Stats, GravityTeen builds confidence and personal power in teens who face pregnancy and abortion issues.

COMPLICATIONS

Physical and emotional damage from abortion is greater in a young girl. They have immature cervixes and "run the risk of a difficult, potentially traumatic dilatation.
C. Cowell, Problems of Adolescent Abortion, Ortho Panel 14, Toronto General Hospital

The younger the patient, the greater the gestation (age of the unborn), the higher the complication rate. . . . Some of the most catastrophic complications occur in teenagers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of 486 obstetricians and gynecologists had to hospitalize at least one patient this year due to complications of legal abortions.
M. Bulfin, M.D., OB-GYN Observer, Oct.-Nov. 1975

We have found that teenage mothers, given proper care, have the least complications in childbirth. The younger the mother, the better the birth.
B. Sutton-Smith, Jour. of Youth and Adolescence. As reported in the New York Times, April 24, 1979

Fifty-four teenage patients were seen with significant complications after legal abortion. None felt they had been afforded any meaningful information about the potential dangers of the abortion operation. Perforation of the uterus, peritonitis, pelvic pain, pelvic abscesses, bleeding and cramping, cervical lacerations, severe hemorrhage and adverse psychological and psychiatric sequelae were noted in various case reports.
A New Problem in Adolescent Gynecology, M. Bulfin, Southern Medical Journal 72 (8):967-968, August 1979

Teenagers 17 years old or less were significantly more likely to have postabortion endometritis, cervical lacerations, or hemorrhage greater than 500ml. following abortion compared to women age 20-29.
Morbidity Risk Among Young Adolescents Undergoing Elective Abortion, R.T. Burkman, M.F. Atienza, T.M. King, Conmtraception 30 (2):99-195, Aug. 1984

There is increased risk of cervical injury during suction curettage abortions obtained by teenagers. These finding cause concern because cervical injury in initial unplanned pregnancies may predispose young women to adverse outcomes in future planned pregnancies.
The Risks Associated with Teenage Abortion, W. Cates, K. Schultz, D. Grimes, New England Journal of Medicine, 309 (11):612-624, September, 15, 1983

Women under 17 have been found to face twice the normal risk of suffering cervical damage due to the fact that their cervixes are still green and developing.
Schulz, et al., Measures to Prevent Cervical Injury During Suction Curettage Abortion, The Lancet (May 18, 1983) 1182-1184. Wadhera, Legal Abortion Among Teens, 1974-1978, Canadian Medical Association Journal (June 1980), vol. 122, 1386-1389

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