The Campus Conservative

This could be the most shocking thing I write all semester as The Campus Conservative, but I am not pro-life. I love life, but as the term “pro-life” is used in today’s political debate, I could not use that label to describe myself because I don’t think abortion should be outlawed. I wouldn’t call myself pro-choice either, however, because the militant politics of pro-choice groups prevent women from actually making informed choices when deciding how to deal with an unplanned pregnancy.

President Bush’s third Supreme Court nomination has brought abortion back into the news, but, as always, it is covered in a superficial manner. Unfortunately, in a debate dominated by religious beliefs on one side and equally dogmatic passions on the other side, facts on abortion get lost in the screaming match.

One way that information could be brought back into the debate is with what are called “right to know,” or informed consent, laws. According to the National Pro-Life Alliance, these laws exist in 16 states and have been upheld as constitutional by courts in seven of these states. While these laws vary, they usually require that women seeking abortions are informed about adoption agencies, pregnancy care centers, medical assistance benefits and the liability of the father for child support. There is currently a woman’s right to know bill (S 979) in the Massachusetts State Legislature. The bill was passed in the House, but the Senate bill was referred to the Joint Judiciary Committee at the beginning of this year and has not yet been passed. “Right to know” laws also mandate the provision of information on the physical and mental health risks associated with abortion.

Many women do not know, for example, about the abortion-breast cancer link. While some studies have not found a statistically significant link between abortion and breast cancer, many others have found that such a link exists.

According to an op-ed by Dr. Robert Cihak of the Discovery Institute, who is a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a 1994 study by Dr. Janet Daling found a 50 percent higher incidence of breast cancer among women who had had abortions compared to women who hadn’t. Women who were under age 18 when they had their first abortion were 150 percent more likely to have breast cancer.

Finally, women under 18 who did not have a family history of breast cancer but who had had abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, when compared to women without a family history of breast cancer who had not had abortions, had an 800 percent increase in the incidence of breast cancer.

Many studies have found similar results, particularly significantly increased incidences of breast cancer in women who had abortions before the age of 18. Because of the additional risks that girls face when getting an abortion, parental notification laws are essential. If teens and their parents know about the risks associated with abortion and still choose that option, at the very least, these women will be aware later in life that their increased risk of breast cancer makes it sensible for them to be screened for the disease early and often.

Too many studies to cover in this column have found that women who have had abortions are more likely to suffer from depression than those who have not, especially women who were under the age of 18 when they had an abortion.

To cite just a few studies, The Elliot Institute, an admittedly anti-abortion research institution, reported that a 1986 study by the University of Minnesota found that teenage girls who had abortions in the past six months were 10 times more likely to commit suicide than girls of the same age who had not had an abortion.

Analysts at the Elliot Institute also found that, according to a study conducted from 1980 to 1992 and published in the Medical Science Monitor, women who had ended their first pregnancies with abortions were, after variables such as age, race, income and marital status were controlled for, 65 percent more likely to have incidences of clinical depression than women who had not had abortions.

About.com reports that research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that women who had had abortions, when compared to women who had not ended their first pregnancies with abortions, were twice as likely to drink alcohol during subsequent pregnancies and five times more likely to use illegal drugs and 10 times more likely to smoke marijuana during subsequent pregnancies.

Even though some radical pro-choice groups doubt the findings of these studies, the mere possibility of these consequences of abortion should be enough to promote “right to know” laws and parental notification laws. Even parents who would be angry at their daughter for having an abortion would still appreciate being informed so that they could take proper care of their daughter afterwards.

Supporters of abortion rights will argue that “right to know” laws are just political tactics used by people who want to outlaw abortion completely. While it is true that most supporters of these laws would like to make abortion illegal, that shouldn’t detract from the validity of providing women with information when they’re making such an important choice.

Needless to say, this information should be neutral and should not come from abortion clinics or from right-to-life groups but, dare I say it, from the state government. Choice is meaningless when women are not informed of the full consequences of their choices and of all the options open to them.

Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Abortion Federation all oppose “right to know” laws and parental notification laws. If these groups want to be labeled pro-choice rather than pro-abortion, they need to let women make informed choices.