American Psychological Association reports on abortion

A major study from an influential American body finds abortion does not cause women to have mental health problems.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has issued findings from a comprehensive two-year review of published research on abortion and mental health. The APA concluded that there is ‘no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women’.

The APA evaluated studies in peer-reviewed journals since 1989. They found that some studies indicate that some women experience sadness, grief and feelings of loss following an abortion, and some may experience ‘clinically significant disorders, including depression and anxiety.’ However, the task force found ‘no evidence sufficient to support the claim that an observed association between abortion history and mental health was caused by the abortion per se, as opposed to other factors.’

The report noted that other co-occurring risk factors, including poverty, prior exposure to violence, a history of emotional problems, a history of drug or alcohol use, and prior unwanted births predispose women to experience both unwanted pregnancies and mental health problems after a pregnancy, irrespective of how the pregnancy is resolved.

According to the report, women terminating a wanted pregnancy, who perceived pressure from others to terminate their pregnancy, or who perceived a need to keep their abortion secret from their family and friends because of stigma associated with abortion, were more likely to experience negative psychological reactions following abortion.

The task force’s conclusions are consistent with the conclusions of a similar APA review published prior to 1989. Results of that review were published in Science in 1990 and in the American Psychologist in 1992.

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of BPAS, which provided 55,000 abortions in 2007, said of the APA’s 2008 review:

‘The long-term psychological effects of abortion have been studied repeatedly since the legalisation of abortion in Britain and the United States. Abortion research is highly politicised but large, high-quality studies consistently show that having an abortion does not result in psychological damage. 

‘Psychological research is often cited by groups who oppose the availability of legal abortion. Abortion disrupts their view of the “natural” role of women as childbearers and mothers, so these groups strongly believe that abortion can only impact detrimentally on women’s psychological wellbeing. But far from being a traumatic aberration, abortion is among the commonest medical interventions that women have.

‘One in three women in the UK has an abortion before the age of 45. There has not been a mass epidemic of abortion-induced mental illness resulting from this. No woman ever wants to need an abortion, but for many, it is the solution to the very serious problem of an unintended pregnancy which they feel completely unable to cope with.’

APA task force finds single abortion not a threat to women’s mental health: Calls for better-designed future research. APA press release, 12 August 2008

Report of the APA Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion. American Psychological Association, 13 August 2008 [.pdf]

Major study from influential American body finds abortion does not cause women to have mental health problems. BPAS press release, 18 August 2008