many people might think it was cruel to tell her the hard truth but real cruelty is indifference while watching the continuation of suffering and never addressing it. This woman had buried the pain so deep inside it was now manifesting itself physically in terrible back problems and mentally with crying fits. The last time that I saw this woman she had just returned from going to confession. She was so joyful and smiling because she had just been absolved of her sins. No wonder she suffered from debilitating back pain, she said that after she left that confessional it felt like a thousand pound boulder had been lifted off of her shoulders. continued…..
continued….There are many cars with rosaries dangling from the mirrors, pulling into PP parking lots for abortions. We need holy pastors who allow their good priests to serve the greatest of poverties which is the mental suffering that surely comes from all, unaddressed, and unconfessed, sins. It takes an alter-Christus to provide the most beneficial type of *interior design*. The Good Shepherd does not calculate the cost. The Good Shepherd always searches out for his lost or suffering lambs.
Guilt, regret and the manifestation of natural law.
Findings: Unholy abortion linked to an increase in mental health problems down the road. Pity the poor woman brought to this point by trusting the ‘experts’ at Planned Parenthood who make money on this horror. PP takes killing an innocent (an unholy act) & turns it into a trivial procedure: it’s just a mass of tissue, your body – your choice, PC culture brainwashing. Those that vote for abortion supporters are guilty too! God knows even if our bishops are quiet. 50+ million aborted babies later & we have Catholics voting for BO & supporting HC, both supporters of PP abortions. God help them. Confess. Repent. Make reparations. Save your immortal soul. Pray for the poor women & their babies. It is way past time to…
Continued……It is way past time to take a strong stand & vote out abortion supporters, like HC. Stop future POTUS funding of PP abortions & support pro-life candidates like Trump/Pence & secure conservative Supreme Court justice picks too. Check out this article from the good Fr. Pavone @ http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/watch-can-a-catholic-justify-voting-for-a-pro-abortion-candidate/ The bishops may remain silent (their hands are in the government till) but we (left in the pews) should not take it anymore. Pray.