Study claims abortion causes long-term distress

An abortion can cause five years of mental anguish, anxiety, guilt and even shame, a BMC Medicine study has claimed.

University of Oslo researchers compared 40 women who had had a miscarriage with 80 who had an abortion. Miscarriage was associated with more mental distress in the six months following the event, but abortion, it was claimed, had a longer lasting negative effect. The Oslo team found that, after 10 days, 47.5% of women who had miscarried suffered from some degree of mental distress compared with 30% of the abortion group. The proportion of women who had a miscarriage suffering distress decreased during the study period, to 22.5% at six months and to 2.6% at two years and five years. Among the abortion group, claimed the team, 25.7% were still experiencing distress after six months, and 20% at five years.

The researchers said their work underlined the importance of giving women information about the psychological effects of losing a baby - either through miscarriage or abortion. Anna Pringle, from the anti-abortion charity Life, said: ‘This confirms years of experience with women who come to us for counselling after abortion. The emotional suffering can be massive.’

A spokeswoman for fpa said: ‘There is no evidence to suggest that abortion directly causes psychological trauma. Women can experience mixed feelings after an abortion such as relief or sadness. These are natural reactions and few women experience long-term problems.’ A spokeswoman for bpas said most women weighed up the consequences fully before opting for an abortion. ‘We don’t see that many women for post-abortion counselling. We offer that service but women very rarely come back because they are able to cope with it by themselves.’

Abortion ‘leaves mental legacy’ BBC, 12 December 2005
The course of mental health after miscarriage and induced abortion: a longitudinal, five-year follow-up study Broen AN, Moum T, Bodtker AS, Ekeberg O. BMC Med. 2005 Dec 12;3:18.