Abortion Causes Mental Health Problems for Women

Pro Abortion advocates want to include mental health as one of the criteria for health of the mother exemptions included in any bills restricting abortion. Their assumption is a woman carrying a child to term will suffer increased mental problems if the child is unplanned. A study in New Zealand has demonstrated quite the opposite.

Abortion destroys the psychological health of teenage girls. This is the finding of a large new study that has statistics on this point so dramatic that even pro-lifers may have trouble believing them. The pro-abortion lead author of the study, Prof. David Fergusson of Christchurch School of Medicine & Health Sciences in Christchurch, New Zealand, told Australia's ABC news, in summary, that abortion causes mental health problems, not the other way around, and women's backgrounds had nothing to do with it.

Depression, anxiety and other negative effects occurred after the abortions, the researchers said. These are not cases of depressed, drug-addicted or otherwise disturbed women being more likely to abort their children—the abortions preceded the disturbances.

In this study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Fergusson and his two collaborators found that girls 15 to 18 who had not gotten pregnant had a 31.2% chance of experiencing major depression. Those who became pregnant but did not have an abortion had a 35.7% chance. But those who had an abortion had an astonishing 78.6% chance.

For anxiety, the statistics were similar. No pregnancy: 37.9%; pregnancy, no abortion: 35.7%; abortion: 64.3%.

And for ideas of suicide, a horrific mark of mental illness, the figures should be enough to convince anyone who cares about young women to desire a ban on abortion for minors. No pregnancy: 23%; pregnancy, no abortion: 25%; abortion: 50%.

The shift in public opinion is toward the prolife view. This is mainly because as women who have had abortions mature and come to terms with the reality of what abortion is, they are wanting to prevent other women from experiencing the same struggle they have had.

This study demonstrates clearly the fallacy of the health exception sought by the abortion advocates. If they truly care for the mental health of pregnant women they will take this study to heart and press for more open dissemination of information on the risks of abortion. Unfortunately the truth is the first casualty when it comes to abortion.