Yet another study has confirmed that abortion does not harm women’s mental health. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, may be the final nail in the coffin for so-called post-abortion syndrome. Although study participants who underwent abortions did not suffer worsening mental health, one group of study participants did experience mental health problems: women denied abortions.
JAMA Study Finds No Negative Mental Health Effects Associated With Abortion
The study relied on data from the Turnaway Study, an ongoing project that follows women denied abortions. Researchers followed 956 women who sought abortions at 30 abortion clinics across 21 states.
Researchers conducted phone interviews with participants one week after seeking an abortion, then twice annually for five years. The interviews gathered data on the women’s abortion histories, as well as gestational age when the women sought abortions. Each interview included questions about the women’s mental health.
The study’s authors compared mental health outcomes of women who received abortions near the legal age limit to women who were denied abortions because their pregnancies were too far along. The second group, the so-called “turnaway group” included both women who ultimately gave birth and women who did not.
The study found that women who had abortions did not suffer from mental health issues more frequently than women who did not. Women who were denied abortions, however, were more likely to suffer from a host of mental health and socioeconomic issues, including low self-esteem, anxiety, and general dissatisfaction with their lives.
“We found no evidence that women who have abortions risk developing depression, anxiety or low self-esteem as a result of the abortion, either immediately following, or for up to five years after the abortion,” said M. Antonia Biggs, in a statement. Biggs is a social psychologist at the University of California, and a lead author on the study.
More Research Supporting the Need for Safe, Legal Abortions
Numerous other studies have reached similar conclusions. An earlier review of the Turnaway Study found that women denied abortions were more likely to remain with abusive partners, live in poverty, use welfare, experience pregnancy complications, and experience mental health problems. Denying women the right to have abortions, it seems, does not make them desire a pregnancy, and does not force them to enjoy motherhood.
Conservative anti-choice groups have long claimed that women suffer post-abortion trauma, a PTSD-like condition, after undergoing abortions. The American Psychological Association says that there is no evidence supporting post-abortion mental health difficulties. Clearly anti-choice claims that millions of women suffer after their abortions are designed to frighten—not protect—women seeking abortions.
State Legislatures Continue Forcing Doctors to Lie About Abortion
Despite the overwhelming evidence that abortion benefits women’s health more often than it produces harm, state legislatures continue to force doctors to lie to women about the aftereffects of abortion. Texas’s Woman’s Right to Know booklet embarks on an impressive disinformation campaign, claiming that abortion is linked to substance abuse, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, sexual dysfunction, and flashbacks.
The research is clear: women are much more likely to experience these symptoms when they are denied abortions. But conservative attempts to deny women abortions have never been, and will never be, about women’s well-being.