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Vincent Montgomery Rue is an American psychotherapist and advocate for government bans on abortion, as well as the founder and co-director (along with his wife, Susan Stanford-Rue, who is also a psychotherapist) of the now-inactive Institute for Pregnancy Loss. He says he has treated many women who have had painful abortion experiences, and who have wished that they had received more information before having their abortions.

Abortion and mental health

He is known for being one of the first to propose a link between abortion and mental health problems, which he dubbed post-abortion syndrome when testifying before Congress in the early 1980s. Post-abortion syndrome is not recognized by as a condition by the American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association. In 1987, Rue presented a paper titled "The Psychological Aftermath of Abortion: A White Paper"—to the then-surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, who rejected it. Since the 1980s, Rue has, along with fellow anti-abortion activists Priscilla K. Coleman and David Reardon, published a number of studies indicating that abortion increases women's risk of mental health problems, such as major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, though the Pro-Choice Action Network says that these studies only establish correlation, which does not necessarily prove a causal relationship. The Guttmacher Institute says that a study published by Rue et al. in the Journal of Psychiatric Research in 2009 included all mental health problems with which women were diagnosed over their entire lifetimes, thus negating the argument that these disorders were caused by having abortions.

Criticism

In 1992, Rue's testimony in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case was thrown out by a district judge, who concluded that it was not credible. In 2014, judge Myron Herbert Thompson criticized the state of Alabama for hiring Rue to defend anti-abortion legislation.

References

1. "Susan Stanford-Rue". The Nurturing Network Website. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
2. Chamberlain, Pam (Summer 2006). "Politicized Science: How Anti-Abortion Myths Feed the Christian Right Agenda". Public Eye Magazine. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
3. ^ Cowen, Dick (1 August 1990). "Witness Defends Abortion Law". The Morning Call. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
4. Siegel, Reva B. (2008). "The Right's Reasons: Constitutional Conflict and the Spread of Woman-Protective Antiabortion Argument" (PDF). Duke Law Journal. 57 (6): 1644–1692. PMID 19108356. Vincent Rue is credited with first invoking the concept of post-abortion trauma in congressional hearings and at antiabortion conferences in the early 1980s
5. Jordan, Beth; Wells, Elisa (March 2009). "A 21st-Century Trojan Horse: The "Abortion Harms Women" Anti-Choice Argument Disguises a Harmful Movement". Contraception. 79 (3): 161–164. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2008.11.008. PMID 19185666.
6. Erdreich, Sarah (12 August 2013). "Post Abortion-Syndrome: The Solution in Search of a Problem". Huffington Post. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
7. Reardon DC, Cougle JR, Rue VM, Shuping MW, Coleman PK, Ney PG (May 2003). "Psychiatric admissions of low-income women following abortion and childbirth". CMAJ. 168 (10): 1253–6. PMC 154179. PMID 12743066.
8. Arthur, Joyce (Autumn–Winter 2003). "Beware of Meaningless Studies by Anti-Choice Researchers". Pro-Choice Action Network. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
9. Coleman PK, Coyle CT, Shuping M, Rue VM (May 2009). "Induced abortion and anxiety, mood, and substance abuse disorders: isolating the effects of abortion in the national comorbidity survey". J Psychiatr Res. 43 (8): 770–6. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.10.009. PMID 19046750.
10. Dreweke, Jorge (5 March 2012). "Study Purporting to Show Link Between Abortion and Mental Health Problems Decisively Debunked". Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
11. Carmon, Irin (10 June 2014). "Who is Vincent Rue?". MSNBC. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
12. Redden, Molly (21 October 2014). "Judge Rips Alabama for Hiring a Discredited Abortion Foe". Mother Jones. Retrieved 22 October 2014.

• American anti-abortion activists
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro alumni
• Living people
• American psychotherapists