Abortion Not A Mental Health Risk But Unwanted Pregnancies Are, Studies Find

LONDON -- Abortion does not increase a woman's chance of developing mental health problems, according to a British health agency's review of dozens of studies worldwide over 20 years.

Among women with unwanted pregnancies, those who had abortions were no more likely to suffer from problems including anxiety or depression than women who gave birth, the analysis by the U.K.'s National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health found.

The research offers "reassuring news" that abortion does not cause mental health problems, but raises a warning that officials must address the problem of unwanted pregnancy, said Dr. Tim Kendall, the centre's director.

The report is likely to be met by skepticism by those opposed to the practice and believe that terminating a pregnancy can trigger depression or other mental illnesses.

Kendall said mental health problems seemed to be linked specifically to unwanted pregnancies rather than abortion.

About 11 to 12 percent of women in general suffer from mental health issues like anxiety or depression, but among women with unwanted pregnancies that figure rises to about one-third, he said. For women who later had an abortion, there did not appear to be any further increase in their rate of mental health problems.

"We should be looking at what it is about the unwanted pregnancy stage that is so problematic," he said. "We need to try to get those women help sooner so they're not put at greater risk."

Kendall and colleagues reviewed 44 studies conducted worldwide from 1990 to 2011 that included several million women with unwanted pregnancies from sources including national health systems and insurance databases.

They concluded the best predictor of whether women would have a psychiatric problem after an abortion was whether they had mental health issues before getting pregnant. Kendall said it was possible women with mental health problems after an unwanted pregnancy were at greater risk of getting pregnant or that an unwanted pregnancy worsened their mental health.

The review was released Friday by Britain's Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It was paid for by the U.K.'s department of health.

Dr. Kate Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement it was key that health care staff provide follow-up care to women vulnerable to mental health problems after they terminated their pregnancy. She was not connected to the review.

Guthrie said the group recently revised its own guidelines on abortion to highlight the need for health care workers to tell women about the "range of emotional responses" that might be experienced during and after an abortion.

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Comments

[Anne Rutherford]

03:10 PM on 12/12/2011

Having grown up in an era of young women who "went to their aunt's house to finish their school year" (code for sent to the maternity home), and as a young adult made some difficult decisions, the first option left women far more haunted than anything else. The Brits got it right in that study. Perhaps if someone were pushed into ending a pregnancy against their will, they suffered, but that is not true for those who examined all the options, took time to consider everything, and then made a decision.

[Kelly1977]

12:50 AM on 12/12/2011

I can personally relate to this story. My son was unplanned and it is stressful for me and his father sometimes.

However, you are NOT going to tell me that most women can kill a life (or cells, if you will) inside their bodies and never think about it again.

She may see a child on the street the same age as hers would have been...and wonder.

A friend might get pregnant and her mind will go back to her abortion.

Weighing the consequences of both, I would think that choosing to let a child live would cause less mental anguish.

[Madim]

07:47 AM on 12/12/2011

What consequences ? Did you take into consideration that having an unwanted child that you cannot afford to raise changes your whole life plan and leaves you undereducated and poor ? Did you take into consideration what kind of life that child gets to have ? Unwanted, unloved and probably abandoned to be raised in an orphanage or in foster homes, if it's lucky ?

Oh, the mental anguish of having an abortion and thinking about it sadly every once in a couple of years... really brings someone down, doesn't it ? It does, if it's a selfish creature with huge self confidence and responsibility problems.

So you are advocating protecting sane, responsible people from themselves ? Sounds a bit odd, doesn't it ? What god are you to know what's better for someone you never met and don't know anything about ?

[jessicadevyn]

12:15 PM on 12/12/2011

Most women who have had an abortion say it's the best decision they made. Not everyone wants to have children. One in five women never have children. It's more like one in four for women with advanced degrees. And it's rare that pregnancy is only ever a one shot deal. Most healthy women are fertile for decades so there's generally always time to make more.

[family trust]

09:53 PM on 12/11/2011

Make abortion a medical, rather than a political or religious decision, and the suffering would end. Let's support women. Why don't the protestors make themselves useful and spend their time visiting abandoned seniors in nursing homes. It is terrible to face an unwanted unplanned pregnancy. It is heartbreaking to face a chromosomal abnormality diagnosis or undergo an abortion for a medical reason. Google "termination for medical reason" and read the sad stories of some of the women who have faced abortion for medical reasons or imnotsorry.net. to read about how women have benefitted from having a choice.

[giftsthatpurr]

02:36 PM on 12/12/2011

F/F

[robzombie1017]

08:18 PM on 12/11/2011

This is so true-pregnancy is not a dream come true for many women. This is a private and personal choice and people need to bud out. If they really care about life they should be volunteering as foster parents.

[Madim]

07:48 AM on 12/12/2011

Quite right, although I would suggest they should volunteer to adopt, not just foster.

[synergie]

07:54 PM on 01/29/2012

They don't even need to go that far, how about just volunteering to provide support and care for pregnant women and new mothers?

[Michael Denise Warner]

07:16 PM on 12/11/2011

And MORE good news... Malicious sodomy performed on innocent children also has little or no mental effect on the perpetrators. So... enjoy enjoy!

(Seriously???)

[synergie]

10:45 PM on 12/11/2011

Yeah, because that's exactly the same thing as terminating a pregnancy. Idiot.

[synergie]

07:54 PM on 01/29/2012

Is that what you tell yourself to excuse your personal perversions? What an odd non sequitur.

[hughsie2]

05:31 PM on 12/11/2011

What about the women who want their babies but whose partner forces them to have an abortion because he doesn't want the responsibility? Abortion lets men off the hook and hurts women. It's barbaric. Birth control is the key. This is the choice.

[jbzee]

07:23 PM on 12/11/2011

Of course birth control is the key. But men cannot "force" women to have abortions simply by refusing to take responsibility for a child. If a woman wants a child she should be prepared to provide for it, not automatically assume that anyone she sleeps with will support a child. Just as women should not be forced to have children they do not want, neither should men be forced to support children they do not want to have born.

[synergie]

07:56 PM on 01/29/2012

If men wish to have control over the support of unwanted children, they have the right to keep their zippers zipped or to use condoms. Beyond that, they have no choices.

[MissAstrid]

12:30 AM on 12/12/2011

The pro-choice movement is just as much against women being coerced to have abortions as women being coerced to carry their pregnancies.

"Abortion lets men off the hook and hurts women." This may be the case sometimes, but the majority of the time, women want the abortion too.

[jbzee]

08:01 AM on 12/12/2011

Absolutely. In the early days of the pro-choice movement about half the signs at protest marches said "No forced abortions." People always bring up these rare "what about" and "what if" examples to discredit the needs of the majority. Hughsie 2 seems to forget that men who coerce women into abortion would (and have) coerced them into illegal abortions. That's what harms women, not legal abortions. But I stand by what I say about men needing a choice too. Women who want children, if having sex with a man who does not want children, should either use multiple forms of birth control or be prepared to provide for a child by themselves.

[silverfawn]

02:01 PM on 12/11/2011

Life and living is full of risk. Choosing to have a baby certainly is fraught with risk. Anything worth having is worth risk.

[pennycartoon335]

10:16 AM on 12/11/2011

Are we reading the same article? The study showed that it wasn't the abortion that cause the mental health issues but the "unwanted pregnancy stage". It says nothing about the mental health issues being cause by raising the unwanted baby just the "unwanted pregnancy stage" which weather you choose an abortion or have the baby you will be experiancing and which the article is stating is the risk they need to catch early and treat. It's doesn't state or imply that this study results are otherwise besides and "unwanted pregnancy stage". Nothing mentioned or alluded to raising an unwanted infant. Read it again....nope still nothing about raising a baby anywhere in this article. Some of you are arguing a point about this study that doesn't involve this study at all. Weird. Either way I hope any woman who has found herself in a position of having an unwanted pregnancy no matter if her decision is aborton, adoption, or keeping the resulting child is blessed with the knowledge that they made the right decision for themselves and thier future and has continued to have peace with her result.

[Shouterguy]

02:13 PM on 12/10/2011

"Abortion Not A Mental Health Risk But Unwanted Pregnancies Are, Studies Find."

No. that is not what the study allegedly concluded.

The study concluded that there was allegedly no greater trauma from abortion than from a full-term unwanted pregnancy. One can agree or disagree with the conclusions of the report, but one cannot conclude that: "Abortion Not A Mental Health Risk But Unwanted Pregnancies Are, Studies Find."

Intellectual dishonesty is not constructive or persuasive.

[Rubberfish]

09:06 PM on 12/10/2011

I disagree. If you look at how many women suffer from mental issues in general (11-12%), the number rises to a full third (33%) if they have an unwanted pregnancy but stays about the same if they have an abortion. That's a pretty big difference.

[spike91nz]

11:55 PM on 12/10/2011

The determine factors for a woman having any reported adverse effects to an abortion are:

1) Perceptions of stigma, need for secrecy, and low or anticipated social support for the abortion decision

2) A prior history of mental health problems

3) Personality factors such as low self-esteem and use of avoidance and denial coping strategies

4) Characteristics of the particular pregnancy, including the extent to which the woman wanted and felt committed to it.

Three of these factors may well be entangled with religious aspects of the individual reporting. There is clear implication that those who would stigmatize abortion for political/religious reasons make it more likely that the experience will have negative emotional consequences in people who are already emotionally vulnerable. In this sense it is a self fulfilling assumption. When comparing it in countries without the stigma, the effects upon the women appear to be far less than having an unwanted child.

Asserting the necessity of "trauma" denies the right of the woman to determine, for herself, how she feels about the experience and imposes your beliefs upon her regardless of what she reports as her personal experience. What is clear is that if religion stays out of the process, and does not stigmatize abortion, then there will be a reduction in "trauma" experienced.

[Shouterguy]

06:26 PM on 12/11/2011

You seem to be going to enormous lengths, making huge logical contortions and displaying...creative assumptions to disprove plain facts.

Why is that?

[meganmarieborn]

12:50 PM on 12/10/2011

I'm not religious and I do believe that women should have the right to decide. She's the one who will have to live with her decision for the rest of her life. In some situations, having an abortion is better than bringing a baby into an abusive household, an unstable household, or a situation where finances are lacking. However, we are in a day and age where are there are so many resources available to women. Planned Parenthood offers birth control for free if you can't afford it, as well as teaches about birth control methods and teaches safe sex methods. I know that birth control isn't fool proof, but taken correctly, it has a pretty high success rate. And besides, the Duggars have had enough babies to go around.

[Shouterguy]

02:15 PM on 12/10/2011

I agree.

Abortion is lousy birth control.

[synergie]

10:57 PM on 12/11/2011

Abortion is the birth control of last resort, it's not the regular method you seem to believe it is.

[linja]

10:01 PM on 12/10/2011

A number of popular birth control methods have failure rates between 8 and 16 percent. Not very high. And birth control has made very little progress since the 1960's. I had a friend who had 4 children, each the result of the failure of a different birth control method. Some people are just very fertile!

[meganmarieborn]

03:51 AM on 12/11/2011

I know birth control isn't perfect. I was just saying that abortions should be a drastic measure and shouldn't be used as a form of birth control. Birth control, if taken correctly, does have a high success rate; not in all cases, but in most.

[Brigette]

01:44 AM on 12/10/2011

Life is much easier than we give it credit for, but so hard to actually do. If you think something is wrong,don't do it. If you do, you will surely suffer. If you think something is right, go ahead and do it. Don't presume what other people think is right or wrong. Done.

[Kelly1977]

12:53 AM on 12/12/2011

So, if a mentally ill person thinks murder is ok, go for it? Some things in live are objectively wrong, however subjective people try to make truth these days.

[jessicadevyn]

11:56 AM on 12/12/2011

Women who get abortions are at a stage that the only way you could prove that they are pregnant w

[jessicadevyn]

11:58 AM on 12/12/2011

would be to give them a blood or urine test. Most also get abortions before 12 weeks. Most women don't even announce that they are pregnant before 12 weeks due to miscarriage being so common at this time. It's their business, not yours.

[joeyfoto]

11:29 PM on 12/09/2011

Life begins at conception. Everyone knows that.
That's why we all agree that a fertilized egg is a chicken.

[Rubberfish]

09:07 PM on 12/10/2011

So, does that make me a chicken-killer if I take those eggs away from the poor, unsuspecting hens?

[joeyfoto]

10:00 PM on 12/10/2011

No. It makes you an egg-thief.

[jbzee]

07:19 PM on 12/11/2011

No, everyone does NOT "know" that. Some people "believe" that, usually at the behest of some undereducated "pastor."

[joeyfoto]

12:11 PM on 12/12/2011

I'm confused. Did you read my post?
What are you saying?

[Geri Kiefer]

06:18 PM on 12/09/2011

How about taking the religion out of the discussion and proceeding on a strictly scientific basis? Why does your religion dictate my life? I understand and applaud that a devout christian is ruled by his/her religion. I am not a christian, so why should the christian right make decisions for me? You don't believe in abortion? Don't have one. You don't believe in family aid? Don't apply for it. You don't believe in reproductive rights? Let your spiritual leader decide for you. You don't believe in sex outside of marriage? Don't have sex. But your beliefs should control my life, why????

[happytoserve]

09:08 PM on 12/09/2011

Yes, let's take religion out of the equation. I look at it scientifically, like natural law.Natural law makes a species want to continue and it also makes one or more of the parents protective and nurturing. I don't find the above article "reassuring news" at all. I would think if one goes against natural law, that there would be a reason or a repercussion. To make life itself so disposable, is why society today is facing the repercussion.

[SallyStrange]

09:39 PM on 12/09/2011

No, you don't look at it scientifically. If you were looking at it scientifically, you'd realize that "natural law" is an archaic and essentially meaningless term.

In nature, pregnant rabbits spontaneously abort when food is scarce. In nature, mother polar bears sometimes eat their cubs, again, if food is scarce. In nature, father lions eat their cubs if they feel threatened by them. There is no overarching "law of nature" when it comes to abortions, but if there were, it would clearly indicate that the already existing mother is worth more than the fetus she carries, or even the infant she has already born. Speaking purely in terms of evolutionary potential, that is. The mother is more likely to survive because she is ambulatory and can feed herself; logically then, mothers who prioritize their survival over their offspring's, if the choice is that stark, are more likely to survive than the offspring would be.

[Geri Kiefer]

10:16 PM on 12/09/2011

"Natural law" is a meaningless term. Particularly in this area. Scientifically, in times of natural crisis many animals will spontaneously abort or kill their young. Males of many species will kill the offspring of other males in order to mate. Gorillas come to mind for that. My question is: why is the fetus a woman carries in her body more important than the woman? One can go around and around in circles on the subject, but it comes down to who makes the choice? Some minister in an Arkansas fundamentalist church or a woman whose life is going to be irrevocably changed? How does that saying go? Oh yes, if you can't trust a woman to make a decision about her own body, how can you trust her to raise a child? At what point do we women get to make our own choices without men of "faith" (not our own) telling us? Isn't life disposable when we send our men and women to war?

[giftsthatpurr]

02:59 PM on 12/12/2011

F/F

[EdCorey1971]

04:22 PM on 12/09/2011

I hope all of you ladies have a good weekend. Try to relax...some of you guys are wound too tight. Do some woosha breathing and pick it back up on Monday. Try to stay away from the negative talk for one weekend. Don't be up at 2:30am in the morning arguing with strangers. LOL

[jessicadevyn]

05:04 PM on 12/09/2011

Anyone who calls women "ladies" has issues. Good luck to you, you will need it.

[SallyStrange]

09:40 PM on 12/09/2011

The way he says "you ladies" over and over again is creepy. It's like constantly referring to a group of African-Americans as "you people." Obviously a bigot.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

10:08 AM on 12/10/2011

I don't have a problem with the phrase ladies, just his logic.

But guys like him who feel they're getting trapped, can just have sex in the rear, and no baby will come as a result. They like it that better, anyway. And the times they have it the regular way they can just use a condom.

I got news for him, it's not that easy to get pregnant. It has to be a particular week during the month, and you probably have to do it more than once. Plus, the guy can pull out, do things to avoid a pregnancy. He just wants his cake and eat it too, to do whatever, whenever.

[Nulligravida]

06:19 PM on 12/09/2011

" 2:30am in the morning "

As opposed to 2:30am in the afternoon? *LOL*

[barondarby]

04:16 PM on 12/09/2011

have you mods gone home for the day? there hasn't been a new comment shown for two hours...