Abortion Linked to Higher Rates of Child Abuse?

From LifeSite News:
Unresolved grief issues, Coleman noted, "may negatively impact parental responsiveness to child needs, trigger anger, which is a common component of grief, and/or increase parental anxiety regarding child well-being." Some research indicates that grief may be more difficult to resolve if women undergo an unwanted abortion due to pressure from others. In one study, cited by Coleman, 64 percent of American women with a history of abortion reported feeling pressured to abort by others.

Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute and a leading researcher who has been involved in more than a dozen studies on the impact of abortion on women, said that this latest study confirms the general findings of previous studies linking abortion with a higher risk of abuse or neglect.

"Previous research has also shown that abortion is linked with a subsequent increased risk of alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, rage, anger and psychiatric hospitalization," Reardon said. "Any of these factors, individually or in combination, can significantly increase the personal and family stresses that can lead to maltreatment or neglect."

A previous study by Coleman found that a maternal history of abortion was linked to less supportive home environments for subsequently born children and that subsequent children exhibited more behavioral problems than the children of women without a history of abortion.

A New Zealand study that tracked young women from birth to 25 years of age found that young women who had abortions were significantly more likely to experience subsequent depression, suicidal behavior and substance abuse, even after the researchers controlled for previous mental health problems.

"Taken all together, these studies show that the mental health effects of abortion don't stop with women," Reardon said. "They will impact their families, too."

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PK Coleman, VM Rue, CT Coyle, CD Maxey, "Induced Abortion and Child-Directed Aggression Among Mothers of Maltreated Children," Internet Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatology, 6(2), 2007.

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Abortion Linked to Higher Rates of Child Abuse - I find the original LifeSite headline strange. How much more abusive can you get to children than killing them?

The sad thing is that so many of our churches seem eager to march for “reproductive rights” and validate the abortion option, rather than minister to the real needs of women who have been tricked by society into offing their kids. Way too many in ecclesial authority fall all over themselves trying to make evil seem good and good seem evil in order to conform the Church to the repaganized world. The trouble is that, in the final analysis, it doesn’t really fool anyone. We don’t find some new level of understanding, or become more loving to others. All we do is become callous and indifferent, and try to cover it up with rainbow flags and talk of sexual empowerment.