“Women whose first pregnancy ends in induced abortion are significantly more likely than women whose first pregnancy ends in a live birth to experience mental health problems throughout their reproductive years”, a new study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute has concluded.

Lead author James Studnicki said that the study, published in the International Journal of Women’s Health, refutes the narrative that limits on abortion protect women from “mental health harms… An extensive body of international, peer-reviewed science [is] showing the opposite – abortion itself has a significant negative impact on several measures of mental health.”

Concluding in 2015, the sample of over 4,800 women in the United States, across a 17-year observation period, was taken from continuously eligible Medicaid beneficiaries who were aged 16 in 1999; each participant was sorted into one of two cohorts based on the outcome of their first pregnancy, a live birth (3,517) or an abortion (1,331).

The study, “A Cohort Study of Mental Health Services Utilization Following a First Pregnancy Abortion or Birth”, focused on pre- and post-pregnancy outcomes in terms of mental health, specifically outpatient visits and inpatient hospital admissions, including time spent as an inpatient in the latter case.

The study found that – compared to women whose first pregnancy outcome was a live birth – women who had abortions were 3.4x more likely to experience an increase in outpatient visits, 5.7x more likely to have an increase in inpatient admissions – as well as 19.6x more likely to have an increase in days spent in admission.

“Thus, there is a very large risk and likelihood of extended stays for psychiatric admissions following induced abortion”, the authors of the study determined.

“The average length of stay for the patients actually admitted from each cohort provides a vivid insight. Prior to the first pregnancy, abortion cohort women admitted to the hospital experienced an average LOS of 16.8 days compared to 19.0 days for the birth cohort. In the post-pregnancy outcome period, the abortion cohort LOS nearly doubled from 16.8 to 32.6. The birth cohort LOS actually decreased from 19.0 to 16.8.”

Harmful impact of abortion “is clear”, says researcher

While the study did “not allow conclusions regarding any specific mental health illness, disorder or problem”, the authors forwarded one “plausible interpretation of a stronger association of a history of abortion with inpatient rather than outpatient services” – “that hospitalization is a proxy measure of the severity of illness and that, therefore, abortion is a stronger influence on the severity of mental illness than it is on the incidence of mental illness”.

Referring to the “important finding” that “women who have a birth in their first pregnancy have uniformly higher rates of mental health services utilization prior to that first outcome than women who abort the first pregnancy”, the authors noted that this “challenges the explanation that pre-existing mental health history explains mental health problems following abortion, rather than the abortion itself”.

Tessa Longbons, a co-author of the study, said: “The evidence is clear that abortion of a first pregnancy is associated with substantial mental health harms to women. Women have a right to know this and to understand the extent of these harms before they make such a life-changing decision.”

“Women deserve to know the truth about abortion”

SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “There is a growing academic literature showing the terrible impact that abortion has on women, a truth that the abortion industry and its apologists have for years sought to cover up.

“This study follows another recent report, also from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which found that 87% of women who had abortions in the United States experienced some manner of pressure, personal and/or circumstantial, to have an abortion and consequently experienced negative mental health outcomes, as reported by SPUC.

“Women deserve to know the truth about abortion. While the abortion industry claims to promote ‘informed’ consent, such studies as these are often ignored, their conclusions struck off as inconvenient truths that get in the way of aborting yet more unborn babies.

“SPUC is bringing this information to its supporters, and to the UK generally, smashing the lie that abortion is good for women.”

Abortion and Women’s Health

Abortion and Women’s Health is an updated review of the current literature on the impact of abortion on women’s mental and physical health.

The review has been written to inform medical practitioners of the issues which need to be raised with women seeking an abortion and to help assess the possible consequences for women.

To order a free copy, please visit our dedicated webpage, Abortion and Women’s Health