Our colleagues from Ipas have just released a new publication, Ten Facts About Abortion, which is chock full of information and statistics from around the world.
Our “Ten Fact About Abortion” manual serves as a quick reference guide for pro-choice advocates. The guide offers factual evidence debunking ten widely disseminated abortion myths, and provides supporting background information and resources. We hope this guide will help reproductive rights activists to confidently respond to challenges to our work and to continue advocating for abortion based on clear, scientific and unbiased data.
Here are the facts!
- Postabortion syndrome is not a valid psychiatric diagnosis.
- There is no causal relationship between abortion (spontaneous or induced) and an increase in women’s risk for developing breast cancer.
- Emergency contraception prevents pregnancy, it does not cause abortion. If a woman is already pregnant, emergency contraception will have no effect on the pregnancy and will not cause an abortion.
- Abortions performed by trained providers under hygienic conditions are much safer than pregnancy and childbirth.
- When women have access to safe, legal and affordable abortion, maternal death and injuries due to unsafe abortion decrease dramatically.
- The best way to reduce abortions is to reduce unintended pregnancies through comprehensive sexuality education, prevention of gender-based violence, and access to woman-centered and effective contraception.
- Medical abortion is a safe and effective option for terminating a pregnancy in the first trimester.
- Women who do not have information and access to reliable contraceptive methods face higher rates of unplanned pregnancy and may use abortion to terminate the pregnancy, regardless of the legality of abortion.
- Since the beginning of recorded history, women throughout the world have terminated unwanted pregnancies. This practice is well documented
- Abortion to save the life of a woman or girl is medically necessary under certain circumstances and is widely accepted by professionals and institutions like the World Health Organization.
The full version is a detailed, 60-page document that you can download as a PDF here.