guest@hplabsb.UUCP (Guest Account/guest) (05/29/84)
An article reporting on a new study on multiple abortions appeared in the local paper on 15 May. Excerpts follow: Dr Charlene Berger of Montreal General Hospital's department of obste- trics and Gynecology recently published her findings in Family Planning Perspectives, a professional journal of the Alan Guttmacher Institute. The study indicates that the stereotypical views of women who have multiple abortions (i.e. neurotic, morally defiecient, etc..) are not true -- rather, "The study shows that these women are as well adjusted as women having their first abortion, that they are not psychologically mal- adjusted or promiscuous", said Berger. 580 women seeking a first trimester abortion were interviewed two hours before their vacuum aspiration abortions were performed. 454 were having their first abortion, 126 their second, and a very small number a third. In social, economic, educational, religious and attitudinal characteristics, the two groups were almost identical. In neither group did any unusual psychological disturbances show up. In only two categories did differences emerge: age and frequency of sexual relations. Repeat-abortions patients had a mean age of 27 and were having intercourse an average of 11 times a month as compared to first-time-abortions patients, who had a mean age of 24 and had intercourse 8 times a month, on the average. The findings included: - first time patients were more likely to be single (66%) than the repeaters (53%) - The repeaters were more likely to have children (45% compared to 32%) - the majority of women became pregnant during relationships of long duration -- only 13 women became pregnant during casual affair, and all of those women were having their first abortion. - 309 women said they were not using birth control during the month of conception, citing a variet of reasons ranging from the fact that they felt "safe", to the lack of knowledge of how to acquire birth control, to the objection of their partners. - of the patients who did use contraception, a greater proportion was represented in the repeat group (53%) than in the first time group (45%) The study concluded: "Repeat abortions are not the consequence of women's psychological maladjustment or negative attitudes toward using contraceptives. The important problem is that health-care personnel involved in providing abortions may find it difficult to accept that a large number of women who are sexually active and who use imperfect birth-control techniques can be expected to have repeat abortions." This study's findings contradict earlier researchers , who concluded that women having more than one abortion tended to be troubled in one way or another, to be separated or divorced and to be more sexually active. This article's only by-line was that it came from the New York Times.