Youth Defence: Facts Deserve Better

I've been on holiday and am somewhat behind on current affairs. No matter, the Youth Defence blog provides a rich source of material for me to discuss.

Today I look at an entry from Eadaoin, a UK based blogger with an interest in Ireland's abortion debate. Rather than provide commentary I'll just offer my free fact checking service.

"It has become increasingly clear that, over the last ten decades the women’s liberation movement across the globe, which had noble aims in its infancy, has become an oppressor of women’s freedom."

I have a fortnight's worth of laundry to do: regrettably time does not allow me to also correct grammar or suggest how Eadaoin might express ideas clearly. Do feel free to assist her in the comments.

Statistically speaking, induced abortions increases [sic] the risk of breast, cervical, ovarian and rectal cancer.

No it doesn't. I offer as evidence a Lancet published meta analysis of 53 studies and a 12 year study of 25,000 Danish women. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the United States National Cancer Institute agree that there is no causative link. The American Cancer Society goes one further, saying that "...the public is not well-served by false alarms. At this time, the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer". Eadaoin doesn't offer any evidence of this purported link with breast or other cancers, and with good cause - she doesn't have it. Nor does she mention that her organisation opposes the HPV vaccine, proven to reduce instances of cervical cancer.

This is before we begin to talk about the psychological effects on women after abortion. Post abortion syndrome is so prevalent it was classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a variant of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

It seems Eadaoin holds a lower opinion than I of Youth Defence's followers. The above statement is simply not true. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders contains no such entry.

Every study ever conducted finds a correlation between abortion and reduced mental health to some degree. 

 Here's one from the American Psychological Association. To quote from their press release: "There is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women." The U.K. Royal College of Psychiatrists was asked by the U.K. Department of Health to conduct a systematic review of 44 studies: again they found no link. Others exist, all showing no link, but I have socks to pair.

Every year on February 15th, inhabitants of Tanna Island build crude replicas of rifles and march in formation  to the sacred Yasur mountain. Fake bamboo aerials and carved imitation headsets are used to simulate landing strips. The island religion tells that these talismans will encourage the return of bounty from the sky known as 'cargo', and marks possibly the greatest misunderstanding to occur in the second world war, when the US army hired locals to build a nearby landing strip and repaid in Western goods.

Youth Defence seems to hold a similar relationship with facts: they view them as significant and necessary, but have no core understanding of how they work and feel their own homespun tales will suffice as alternative. Either that or they have no qualms about lying.

Facts deserve better.