David C. Reardon

About the author: David C. Reardon is the director of the Elliot Institute, an organization that researches the effects of abortion on women, men, siblings, and society. He also serves as editor of the Post-Abortion Review, a quarterly publication of the Elliot Institute.

Research shows that women who are pregnant tend to have a lower suicide rate than women who are not pregnant, suggesting that pregnancy gives women something to live for. Conversely, studies have found that teenage girls and women who have abortions are more than ten times as likely to commit suicide than girls and women who have not had abortions. Post-abortion suicides are often the result of the mother's guilt feelings and despair over the death of the unborn child. When a woman confides that she is considering an abortion, her confidante...