BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Pregnant teens who carry their babies to term do better psychologically than those who choose abortions, according to a study by Bowling Green State University in Ohio. One-fourth of U.S. abortions each year are done on teenagers.
Priscilla Coleman, the lead researcher on the Bowling Green study, found that teens who have abortions are six times more likely to use drugs. “They find ways to cope alone,” she said. “My sense is that it’s just an effort to survive the pain or dull the pain.”
The study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, also found girls who aborted their babies were four times more likely to have sleep disturbances and five times more likely to seek counseling.
Sue Turner, director of Alabama Physicians for Life, said, “We’ve heard it so long and so loud [that abortion is better for teenagers] that everybody just assumes that it’s the best thing for them. [Teens are told] they’ve ‘got their whole lives ahead of them’ and they ‘just can’t be bogged down by a child because they’ll end up on welfare.’”
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