Drugs - Abuse

By Jerry Price - Mar 13, 2006 -

David C. Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, was recently part of a team that studied substance abuse among women who had recently given birth. The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that “women with a prior history of abortion are twice as likely to use alcohol, five times more likely to use illicit drugs, and ten times more likely to use marijuana during the first pregnancy they carry to term compared to other women delivering their first pregnancies.” The research was based on a nationally representative sample of 2,613 women and was jointly sponsored by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the Division of Epidemiological and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Reardon, who specializes in post-abortion reactions, says that many women who are experiencing unresolved grief related to past abortions turn to drugs and alcohol even though they know that such activity places their unborn child at risk.

“Substance Abuse Among Pregnant Women Linked to Prior Abortion, Puts Later Children At Risk, New Study,” Elliot Institute fax, January 2, 2003

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