FACT BRIEF

Does research conclusively show that having an abortion increases risk to a woman's mental health?

Friday, October 16, 2020

By Claudine Ng

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According to a 2018 literature review, abortion is continuously associated with "elevated rates of mental illness." But it's impossible to determine whether an abortion (rather than other factors like poverty or intimate-partner violence) directly caused a given mental-health disorder.

A 2008 meta-analysis conducted by the American Psychological Association "reviewed no evidence sufficient to support the claim that an observed association between abortion history and mental health was caused by the abortion per se, as opposed to other factors."

A 2011 meta-analysis from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges found women with unwanted pregnancies experienced similar mental-health distress whether they had an abortion or gave birth.

One study showed women denied abortion procedures had higher levels of anxiety and lower self-esteem than women who had abortions.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

National Library of Medicine: SAGE Open Medicine—The abortion and mental health controversy, a comprehensive literature review

American Psychological Association: Report of the APA Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges: Induced abortion and mental health

JAMA Psychiatry: Women's mental health and well-being five years after receiving or being denied an abortion

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