By Hilary
White
LONDON, May
5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the May 2 instalment of his regular health
feature in The Times, Dr. Thomas Stuttaford responded to a reader who
complained of a loss of interest in sex following an abortion. "Though my
boyfriend and I agreed it was the right thing to do, I feel guilty and I've
gone off sex," wrote the questioner. Dr. Stuttaford responded by saying
that loss of libido after an abortion is "so common that it can almost be
said to be expected".
Asked if
the feelings would pass, Stuttaford wrote, "It is possible, but by no
means inevitable, that the changes this will have wrought in the way you feel
about a future together may have irretrievably undermined your
relationship."
Indeed, Dr.
Stuttaford observed that in "years of experience with patients" has
"reinforced the teaching I received in my early medical life that even the
most ardent affair may not survive an abortion, although both partners often
remain good friends. Frequently, there has been too much emotion around, even
if there have been no spoken recriminations. The shadow of the decision to have
the termination, and any doubts one or other may have had about this deep down
in their psyche, means that sooner or later they will be tempted to start again
with, as if it were, a clean slate."
Stuttaford
referred to a study, authored "about 15 years ago," that he said
showed that although "nearly all" women suffer feelings of guilt and
grief following abortion, the effects usually passed within a month.
"My
own opinion," he writes, "is that the American research workers were
unduly sanguine in expecting women to jettison guilt and overcome their
feelings of loss - the grief response - within just a month."
Statistical
research by the Elliot Institute shows that, in many cases, the emotional
effects of abortion are still discernable eight weeks after an abortion. In one
study, two months after their abortions, 44 percent of women complained of
nervous disorders, 36 percent had experienced sleep disturbances, 31 percent
had regrets about their decision and 11 percent had been prescribed
psychotropic medicine by their family doctor.
But Dr.
Stuttaford quickly assures his questioner that "neither of you should
assume blame or feel guilty."
The Times
health feature was followed by comments from Suzi Godson, a journalist and a
graphic designer who has recently published a book titled, "The Sex
Book" who exhorted readers, "Be kind to yourself, and your partner,
and be grateful that you live in a country where abortion is both safe and
legal."
In her
comments Godson, like most supporters of abortion, dismisses post-abortive
stress syndrome as a "pseudo-scientific condition" put forward by the
pro-life movement. But loss of interest in sex is, as Stuttaford admits, is a
well-documented result of abortion. Godson points out that the Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry has concluded that abortion in young women
"might be associated with mental health problems" and that the Royal
College of Psychiatrists recommends updating abortion information leaflets to
include mention of the risk of depression.
The Elliot
Institute study showed that thirty to fifty percent of women experience sexual
dysfunction, of both short and long duration, beginning immediately after their
abortions.
Fr. Timothy
Finigan, a Catholic priest and founder of the Association of Priests for the
Gospel of Life, commented on the column, saying that Britain is "a country
where abortion is presented as 'safe'," and where possible consequences of
abortion are seldom mentioned to women.
"Where
this life has been crushed by abortion, it is surely only natural and to be
expected that the urge to engage in the same life-giving activity should be
muted," he observed.
But for Fr.
Finigan, the woman was asking Dr. Stuttaford the wrong question. It is not loss
of libido that is the danger, "it is the secular sanctification of libido
that has brought about the destruction of so many millions of human
lives."
"Nevertheless
it is another feature in the whole sorry story of routinely available abortion.
I wonder how many women are told about this 'expected' phenomenon before they
consent to an abortion?"