A new pro-abortion report underestimates the risks to women

Undergoing an abortion is a safe procedure, claims a study conducted by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). But pro-life advocates say the research actually reveals that abortions threaten the health of thousands of women each year.

The study, published this month in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, analyzed over 54,000 abortions performed on women in California between 2009 and 2010. The researchers examined women who used Medicaid to pay for abortion-related care in the six weeks following their abortions. According to the study, only 2.1 percent of the abortions resulted in complications, and only 126 of those cases required hospitalization. But UCSF’s analysis of the data is incomplete, pro-life advocates say, and doesn’t reflect the true, high risk associated with abortions.

Though the complication rate is low, the complications labeled as “minor” generally involve discomfort from severe cramping to hemorrhaging, said Randall O’Brannon, director of education and research at National Right to Life (NRL).

“Though perhaps lower than the complication rates one might expect for essential, life-saving, major surgery, this is hardly the risk-free procedure the abortion industry and lobby wants people to think it is,” he said in an NRL News Today report. “It is also higher than people might expect for a procedure that abortionists have been working to perfect for over 40 years.”

If the UCSF percentages extend nationwide to the more than 1 million abortions performed yearly, then at least 22,000 women suffer complications from abortions annually. “Women are still being injured by abortion, and women are still dying,” O’Brannon said.

The researchers didn’t examine known health effects that can occur beyond the first six weeks after an abortion, including poor mental health, future fertility problems, and premature births, said Anna Paprocki, an attorney with Americans United for Life. The report also fails to count women who suffer abortion complications but don’t seek medical help.

Much of the media attention surrounding the report has ignored the higher complication rate associated with chemical abortions than surgical abortions. According to the report, chemical abortions have a 5.2 percent complication rate, while surgical abortions have a 1.3 to 1.5 percent complication rate depending on the trimester in which they are performed. Abortionists commonly prescribe RU-486 for chemical abortions. In some states, pro-lifers have attempted to pass legislation that requires adherence to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocol for administering the RU-486. Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on a lower court’s decision to block Arizona’s RU-486 regulation. North Dakota and Oklahoma also passed RU-486 laws, though Oklahoma’s regulation landed in court, too.

The source of the research also casts some doubt on the objectivity of the analysis, Paprocki added. UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, where the study was conducted, is known for its pro-abortion stance.

But the report’s greatest failing arises from its incomprehensive evaluation of abortion complications. “They’re trying to use this as a ceiling on harms, but it’s a floor,” Paprocki said. “This is not a comprehensive catalog of all abortion complications.”