David C Reardon

• Research Director at Elliot Institute

Introduction: While both induced abortion and natural pregnancy loss have been associated with subsequent mental health problems, population-based studies directly comparing these two pregnancy outcomes are rare. We sought to compare mental health morbidity after an induced abortion or natural loss. Methods: Continuously eligible Medicaid beneficia...

Objective There is emerging evidence suggesting that pregnancy loss (induced or natural) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This prospective longitudinal study investigates the effect of prior pregnancy losses on CVD risk during the first six months following a first live birth. Methods Medicaid claims of 1,002,...

Objective To determine whether exposure to a first pregnancy outcome of induced abortion, compared to a live birth, is associated with an increased risk and likelihood of mental health morbidity. Materials and methods Participants were continuously eligible Medicaid beneficiaries age 16 in 1999, and assigned to either of two cohorts based upon the...

Background A case series report based on the Turnaway Study has previously concluded that 99% of women with a history of abortion will continue to affirm satisfaction with their decisions to abort. Those findings have been called into question due to a low participation rate (31%) and reliance on a single yes/no assessment of decision satisfaction....

Background Women who feel pressured to agree to abortion are more likely to experience negative emotional and mental health reactions. But relatively little research has been conducted to explore the types and degree of pressures women face and their associated effects. Our study aims to investigate five types of pressure women may face and a sampl...

Introduction: Multiple abortions are consistently associated with adverse health consequences. Prior abortion is a known risk factor for another abortion. Objective: To determine the persistence of the association of a first-pregnancy abortion with the likelihood of subsequent pregnancy outcomes. Methods: Data was extracted for a study populat...

Objective Pregnancy is associated with elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but little is known regarding the association between CVD and specific types of pregnancy losses. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of pregnancy loss on the risk of subsequent CVD of any type. Methods This prospective longitudinal study examine...

Introduction: Previous research indicates that an increasing number of women who go to an emergency room for complications following an induced abortion are treated for a miscarriage, meaning their abortion is miscoded or concealed. Objective: To determine if the failure to identify a prior induced abortion during an ER visit is a risk factor fo...

Introduction Existing research on postabortion emergency room visits is sparse and limited by methods which underestimate the incidence of adverse events following abortion. Postabortion emergency room (ER) use since Food and Drug Administration approval of chemical abortion in 2000 can identify trends in the relative morbidity burden of chemical v...

Introduction The prevalence of induced abortion among women with children has been estimated indirectly by projections derived from survey research. However, an empirically derived, population-based conclusion on this question is absent from the published literature. Objective The objective of this study was to describe the period prevalence of ab...

Background The number of pregnancies and interval between pregnancies can have significant impact on a woman’s reproductive, psychological, and general health. Exposure to multiple reproductive losses is especially associated with higher rates of negative outcomes. Material/Methods Medical records from 1999–2012 for all Medicaid beneficiaries born...

Introduction/objectives: Although a majority of women who have an abortion report having 1 or more children, there is no published research on the number of abortions which occur between live births, after a first child but before the last. The objectives of this research, therefore, were to estimate the period prevalence of an induced abortion se...

Pregnancy loss, natural or induced, is linked to higher rates of mental health problems, but little is known about its effects during the postpartum period. This study identifies the percentages of women receiving at least one postpartum psychiatric treatment (PPT), defined as any psychiatric treatment (ICD-9 290-316) within six months of their fir...

Introduction The number and outcomes of pregnancies experienced by a woman are consequential determinants of her health status. However, there is no published research comparing the patterns of subsequent pregnancy outcomes following a live birth, natural fetal loss, or induced abortion. Objectives The objective of this study was to describe the c...

Background The current measuring metric and reporting methods for assessing maternal mortality are seriously flawed. Evidence-based prevention strategies require consistently reported surveillance data and validated measurement metrics.Main BodyThe denominator of live births used in the maternal mortality ratio reinforces the mistaken notion that a...

The abortion and mental health controversy is driven by two different perspectives regarding how best to interpret accepted facts. When interpreting the data, abortion and mental health proponents are inclined to emphasize risks associated with abortion, whereas abortion and mental health minimalists emphasize pre-existing risk factors as the prima...

Background: Inconsistent definitions and incomplete data have left society largely in the dark regarding mortality risks generally associated with pregnancy and with particular outcomes, immediately after resolution and over the long-term. Population-based record-linkage studies provide an accurate means for deriving maternal mortality rate data....

There is a growing interest in examining death rates associated with different pregnancy outcomes for time periods beyond one year. Previous population studies, however, have failed to control for complete reproductive histories. In this study we seek to eliminate the potential confounding effect of unknown prior pregnancy history by examining mort...

To study the preferences of patients for information related to elective procedures. A survey was carried out using a sample of 187 women. The majority of whom were on a low-income, who obtained obstetric or gynaecological services at St Joseph Regional Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while they were in a waiting room. Many of the complicat...

Tracheal intubation of comatose patients is common, but contrary to most standards for respiratory care, heated nebulizers are not always used. This deviation from recommendations appears to be widespread. In the case examined, a tracheotomized patient suffering from severe anoxic brain injury was unintentionally exposed to chilled air, 17 degrees...

Sleep disorders are linked with mood disorders and other psychiatric illnesses. Many women attribute sleep difficulties to abortion, but this self-diagnosis has not been tested using record-based evidence. Examination of records for 56,824 women with no known history of sleep disorders or sleep disturbances revealed that women were more likely to b...

The primary objectives of this study were to explore maternal history of perinatal loss and pregnancy wantedness as correlates of substance use during pregnancy. The research design involved interviewing women who gave birth in Washington DC hospitals during 1992. Interview data included pregnancy history (prior births, induced abortions, miscarria...

The literature base pertaining to abortion decision-making and adjustment has grown substantially since legalization of abortion in the U.S. 30 years ago. However, the available research has suffered from various theoretical and methodological shortcomings and the findings do not seem to do justice to the complexity of abortion experiences among wo...

The psychological consequences of induced abortion are complex and subject to both considerable controversy and methodological criticisms. While many women report feelings of relief immediately after the procedure, others report feelings of anxiety, which they attribute to their abortions. The purpose of the present study was to examine risk of gen...

Individual and situational risk factors associated with negative postabortion psychological sequelae have been identified, but the degree of posttraumatic stress reactions and the effects of culture are largely unknown. Retrospective data were collected using the Institute for Pregnancy Loss Questionnaire (IPLQ) and the Traumatic Stress Institute's...

Abortion is known to be associated with higher rates of substance abuse, but no studies have compared substance use rates associated with abortion compared to delivery of an unintended pregnancy. This study examines data for women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth whose first pregnancy was unintended. Women with no pregnancies were also...

Previous research has revealed a general association between induced abortion and substance use. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation when substance use is measured specifically during a subsequent pregnancy. A nationally representative sample of women was surveyed about substance use during pregnancy shortly after giving birth....

Controversy exists about whether abortion or childbirth is associated with greater psychological risks. We compared psychiatric admission rates of women in time periods from 90 days to 4 years after either abortion or childbirth. We used California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) records of women aged 13-49 years at the time of either abortion or childbirth du...

Existing research pertaining to emotional reactions to abortion is limited by (a) short follow up periods, (b) the absence of information on prior psychological state, and (c) lack of nationally representative samples. Therefore the purpose of this study was to compare women with a history of abortion vs. delivery relative to depression using a nat...

* Abortion defies categorization. It is a moral, religious, legal, political, health, and human rights issue. People concerned about population control, environmentalism, national security, international law, race relations, education, economics, bioengineering, sociology, and psychology — to name but a few—all approach the issue from different per...

Studies suggest that experiencing a perinatal loss may leave women vulnerable to mental health problems and may compromise parenting. Unfortunately, compared to miscarriages and stillbirths, very little research has examined the potential for grief and feelings of loss associated with elective abortion. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compa...

A national study in Finland showed significantly higher death rates associated with abortion than with childbirth. Our objective was to examine this association using an American population over a longer period. California Medicaid records for 173,279 women who had an induced abortion or a delivery in 1989 were linked to death certificates for 1989...

Psychological maladjustments after abortion are significantly associated with a history of depression.1 It has been suggested that prior psychological state is equally predictive of subsequent depression among women with unintended pregnancies regardless of whether they abort or carry to term.1 To examine this hypothesis we examined the National Lo...

In this record-based study, rates of 1st-time outpatient mental health treatment for 4 years following an abortion or a birth among women receiving medical assistance through the state of California were compared. After controlling for preexisting psychological difficulties, age, months of eligibility, and the number of pregnancies, the rate of car...

In this record-based study, rates of lst-time outpatient mental health treatment for 4 years following an abortion or a birth among women receiving medical assistance through the state of California were compared. After controlling for preexisting psychological difficulties, age, months of eligibility, and the number of pregnancies, the rate of car...

Editor—The objective of Nybo Andersen et al's study of fetal loss was to measure the age related risk of fetal loss “taking into account a woman's reproductive history.”1 To this end the authors stratified the women according to parity and previous spontaneous abortions but inexplicably omitted stratification by induced abortions. Their only report...

A statistical association between a history of substance abuse and a history of abortion has been identified in several studies, but this association has not yet been thoroughly analyzed. This study draws on a subset of data from a reproductive history survey that included a nonparametric self-assessment of past substance abuse distributed to a ran...

The purpose of this study was to compare adolescent and adult reactions to abortion. A sample of 252 women from 42 states was obtained from a national survey of organizations serving as support groups for women who have had negative reactions to abortion. The age analysis was run using t-tests. Results indicated that the adolescents were significan...

THE "PROTECTION FROM HIGH RISK and Coercive Abortion Act" is a bill that may dramatically change the national abortion debate. Sponsored by State Senator Richard White, it was introduced as Senate Bill 2677 before the Mississippi legislature during the 1998-99 session and is expected to come up again in the 1999-2000 session. Support for the bill h...

Experts agree that during the past 25 years the rate of child abuse has increased dramatically. Between 1976 and 1987 alone, there was a 330% increase in reported cases of child abuse. While a portion of this increase is due to better reporting, experts agree that these figures reflect a real trend toward ever higher rates of abuse. These figures c...