Women who have an abortion face a small
increase in the risk of developing common mental health problems
such as depression and anxiety, according to a new
study from New Zealand.
But the researchers, writing in the December
issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, say their
findings point to a “middle-of-the-road” position on abortion - and
do not support either the strong pro-life or pro-choice
arguments.
Researchers from the University of Otago
studied the pregnancy and mental health history of over 500 women
born in Christchurch, a city in South Island.
The women were interviewed six times between
the ages of 15 and 30. At each assessment, the women were asked
whether they had been pregnant and, if so, what the outcome of that
pregnancy had been. The women were asked whether the pregnancy was
wanted or unwanted, and if this had caused them to be upset or
distressed.
The women were also given a mental health
assessment during each interview, to see if they met the diagnostic
criteria for major depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol
dependence and illicit drug dependence. The researchers took other
confounding factors which might be associated with increased risks
of various pregnancy or mental health outcomes into account.
Overall, 284 women reported a total of 686
pregnancies before the age of 30. These included: 153 abortions
(occurring to 117 women), 138 pregnancy losses (including
miscarriage, stillbirth and termination of ectopic pregnancy), 66
live births that resulted from an unwanted pregnancy (or one that
provoked an adverse reaction), and 329 live births resulting from a
wanted pregnancy (where there was no reported adverse
reaction).
The study found that women who had had
abortions had rates of mental health problems that were about 30%
higher than other women. The conditions most associated with
abortion included anxiety disorders and substance use disorders. In
contrast, none of the other pregnancy outcomes were consistently
related to significantly increased risks of mental health
problems.
However, the overall affects of abortion on
mental health were found to be small. The researchers estimated
that exposure to abortion accounted for between 1.5% and 5.5% of
the overall rate of mental disorders in this group of women.
Professor David Fergusson, John Horwood and Dr
Joseph Boden said their study had “important implications for the
ongoing debates between pro-life and pro-choice advocates about the
mental health effects of abortion”.
Writing in the British Journal of
Psychiatry they said: “Specifically, the results do not
support strong pro-life positions that claim that abortion has
large and devastating effects on the mental health of women.
Neither do the results support any strong pro-choice positions that
imply that abortion is without any mental health effects.
“In general, the results lead to a middle-of-the-road
position that, for some women, abortion is likely to be a stressful
and traumatic life event which places those exposed to it at a
modestly increased risk of a range of common mental health
problems.”