The Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Matt Blunt, an abortion opponent, has launched the state on a scientific quest to determine how abortions affect women — a question so complex that it confounded a U.S. surgeon general.

The Governor’s Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women convened last week in Blunt’s Capitol office without any of the publicity and promotion that usually accompanies groups on gubernatorial missions.

Its members — all opposed to abortion — were recruited not directly by Blunt’s staff, but rather by a pair of anti-abortion activists.

“This is a very informal group of good people who believe in advancing the cause of life and believe that we should minimize the impact of abortion on society,” Blunt said when asked about his new task force during a Capitol news conference called for a different purpose.

Lest there be any confusion: The effect of abortion is not a wide-open question to Blunt. There’s no likelihood, for example, that his new task force will conclude abortion is positive.

“I certainly would begin with the presumption that abortion has a negative impact on Missouri children, Missouri women, Missouri men, because it’s harmful to society,” Blunt said.

With that framework, the task force still intends to hunt for “truthful, honest information” from researchers, said Cindy Province, a co-founder of the Center for Bioethics and Culture-Missouri, who was asked by Blunt’s chief of staff to help enlist task force members.

“We’re trying to get good evidence about the effect of abortion on women and make decisions about what the state can do to help women who find themselves in the situation of an unplanned pregnancy,” said Province, a nurse at St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond Heights.

The group is examining the physical, emotional, social and economic effects of abortion, she said.

The task force was conceived by John McCastle, president of Alliance for Life-Missouri, who recruited many of the group’s members.

Among the questions McCastle poses: Does abortion lead to crime?

McCastle draws that question from unspecified studies, which he says suggest an overwhelming majority of women prisoners have had abortions.

But people in prison typically have numerous problems. Determining whether abortion is a cause, rather than an effect, could be challenging.

In July 1987, President Reagan directed Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to prepare a comprehensive report on the health effects of abortion on women. Eighteen months later, Koop said it was impossible to do so.