Long term risks sometimes attributed to surgical abortion, potiential effects on reproductive function, cancer incedence, and psycological sequelae.
All these short-term risks should appear on abortion consent forms. In addition, the long-term risks that should also appear on abortion consent forms, but usually do not in this country, include increased risks of: breast cancer, placenta previa (a condition that necessitates a c-section and has higher rates of complications), preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies (births before 37 weeks gestation, many of which require neonatal intensive care unit stays for babies and higher rates of death), depression, suicidal ideation and attempt, deaths from all causes including suicide, medical diseases, accidents and homicide. My study (1) concluded that increased long-term risks of the following were found to be associated with induced abortion enough to warrant disclosure: breast cancer (from the loss of protective effect that a full-term delivery would have given a woman and a possible independent effect of induced abortion on breast cancer risk), placenta previa, pre-term birth, and maternal suicide. Three other reproductive outcomes that were studied, but we concluded were not found to be associated with induced abortion were: subsequent spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), ectopic pregnancy, and infertility. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports approximately one death for every 100,000 abortion procedures performed in the United States. However, this only includes short-term risks (only those deaths in the six-week period following abortion) and is based on those states that require reporting. A recent study by Horon showed that the number of maternal deaths is substantially underestimated if death certificates alone are used to identify deaths (3), as is usually the case in reporting to the CDC. Deaths of women that occur after the six-week window following pregnancy should be considered long-term risks. Compared to women who give birth, women who have an induced abortion have an elevated risk of death: approximately three times greater than the risk associated with childbirth (4, 5, and 6). This elevated risk of death associated with induced abortion persists for at least eight years (7). Most prominent is the higher risk of death from homicide, suicide and accidents, although deaths from natural causes are also elevated (8). Excluding these long-term deaths underestimates the number of deaths associated with induced abortion by thousands each year.