• Abortion Won't Help Trafficking Victims

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Abortion Won't Help Trafficking Victims

Petition Signers Say Using Their Situation to Promote Abortion
Stops Women from Getting Authentic Help

 

Yesterday, the House of Representatives held a hearing on a decision by the Obama administration to deny funding to a program helping sex trafficking victims. The reason? The program is administered by the U.S. Conference and Catholic Bishops, and will not refer victims of sex trafficking for abortion.

 

Other commenters -- including U.S. Rep. Chris Smith -- have pointed out various problems with this discriminatory action. This includes the fact that the USCCB program was the highest rated among the grant applicants by independent Health & Human Services Reviewers, that another program was given money with no assurance that it would be effective and that the grant was supposed to cover social services such as food, shelter and employment assistance, not "family planning."

 

But all this ignores a basic question: will abortion help trafficking victims?

 

The available evidence says no. Indeed, research suggests that abortion is likely to harm, not help, women and girls who have been victimized by sex trafficking.

 

Studies that examine risk factors for psychological problems after abortion have that women who with a history of sexual assault or abuse are at greater risk for psychological problems after abortion. Other problems, such as low self-esteem, lack of support or good relationships, and other emotional problems also put women at risk. On the other hand, not a single study -- including studies of women with unintended pregnancies -- has ever found that abortion improved women's mental health in any way.

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, the list of risk factors include many other problems that are likely to be widespread among women and girls who have been trafficked, including, among others, a history of low-self esteem, having few friends or unsatisfactory personal relationships, lacking support during pregnancy, feeling alienated from others, having prior emotional problems, aborting after the first trimester or having a repeat abortion.

 

Women who have been there

 

 

 

 

 

Other risk factors include many problems that are likely to be high among women and girls who have been trafficked, including a history of low-self esteem, feelings of alienation, prior emotional problems, abortion in the second or third trimester, lack of support during pregnancy

 

 

Studies have also found that women who have had prior emotional problems, suffer from low-self-esteem or feelings of alienation, are in their teens, abort in the second or third trimester, have little support during pregnancy or feel they have no other option but to abort are all more likely to have difficulty coping after abortion.

 

 

 

 

it is likely to harm, not help, women and girls who have been victimized by sex trafficking.

 

In one of the only surveys ever done of women who became pregnant through sexual assault or abuse, researchers surveyed nearly 200 women and found that:

• Nearly 80 percent of the women who aborted a pregnancy conceived in sexual assault reported that abortion had been the wrong solution.

• Most women who had abortions said that abortion only increased the trauma they were experiencing.

• In many cases, the victim faced strong pressure or demands to abort and in some cases, especially those involving teenage girls, was even forced to have the abortion by others.

• None of the women who gave birth to a child conceived in sexual assault expressed regret or wished they had aborted instead.¹

 

 

 

Women who have undergone a prior abortion are also at risk, especially if that abortion was forced or coerced. In 2009, MSNBC.com ran a special report on sex trafficking, stating that victims of sex trafficking are often forced into abortion if they become pregnant.²
 

For example, the report described the case of Consuelo Carretto Valencia, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to trafficking women and girls from Mexico and forcing them to work in the sex industry. Investigators said Valencia was the head of a prostitution ring in which the victims were “compelled to perform sex acts 12 hours a day and subjected to beatings, rapes and forced abortions.”

 

 

 

So how will abortion -- often perceived by women to be an unwanted and traumatic experience, likened by some to rape, frequently used as a tool by traffickers and sexual predators, with no proven track record of helping women and plenty of evidence of harm -- help women and girls who have already been traumatized and abused? The answer is that it won't. Abandoning them to abortion will likely only make their trauma worse and prolong healing, not make anything better.

 

 

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For more information on the Elliot Institute's model bill to stop coerced and forced abortions, click here.
 

Citations

 

1. “Planned Parenthood Found Negligent in Reporting Molested Teen's Abortion,” Pro-Life Infonet, Dec. 26, 2002.
2. Alex Johnson and Cesar Rodriquez, “Sex slavery: Living the American Nightmare,” MSNBC.com, Dec. 22. 2008. Accessed on 12/22/08.

 

 

 

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Citations

 

1. Reardon, Makimaa & Sobie, Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting from Sexual Assault (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 2000) 19-22.

 

2.

 

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During Prematurity Awareness Month, Women Not Told of Abortion Link

 

November is Prematurity Awareness Month, dedicated by activists to highlighting the risks of and impact created by preterm birth. According to the March of Dimes, more than half a million babies are born prematurely in the United States alone each year.

 

Yet many people -- including women at risk of abortion and their loves ones -- are unaware that researchers studying findings from dozens of studies have concluded that abortion is linked to an increased risk of preterm birth among subsequently born babies.

 

Continue reading ...

 

 

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