Letter to the Editor
- Canadian Medical Association Journal

Philip G. Ney, MD, MA, FRCPC, RPsych

© July 2006

Re: "The unwanted child-when things go wrong."

Dear Editor:

The old idea of aborting "unwanted children" for the sake of children is both farcical and fatal.

a) There is no evidence that aborting unwanted children has lessened child mistreatment.

b) Strong evidence indicates that as the rates of abortion increased, so did the rates of child abuse. (1,2,3)

c) The studies of high rates of delinquency, etc. in the unwanted children born to women who were refused abortion are seriously flawed;

(i) the mothers were different;
(ii) the children were different;
(iii) the circumstances in which they were raised were very different.  

d) Anything published by IPPF, (4) one of the world's largest profit- making abortion providers, cannot be trusted.

e) To be alive because you are wanted when unwanted siblings were exterminated, leaves the survivors with: existential guilt, a sense of impending doom, distrust of parents and parental authorities, barely contained rage, risk-taking behaviour, fears of having children, etc. that is affecting vast numbers of people.

f) The growing ethic that determines who lives and who dies by their wantedness, now affecting the preborn, handicapped, girls and elderly, will soon affect everyone. It will result in pandemic anxiety that people may try to contain with the distractions of war.

g)What goes round comes round in the bundle of human life. When parents abort (kill) some of their helpless children, they will fear being terminated by the survivors when they become infirm, aged or handicapped.

h) When family continuity is highly uncertain, children turn to siblings for understanding and nurture. They strongly resent those who terminate their helpless brothers and sisters.

 

Sincerely,

Philip G. Ney, MD

(1) Coleman PK et al. (2005) Associations between voluntary and involuntary forms of perinatal loss and child maltreatment among low income mothers. Acta Paediatr Oct; 94(10):1476-83

(2) Ney PG. (1979) "The Relationship Between Abortion and Child Abuse", Can J Psychiatry 24:610-620.

(3) Ney PG. Fung T. Wickett AR. (1993) "Relationship Between Induced Abortion and Child Abuse and Neglect: Four Studies", Pre- and Perinatal Psychology J. 8:43-63.

(4) Veil B.(1989) The risk of unwanted pregnancy. A Latin American perspective.IPPF Med Bull Feb; 23(1):1-3.