Study: Abortions are safe (when not undermined by anti-choicers)

One argument used by anti-choicers is that abortion is medically dangerous and fraught with risks and side-effects. This has always been nonsense, as with everything else they say, and now a landmark new study lays out the obvious: abortion, when performed by qualified professionals in a timely manner, is perfectly safe for women.

The report, called "The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States," examined the four major methods used for abortions — medication, aspiration, dilation and evacuation, and induction — and examined women's care from before they had the procedure through their follow-up care.

"I would say the main takeaway is that abortions that are provided in the United States are safe and effective," says Ned Calonge, the co-chair of the committee that wrote the study. He is an associate professor of family medicine and epidemiology at the University of Colorado and CEO of The Colorado Trust.

Calonge says the researchers found that about 90 percent of all abortions happen in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. And complications for all abortions are "rare," the report says.

Of course, complications can arise, but doctors do everything they can to minimize the risk. One thing that increases the risk? Stupid laws that force doctors to lie to their patients, perform unnecessary medical procedures on them and make them wait for no reason, all to try to dissuade women from getting the medical help they need.

But the report did find that state laws and regulations can interfere with safe abortions.

"Abortion-specific regulations in many states create barriers to safe and effective care," the report says.

Calonge says those rules often have no basis in medical research.

[…]

The National Academies report says waiting periods and requirements for unnecessary tests can result in long delays because women may have to travel to get care and have trouble getting appointments.

"Delays put the patient at greater risk of an adverse event," the report says.

And the more adverse events occur, the more anti-abortionists point to them as proof that abortion is dangerous, and the more they push lawmakers to impose further obstacles. It’s a cycle of mendacity and ignorance.

Let’s not think for a moment that this study, or even a hundred like it, could ever sway abortion opponents. Their crusade is ideological, not fact-based. That they can force women to endure unwanted pregnancies, with all the personal and medical ramifications that may follow, and then pat themselves on the back for doing God’s work is evidence enough.

(via Friendly Atheist)