In 2008, pro-abortion researchers in California began a project they called The Turnaway Study. Their goal? To try to prove that women are not negatively impacted by abortion. In fact, they try to push the conclusion that women are worse off when they are turned away from abortion facilities. You’ve probably already noticed a problem with that: abortion is indisputably bad for women.
The group responsible for this bogus research is Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). Perhaps their “new standards” are lackluster research techniques? Pro-abortion advocates plan to drag this study into the legislative realm to trick lawmakers into thinking that abortion limits cause more harm than good.
David Reardon, founder of the Elliot Institute, has recently published an extensive analysis that highlights everything wrong with this study. We encourage you to check it out here… but below are some of Reardon’s finer points:
- Only about 27% of the original 3,000 women participated in the six-month post-abortion interview. By the end of the five-year study, only 17% remained.
- People with significant psychological trauma are unlikely to participate in this type of study. Therefore, those who stayed likely had the fewest problems, while the traumatized dropped out.
- It was up to clinic staff at each recruitment site to recruit participants. In other words, clinic staff could choose to pass over women who showed signs of distress in order to get the desired results.
- The researchers admitted that “one-fourth of the women used in the “turnaway” control group subsequently had abortions elsewhere or reported having a miscarriage.”
- In the absence of a true control group of women who have never been exposed to abortion, the Turnaway Study cannot tell us anything about the differences between women who have abortions and those who do not.
- The large number of methodological errors suggests this study was poorly executed and therefore unreliable.
- “The Christchurch studies, which have the most extensive pre-abortion history data of any abortion studies ever published, revealed that abortion is significantly associated with increased rates of suicidal tendencies, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and the total number of mental health problems.”
- ANSIRH refuses to release their questionnaire or full data. They claim it’s for privacy reasons… but they don’t have to release the participant information. Perhaps releasing everything would confirm our suspicions that they only published data they liked?
It’s unfortunate that we’ve come to expect this sort of intellectual dishonesty when it comes to issues of “reproductive justice.” Most disturbing of all is that they clearly recorded negative effects on women, then chose to ignore that and push it on us anyway. Describing themselves as “pro-woman” is as untrue and insulting as ever.
If you want to really learn about abortion and its effects on women, we suggest starting with a few of our favorite videos:
