Anti-choicers used to love flogging the so-called abortion-breast cancer link -- until the supposed "link" was beaten to a pulp, thumped, asskicked and chain-whipped by medical experts so many times that only the most delusional cretins will still reference it. That being the case, they had to come up with a new and less tangible Horrible Side Effect of abortion -- what better than its supposed detrimental effect on mental health?:
University of Oslo researchers compared 40 women who had had a miscarriage with 80 who chose to have an abortion.
Miscarriage was associated with more mental distress in the six months after the loss of a baby - but abortion had a much longer lasting negative effect.
SHRIEEEEEK! They went for it explosively, playing up the so-called "link" on websites and in the anti-abortion media. When the American Psychological Association finally started a task force on it, fetus fetishists hyperventilated in breathless anticipation:
Because -- stand back! -- the APA's statement on the issue is finally out, and according to their press release:
"The American Psychological Association (APA) recently removed an old statement about abortion and mental health from its Web site, a statement that declared abortion to be largely benign. They have convened a task force on the subject, and will issue a new statement in 2008."We'll leave aside the thick-as-a-brick irony that all this commentary on mental health is coming from people who like to while away the hours by the roadside brandishing signs festooned with dead fetus porn.
Because -- stand back! -- the APA's statement on the issue is finally out, and according to their press release:
"There is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women, according to a draft report released Tuesday by a task force of the American Psychological Association." (emphasis mine)
While they were giving the abortion-mental health "link" a good shitkicking, the APA also called bullshit on the Exciting Studies that supposedly showed the link:
"The task force observed that many of the studies published during the period reviewed suffered from serious methodological problems. Thus, it focused most closely on those found to be most methodologically sound to arrive at its conclusions. Inconsistencies in findings reported by published studies were judged to reflect differences in study quality and failures to control for potentially confounding factors."Keep throwin' 'em, fetus fetishists, we'll just keep hittin' 'em outta the park. HAHAHAHAHA!
(Big H/T to Chet, via email)
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