Abortion and Mental Health

A common claim from anti-choice activists is that abortion has a negative impact on women's mental health. It is surely true that some women regret abortions so much that they suffer from this - though it's hard to say how much of this is actually due to pressure from the anti-choice movement. A recent study, though, shows that abortion may make a women less likely to suffer from depression.

The Guardian reports (via Philobiblion):

Researchers can find “no credible evidence” to support the idea that termination poses a threat to a woman’s mental health. Indeed, women who do not have an abortion are more likely to have had less education and income and come from larger families, all risk factors for depression.

“This suggests that if the goal is to reduce women’s risk for depression, research should focus on how to prevent and ameliorate the effect of unwanted childbearing, particularly for younger women,” the researchers say in the online version of the British Medical Journal. ... “Some women who undergo abortion will also experience clinical levels of depression. However, other research has found pre-existing mental health is the more important predictor of mental health after pregnancy, regardless of how the pregnancy is resolved.”

These results won’t be much of a surprise to those who support the legalization of abortion. Criminalizing abortion, taking the ability to choose away from women, won’t protect them because it doesn’t allow them to take control of their lives and bodies. However traumatic abortion may be for some, the fact that they are making their own decisions about their own lives will only have a positive impact.

 

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• Abortion & Contraceptives News
• Bioethics