Abortion is safer than having a baby, doctors say

Source: Telegraph UK

Abortion is safer than having a baby, doctors say
Pregnant women should be told that having an abortion is safer than having the baby, according to medical chiefs.

The advice, which would be given to women considering terminations, has caused anger, with anti-abortion campaigners accusing doctors' leaders of forcing an "absurdly liberal agenda" on women in a vulnerable situation.

The draft guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is for all doctors, nurses and counsellors advising women contemplating terminations.

Its first recommendation on "what women need to know" instructs health professionals: "Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term."

The guidance also says that women who are deciding whether to have an abortion must be told that most do not suffer any psychological harm. Until now, their advice has been that while rates of psychiatric illness and self-harm in women are higher among those who had an abortion, there was no evidence that termination itself was likely to trigger psychological problems.


Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8349898/Abortion-is-safer-than-having-a-baby-doctors-say.html

be letting women know the facts so they can make an informed decision.

"first trimester" abortion is safer than pregnancy/birth, which it undeniably is. However, later term abortions get riskier with each passing day. The Alan Guttmacher Institute has data on this, I am sure...it's a great resource for just about anything to do with reproductive issues...

Carrying a pregnancy to full term involves to many serious changes to the body for so long that OF COURSE an abortion is safer over all.

• You aren't stressing your spine nearly from carrying so much weight. Back problems are common during pregnancy and once you have had back problems you never fully recover from them. Back problems come back.
  
  
• You aren't changing and bouncing and stressing your hormones nearly as much and you aren't doing it for 9 months +.
  
  
• You aren't putting the stress on your internal organs through compression by pushing them all upward.
  
  
• You aren't putting yourself through the the pain of labor and trauma of labor and childbirth. Modern medicine has made childbirth safer, but if not entirely safe. Historically childbirth used to be the leading cause of death of women. If you don't have access to real health care then childbirth can still be dangerous. Hopefully not as dangerous as it used to be unless you live someplace in the 3rd world, but definitely not as safe as it is for women who have health care and give birth surrounded by all the best money can buy.
  
  
• Medical journals are full of descriptions of many pregnancy related disabilities, such as becoming diabetic while pregnant, for example. If your body doesn't respond exactly right to all the changes of pregnancy then the woman and fetus can both be at serious risk. Many of these disabilities are temporary. Some are not. They may be considered rare, but if you are one one of those One in a Thousand women, is that rare enough to make you feel any better while your life is turned upside down and you become dependent upon expensive medical care you may not have can can't afford?

While Most pregnancies will be safe and will progress without any serious problems, it is only anti-choice people who have a vested interest in portraying All pregnancies as idealic and easy and perfect. It is only anti-choice people who have a vested interest in portraying abortion as dangerous, so that pregnancy, in comparison can't be dangerous.

But the idea that pregnancy isn't dangerous is totally absurd to anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of either history or health care.

Parenthood. And I live in one of the top 5 most anti-choice, restrictive states when it comes to abortion.

It's an embryo, or a fetus. And it's also none of your damn business.

isn't always safe for the baby, either.



Babies die from SIDs and birth defects and diseases


They also die from abuse and neglect


And in the case of abuse and neglect, I would much rather see a woman terminate her pregnancy than to bring a child into this world that could, or will, be neglected or abused.

Yet they have no problem saying that abortions increase your cancer risk by 800% and will make you infertile. These people are sick, sick puppies.

of decades. But the RW conveniently ignores it.

and why "informed consent" doesn't include informing women of the dangers of full term pregnancy.

Logically, using the Anti's definition of "informed consent":

Women that go in for prenatal care should be given mandatory information on adoption, because they're having a baby, and need to know "that adoption is an option."

Women that go in for prenatal care should also be given information on abortion providers, and warnings about the permanent effects of childbearing on their mental and physical well-being.

At their first prenatal care appointment, they should be shown videos of emergency c-sections, episiotomies, and stillbirths of horrifically deformed fetuses, then sent home for 24 hours, "to be sure that they've thought this through."

feverish toddlers covered with puke at 3am? :rofl:

If it were less safe would people change their opinions from pro-choice to pro-life?

I wouldn't.

Ultimately it's not really even about doing what's most health for women. It's about enabling women to choose to do whatever they please with their own bodies.

I actually had to double check that this wasn't a satire bit. It's not that I doubt the science, but you never read things like this. It's just written in a way that makes it read like the exact opposite of what the religious right is pushing - almost like a "Look at what these evil liberals are doing" piece. It's eerie.

Edit: I am absolutely not accusing anyone of anything and was making a statement on the Telegraph's writing style, not the OP. :hug:

in which carrying a pregnancy to full term without medical support is often deadly.

It's great to see some sanity enter the official discourse on birth control.

Extremist policies of the right threaten public health and need to be opposed and forced out of the mainstream. Their policies would threaten the health of women and young girls across the country, and should be off the bargaining table altogether for that reason.

lub lub lub mah Urth ;)