Post Abortion Depression and Suicide

By Pat Buckley, European Life Network

Charlotte Dawson

During the recent parliamentary debate in Ireland that led to the introduction of abortion–and despite scholarly research based evidence to the contrary– the Irish Government decided that suicide ideation was grounds for abortion.

Expert psychiatric witnesses explained that in many years of professional practice they had never found this to be the case. On the contrary their evidence pointed to the fact that post-abortive women had a propensity to self-harm that sometimes ended in suicide.

Two high profile cases of suicide broke [recently] and the reports in both cases referenced abortion as having been a major factor in the subsequent depression that tragically ultimately led to suicide.

The first tragic suicide was that of an Australian model and TV star Charlotte Dawson, after a long battle with depression, originally triggered by an abortion back in 1999. According to news stories, it was decided that Dawson should abort her first child with Olympic swimmer husband Scott Miller because her due date coincided with the 2000 summer Olympics and (because)Miller was so focused on his own pursuits that a child was not welcome in the picture at the time. Dawson says they planned to try to have children later, but the marriage broke up shortly afterwards and she ultimately died without living children.

The Daily Telegraph reported:

“But friends believe she had never really gotten over her marriage to Miller, which ended in divorce after only a year. In her tell-all autobiography ‘Air Kiss And Tell,’ she revealed she had an abortion because the pregnancy would interfere with Miller’s preparation for the 2000 Olympics — and blamed that for the start of her long battle with depression.”

Charlotte Coursier

The second case reported in the Daily Mail relates to an Oxford student who committed suicide following the break up of her relationship with her boyfriend. The report however cites the torment she suffered following an abortion. [The headline read, “Oxford student Charlotte Coursier committed suicide six hours after her boyfriend ended their relationship.”]

“A ‘talented and gifted’ Oxford University student hanged herself after her boyfriend of 11 months ended their relationship.

“Charlotte Coursier was struggling to cope with a ‘campaign of harassment’ inflicted on her by a college lecturer, as well as the torment of having aborted a pregnancy.

“An inquest heard how Miss Coursier was found dead at home by her housemates in June last year.”

The incidence of increased mental health problems associated with abortion is well documented and can be found in the Fergusson Study (2006) and the Coleman Meta-Analysis (2011). Sadly this is denied for both ideological and financial reasons by the abortion industry.

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) reported that compared with birth, abortion has a 600% increased risk of suicide and the timing very often corresponds to anniversary grief.

AAPLOG cite the Gissler Record Link (1997) that found that the risk of suicide after birth was half that of the general population but that the risk of suicide following an abortion was 600% greater than following a birth.

Post abortion depression, Suicide