An academic paper commissioned by the pro-abortion World Health Organization and published in BMJ Global Health has targeted pro-life laws as barriers to supposed “safe abortion”. Michael Robinson, SPUC Director of Communications, said: “The pro-abortion bias of this study is clear and part of the broader propaganda effort that is currently taking place on a global scale.”
The study was authored by six researchers, including Dr. Antonella Lavelanet, medical officer in WHO’s Maternal and Perinatal Health & Preventing Unsafe Abortion Team.
Advancing a “method” said to “assess how legal provisions regulating abortion shape the actual delivery of abortion services and outcomes”, the paper says it is filling gaps “in the evidence base on the impact of abortion laws on significant health, behavioural, and socioeconomic outcomes”.
Pro-life laws and measures that the authors target include mandatory waiting periods, third-party authorisation, gestational limits, abortion criminalisation, provider restrictions and, most remarkably, conscientious objection to abortion – all of which are seen to be potential barriers to “safe abortion”.
Linking anti-abortion laws to negative “health outcomes”, the authors, at the behest of WHO, claim to be providing “vital input for policymakers and public health guidance for abortion policy and practice” – information that they say is “actionable” and for “targeted strategies”, as well as abortion general “advocacy”.
While the paper states that WHO guidelines do not currently offer advice in this area, it is implied that WHO guidance – currently being updated to propagate advice on “safe abortion” – should, and likely will, adopt the paper’s proposed method to “influence” abortion legislation around the world.
WHO pro-abortion propaganda
SPUC’s Mr. Robinson said: “The ‘method’ proposed by this paper, which is really a WHO document, is nothing more than a new method of propaganda, targeting pro-life laws that is says negatively impact women, while also claiming, absurdly, that abortion is ‘safe’.
“In 2017, WHO said that 56 million abortions took place every year, of which half were ‘unsafe’ for women. But there was no mention of the fact that, for the 56 million babies involved, abortion is not safe. Indeed, abortion is, by definition, life-ending.
“Where is the concern for the health of the 56 million babies killed by abortion every year, according to WHO?
“Moreover, there is also no mention of the dangers of abortion for the women involved as a result of abortion itself. The negative, sometimes catastrophic, effects, both physical and mental, have simply been ignored.
“This paper is barely a study at all, but is purposefully part of the broader global effort – such as the EU declaring abortion a ‘human right’ – to bully legislatures into passing pro-abortion legislation under the false flag of feigned concern for women’s health.”
For a complete picture of the current literature on the impact of abortion on women’s mental and physical health, please consult the recently updated review Abortion and Women’s Health here: https://www.spuc.org.uk/Get-Involved/Education/Abortion-and-Womens-Health