Women who consult with pregnancy resource centers often get misleading
information about the health risks associated with having an abortion, according
to a report issued Monday by Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.
Congressional aides, posing as pregnant 17-year-olds, called 25 pregnancy
centers that have received some federal funding over the past five years.
The aides were routinely told of increased risk for cancer, infertility and
stress disorders, said the report, which was prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman,
D-Calif.
Only a small fraction of the more than 4,000 pregnancy clinics nationwide get
any federal funding, mostly for promoting sexual abstinence.
With a few exceptions, the federal government doesn't give money specifically
for the counseling operations, but Waxman's staff said 25 centers got "capacity
building grants." Thus, Waxman said, they should be held accountable for the
information they dispense.
Of the 25 centers called, two could not be reached. Eight told the caller
that abortion leads to a greater risk of breast cancer, the report said.
Care Net, an umbrella group for evangelical pregnancy centers across the
country, instructs its affiliates to tell callers there is a possibility that
abortion can lead to greater risk of breast cancer, according to Molly Ford, an
official with the organization. She said there have been several studies that
say it does, and several that say it doesn't.
"I know the report is wanting to say that it's conclusive, but it isn't,"
Ford said.
None of the pregnancy centers the committee staff called was identified, and
it could not be determined if any were linked to Care Net, which has helped
about a quarter of the nation's pregnancy centers begin operations.
One pregnancy center told a congressional aide the risk of cancer after an
abortion could be 80 percent higher, the report noted. Ford said she doubted a
pregnancy center would go that far, but the Web site for a pregnancy center in
Albuquerque says the risk for cancer after an abortion is 50 percent or greater.
In February 2003, a National Cancer Institute workshop concluded that having
an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman's subsequent risk of
developing breast cancer.
The report from the Democratic aides also said the pregnancy resource centers
provided false information about the mental health effects of abortion, telling
the aides that it could cause severe long-term emotional harm.
However, an American Psychological Association panel said, "Severe negative
reactions are rare."
But Ford said that pregnancy center counselors don't need statistics to tell
them that many women undergoing an abortion experience severe emotional trauma.
"This isn't about a medical statistic to us. We do post-abortion counseling
every day," Ford said.
The Administration for Children and Families within the Department of Health
and Human Services funds the abstinence programs overseen by some of the
pregnancy centers. Aides referred questions about the report to Wade Horn, a
Health and Human Services assistant secretary, who did not want to comment until
he read the report.
Waxman said that Americans are divided on the issue of abortion, but no one
should support misleading teenagers about basic medical facts.
" It's wrong to pour millions of federal dollars into organizations that are
providing false health information to vulnerable teenagers," Waxman
said.
