A new study with a very limited sample of women having abortions, just 69, has received considerable attention for supposedly disproving the plethora of peer-reviewed studies confirming women who have abortions face both depression and other mental health problems.
-- From "Teens' Mental Health Not Harmed by Abortion, Study Contends" by HealthDay News, posted at Bloomberg Businessweek 9/28/10
Both sides of the abortion debate have seized on recent research into the emotional effects of abortion. In the new study, researchers from Oregon State University and the University of California, San Francisco examined statistics from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Specifically, the researchers looked at responses from 269 adolescent girls who were in grades 7 to 12 from 1994-1995.
The researchers compared 69 pregnant teens who had an abortion to 220 pregnant teens who didn't have the procedure. For the study, the investigators used standard measures of depression and self-esteem, and looked at the participants' mental health before and during pregnancy, as well as one year and five years later.
The findings were released online in advance of publication in the December print issue of the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, published by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that monitors state abortion policies.
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From "The Complicated Link Between Abortion and Mental Health" by Belinda Luscombe, Time Magazine 9/27/10
This [new study] contradicts studies, some from pro-life organizations, that suggest that women do tend to have worse mental health after abortions. The Oregon folks suggest that this is because women who have a number of unintended pregnancies have worse mental health to begin with.
Using the data from the new study, the Guttmacher Institute, which is pro-choice, suggests that state laws requiring counseling about possible mental health repercussions after abortion might "jeopardize women's health by adding unnecessary anxiety and undermining women's right to informed consent."
The American Psychological Association argued . . . that there was no correlation between terminating a pregnancy early in the first trimester and mental illness in adults, but then did note that in studies conducted in Australia, New Zealand and Finland, some correlation had been found.
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From "Recent Studies Confirm Women Face Depression After Abortion, Other Problems" by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor 9/28/10
Other recent studies from the last two years provide nearly irrefutable evidence that abortion affects women in a myriad of ways -- making it so they face everything from depression and relationship problems to PTSD and elevated risks for abusing drugs or alcohol.
An August study published in the Journal of Pregnancy and involving 374 women who had abortions -- more than five times the number of women who appeared in the new study -- found women having high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms for women having both early and late abortions.
Approximately 52 percent of the early abortion group and 67 percent of the late term abortion group met the American Psychological Association's criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD).
A May 2010 study put out by researchers at the University of Manitoba in Canada found women who have had abortions are about four times more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol as those who carried their pregnancy to term. The authors confirmed a link between abortion and the substance abuse issues.
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