(LifeSiteNews) — A new study found that 7 million U.S. women suffer severe post-abortion emotional distress, refuting earlier studies and challenging the factual basis for “therapeutic abortion.”
The study, titled “Persistent Emotional Distress after Abortion in the United States,” was authored by Dr. Paul Sullins with the support of the Ruth Institute and the Catholic University of America.
Sullins found that almost half of post-abortive women reported moderate (20.7%) to high (24.1%) post-abortion distress (PAD) related to their abortion(s), including “frequent feelings of loss, grief or sadness” (31.2%) and “frequent thoughts, dreams, or flashbacks” (24.6%).
“After 20 years, most women are not troubled by a past abortion and still agree with their decision, but a significant minority doubt their decision and remain highly distressed by having had an abortion,” the study concludes.
The findings explicitly refute the often-cited “Turnaway Study” claim, based on a non-representative clinic sample, that any post-abortion distress a woman may have is mild and disappears after about two years.
In fact, “women with long-ago abortions were just as likely to be distressed as were women with recent abortions. Like a traumatic event such as sexual abuse, for some women distress did not manifest until later, and for many persisted, even grew, often for decades,” Sullins told LifeSiteNews via email. “Distressed post-abortive women expressed several of the clinical indicators of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS).”
The study also challenges the factual basis for “therapeutic abortion” — the claim that abortion typically improves the mental health of women with problem pregnancies — which is the basis for thinking of the practice as a form of health care, and for its legal justification in many jurisdictions.
The study further concludes:
The health care of this population of women is understudied and underserved. Research is needed to better understand the risk factors for long- term emotional distress following an abortion and to develop effective therapeutic interventions. Women considering an abortion should be informed of the possibility that they may experience persistent emotional distress.
Interestingly, a recent study conducted in Canada by pro-abortion doctors similarly found long-term reductions in mental health after abortion.
The Canadian study, titled “Induced abortion and implications for long-term mental health: a cohort study of 1.2 million pregnancies,” stated, “Risks were greatest among patients with preexisting mental health disorders and patients younger than 25 years. Risk of mental health hospitalization was most prominent within five years of abortion and decreased with time.”
The authors declined to identify a causal link between abortion and long-term mental health; they did suggest the possibility that abortion may be a marker of an increased lifetime risk of mental disorders.
Sullins utilized data originally conducted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which surveyed U.S. women in their 40s after they had had all of their children and any abortions.
