Health: A Setback for Pro-Life Forces

For years, pro-life forces have charged that abortions threaten serious health consequences for women. First of all, they argued, abortion is a dangerous surgical procedure that can lead to subsequent miscarriages, infertility or even death. More recently, they claimed to have discovered a form of delayed stress, similar to that experienced by some Viet Nam vets, that can result in severe depression years after an abortion. Last week both claims were undercut by the release of a report on the effects of abortion by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and by the conclusions of a panel of the American Psychological Association.