Abortion Has No Effect on Long-Term Mental Health
A New Zealand study claiming to link poor mental health outcomes with abortion has made the rounds on anti-choice blogs and websites over the past few weeks (stay tuned for a more complete debunking in the coming days), but in the mean time, Reuters reminds us that "No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a 'post-abortion syndrome,' and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday." How do they know?
A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others.
Guttmacher Institute has also produced an advisory following the thorough American Psychological Association report that concluded that there was no link between mental health outcomes and abortion.
Clinton's Likely Priorities as Secretary of State
On WorldChanging, leaders of international family planning organizations express their expectations for Sen. Hillary Clinton's priorities as Secretary of State. Writes Ben Block, "Although Clinton's agenda will likely be dominated by the diplomatic challenges of a global war on terror, she is expected to restore U.S. leadership on issues of population, human rights, and environmental enforcement if the Congress approves her nomination."
Allergic Reactions to Gardasil Uncommon
A study published in the British Medical Journal concludes that "Allergic reactions to Gardasil, the humanpapilloma virus...are uncommon and most schoolgirls can tolerate further doses," CNN Money reports. "Researchers at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, tested 25 schoolgirls with suspected allergic reactions to Gardasil after more than 380,000 vaccine doses were administered in schools" but "[t]he researchers found that only three of the 25 schoolgirls had probable hypersensitivity to Gardasil and concluded that true hypersensitivity is uncommon."
What Effects Would HHS Conscience Regulation Have?
Reporting on the Bush administration's plan to promulgate expansive "provider conscience" protections, the Baltimore Sun writes,
For more than 30 years, federal law has dictated that doctors and nurses may refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further by making clear that health care workers may also refuse to provide information or advice about abortion to patients.
It also seeks to cover far more employees. For example, in addition to a surgeon and a nurse in an operating room, the rule would extend to "an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments," the draft rule said.
