Terminating a pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of drug or alcohol abuse in the five years following an abortion, according to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The study is the latest in a series of articles that refute anti-choice lies. Abortion clinics in Ohio, Indiana, and numerous other states.
Abortion Doesn’t Cause Alcohol or Drug Abuse
The study gathered data from the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal project following 956 women who sought abortions at 30 clinics. Participants were women who were either just below the clinic’s limit for abortions or just beyond it. So some received abortions, while others were denied abortions. This suggests that other characteristics of the women were similar.
Before the study, there were no differences between the women in their use or abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. In the five years following the study, women who had abortions were no more likely than women who didn’t have abortions to abuse drugs, tobacco, or alcohol.
Women denied abortions increased their use of alcohol more rapidly than those who had abortions. Women who were denied abortions had slight reductions in their use of alcohol, but not of tobacco or drugs. This, researchers argue, is compelling evidence that abortion is not linked to alcohol, drug, or tobacco abuse.
Disputing Anti-Choice Lies
Other research also refutes the notion that abortion harms women. In some cases, studies have even found that abortion saves lives. Highlights of recent research include:
- Abortion is safe and anti-choice laws endanger women.
- Abortion stigma harms women’s health and well-being; that the “Mexico City Policy,” which bans.
- Abortion doesn’t cause mental health problems, but being denied an abortion does.
- Women denied abortions are more likely to stay in abusive relationships.
- Greater abortion access, fewer abortion restrictions, and allowing midwives to perform abortions can save thousands of women’s lives.
The growing avalanche of research showing that legal abortion is safe and potentially life-saving makes clear that anti-choice advocacy has never been about saving lives. It’s about punishing women who have abortions. Anti-choicers view motherhood as a penalty, which is probably why they oppose measures—a greater safety net, better health care, housing support, domestic violence shelter funding—that would make motherhood more bearable for women who seek abortions.