Women who aborted a child have a greater chance of having a post-partum depression with difficulty bonding in a subsequent pregnancy. (Klaus MH, Kennell JH. Maternal Infant Bonding, CV Mosby, 1976. Colman AD, Colman LL. Pregnancy: The Psychological Experience, Herder and Herder, New York, 1971.)
In a Dec. 1998 interview published by Priests For Life, Dr. Philip Ney, a Canadian Psychiatrist referred to his research on the link between parental bonding and abortion, “Sadly enough, statistically speaking and I have to say this very carefully, statistically speaking women who have had abortions are less likely to bond to their children, and therefore these children are more likely to be abused and neglected. Also, women who were abused and neglected as children are more likely to have abortions. And I can tell you that wherever I have said this, in whatever kind of an audience, people have become really quite upset, sometimes very angry. But I think I can say that having done the research now over a number of years and published a number of papers, that that is a statistically significant connection.”
There is a clear statistical association between increased rates of abortion and increased rates of child abuse. Indeed, statistical and clinical research support not only an association, but a causal connection between abortion and subsequent child abuse.
Ney, P. Fung, T., Wickett, A.R., "Relationship Between Induced Abortion and Child Abuse and Neglect: Four Studies," Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Journal 8(1):43-63 Fall 1993; Benedict, M., White, R., and Cornely, P., "Maternal Perinatal Risk Factors and Child Abuse" Child Abuse and Neglect 9:217-224 (1985); Lewis, E., "Two Hidden Predisposing Factors in Child Abuse," Child Abuse and Neglect 3:327-330 (1979); Ney, P., "Relationship Between Abortion and Child Abuse," Canadian J. Psychiatry 24:610-620(1979).