Campaigners have hit out at Britain’s largest abortion provider after it claimed post-abortion trauma is a “completely fabricated condition”.
Clare Murphy, a spokeswoman for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said the term was only used by pro-lifers to undermine abortion services.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, she also claimed that an abortion has no greater impact on a woman’s mental health than an unwanted pregnancy.
‘Stigmatised’
Clare Bremner, a counsellor for post-abortive women at the Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH) refuted the assertions.
She said: “If Clare Murphy, or anyone else at BPAS, actually believes that women don’t suffer mentally and emotionally after abortion, then they have a lot of research to catch up on.”
She added that “every time a headline such as this appears the women who are suffering after abortion are further stigmatised and silenced. This is unjust and damaging.”
Hurting
Alison Hall, who had an abortion aged 21, was astounded by Murphy’s comments.
She said: “I can’t believe that. They must know how women get hurt by abortion. I wasted years of my life, struggling, misusing alcohol, it affected all my relationships.
“It’s unbelievable BPAS don’t trust women enough to tell them the truth, and won’t listen to all the women like me who are still hurting.”
Flawed
The Turnaway study, cited by Murphy, is contrary to the “mountain of research showing the detrimental effect abortion can have on women”, Bremner said, and has been discredited by Dr Greg Pike in his study ‘Abortion and Women’s Health’.
“they have a lot of research to catch up on”Clare Bremner, Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline
She concluded: “If women could be put before vested interests and political agendas, we may start to see good research into how to best help those who are suffering”.
Georgette Forney, co-founder of Silent No More Awareness Campaign, said: “Denying that abortion hurts women in no way benefits them, it just furthers the pro-abortion agenda and allows women to believe that abortion is harmless.”