The Un-Choice brings sorrow year-round

While holidays are known to increase suicide risk, The Elliot Institute is raising awareness about the double-whammy effect for a woman who has had an abortion. (excerpt)

Suicide Risk on the Rise For Teens and Adult Women, Too

“Parents are faced with a shell of a person and have no idea where they lost their child.” -Teri, who had a secret abortion as a teen

A troubling 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that teen suicide rates are on the rise. According to the study, there was an 18% increase in teen suicides in 2004—the largest single-year increase in the past 15 years—and the upward trend continued in the next year.1

Experts and parents are concerned about this upswing in youth suicides, and many are also troubled by the results of a recent Johns Hopkins University study that found a 4% annual increase in suicides among Caucasian women age 40 to 64. The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.²

Elliot Institute research over the years has indicated disturbingly high suicide rates among teens and women who've had abortions. After abortion there is a 65% higher risk of clinical depression.³ Most suffer symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD),⁴ made worse by societal dismissal of the grief or blanket condemnation of women who've had an abortion.

Suicide rates are 6 times higher after abortion⁵ and there are few checks and balances for coercion or post-abortion issues in schools, clinics, hospitals and even social services or pastoral care. Not only do most fail to screen for evidence of unwanted, coerced, inadequately or deceptively informed or even forced abortion; some contribute to the insidious and often collective synergy of coercion. Few make efforts to address its heartbreaking, sometimes deadly aftereffects.

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Citations

1. Bridge JA et. al., " Suicide Trends Among Youths Aged 10 to 19 Years in the United States, JAMA, Vol. 300, No. 9, Sept. 3, 2008.

2. Theresa Tamkin, "Study: U.S. suicides rising; risk high in middle age," CNN Health, Dec. 9, 2008. Accessed Dec. 18, 2008 at www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/21/Healthmag.suicide.increase/?iref=mpstoryview

3. Cougle JR et. al., "Depression Associated With Abortion and Childbirth: A Long-Term Analysis of the NLSY Cohort," Medical Science Monitor 9(4): CR105-112 (2003).

4. Rue VM et. al., “Induced abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian women,” Medical Science Monitor 10(10): SR5-16 (2004).

5. Gissler M et. al., "Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-94: register linkage study," British Journal of Medicine 313:1431-4, 1996, and Gissler M, “Injury deaths, suicides and homicides associated with pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000,” European J. Public Health 15(5):459-63, 2005. See also Reardon DC et. al., “Deaths Associated With Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women,” Southern Medical Journal 95(8):834-41, Aug. 2002.