Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Women Cope with Delivery of Unplanned
            Pregnancy Better than Abortion

Springfield,IL (September 1, 2011) – Women who have abortions
are 81 percent more likely to experience subsequent mental health
problems, according to a new study published byBritain’s Royal
College of Psychiatrists
"http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/199/3/180.abstract" .

The greatest increases were seen in relation to suicidal
behaviors and substance abuse. The meta-analysis examined and
combined results of 22 studies published between 1995 and 2009
and included data on 877,181 women from six countries.   All 22
studies revealed higher rates of mental health problems
associated with abortion for at least one symptom, and many for
more than one symptom.

Using a standardized statistical technique for combining the
results of multiple studies, the meta-analysis revealed that
women with a history of abortion face higher rates of anxiety (34
percent higher) and depression (37 percent higher), heavier
alcohol use (110 percent higher) and marijuana use (230 percent
higher), and higher rates of suicidal behavior (155 percent
higher).

The study also found that women who delivered an unplanned
pregnancy were significantly less likely to have mental health
problems than similar women who aborted unplanned pregnancies. 
Women with a history of abortion were 55 percent more likely to
have mental health problems than women who did not abort an
unplanned pregnancy.

The meta-analysis was conducted by Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a
research psychologist at Bowling GreenStateUniversityinOhio.
Coleman is the most published researcher in the field of
abortion and mental health.

A statistical estimate of the overall population attributable
risk revealed that up to 10 percent of mental health problems
among women might be attributable to abortion.

According to Dr. David Reardon, who has published more than a
dozen studies investigating abortion’s impact on women and is
the director of the Elliot Institute, publication of this
quantitative meta-analysis is long overdue.

“This is the first objective comparison of all the major
studies,” Reardon said.  “The tables demonstrate that when
you put the results of all these various studies side by side in
a standardized way, there is a remarkable consistency in the
trend of findings. Despite the differences in study design, which
have different strengths and weaknesses, the studies are all
consistently pointing in the same direction.”

According to London's The Daily Mail, "[P]ublication in the
peer-reviewed British journal is a signal that the psychiatric
establishment is now taking seriously the possibility that
abortion is a cause of anxiety, depression, alcoholism, drug
abuse and suicide."

Read more "http://afterabortion.org/?p=6146"

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Source: Coleman PK. Abortion and mental health: quantitative
synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009. The
British Journal of Psychiatry
"http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/199/3/180.abstract"  (2011) 199,
180–186.

Elliot Institute, PO Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791, United States