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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 2571 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Deputy Speaker, I go back to the document I was quoting from which canvassed the STAKES and several other surveys. It finishes with the following paragraph:

These findings underscore the importance of holding abortion clinics liable for screening women who are seeking abortion for a history of suicide, self-destructive behavior and psychological instability. The failure to screen for these risk factors is clearly gross negligence. In addition, when abortion clinic counselors falsely reassure women that abortion is safer than childbirth, they should be held accountable for false and deceptive business practices.

This is the conclusion of the author of this article, David C Reardon PhD, who looks at, across those surveys I have mentioned in the previous debate, the downsides of abortion. The document goes on to say:

It is also likely that many of these deaths are simply related to heightened risk-taking behaviour among post-abortive women.

It is interesting that, when you get to the next area of inquiry, Mr Reardon talks about deaths from homicide. He says:

As shown in Figure 4, the risk of dying from homicide for post-abortive women was more than four times greater than the risk of homicide among the general population. This finding, especially when combined with the suicide and accident figures, once again reinforces the conclusion that women who abort are more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior.

This leads to many areas. One of the areas that are quite interesting is the number of women who, having had an abortion, engage in greater risk-taking behaviour. This is probably inconclusive, but there is evidence to suggest that it may even lead to a greater number of women in prison.

A survey I found said that, in a prison ministry, 77 of the 100 participants were post-abortive. It says that symptoms of post-abortion trauma, abuse, promiscuity, child abuse and other destructive behaviours can lead to criminal behaviour. It then talks about-from another source-links between abortion and crime.

There is a curious debate going on in America. One set of proponents is saying that, because of the rising number of abortions in America, there is a link that says there is an increasing amount of crime because those who come from lower socio-economic groups have been aborted. What a perverse twist to put on what I believe is the tragedy of abortion!

Again looking at the area of crime and prisons, counsellor Laurie Velker says a non-scientific survey she conducted, among female inmates in Michigan prisons, reveals that their anger was increased as a result of their abortions. She says that they said they could see an increase in violent behaviour after their abortions.

It then goes on to a different survey and talks about 10 years of research conducted in Canada. It says:

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