A new study has found that women who are not allowed to have abortions are at greater risk of developing mental health issues, compared to the ones who are allowed. Furthermore, no mental risk has been associated with women who go through with the procedures, compared to their counterpart.
The longitudinal research suggests that women's mental health can be related to abortions only when they are not allowed to have them.
Women Who Had Abortions, Less Prone To Mental Issues
As part of the study, researchers monitored roughly 1,000 women, both allowed and not allowed to have abortions. The women were registered to 30 different medical facilities from 21 states across the United States.
Within the five years of monitoring, 273 of them had abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy, 413 had abortions within two weeks of the gestational limit, and 231 were denied abortion because of being three weeks passed the limits imposed by the facilities.
The research, published Dec. 14 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, sheds new light on the idea of abortion regret, showing that the phenomenon is much rarer than previously thought.
The research divided the women into two groups — those who had abortions and those who didn't. The second group scored lower self esteem, reported anxiety and lower life satisfaction in the few months after being denied abortions.
The study also monitored both groups over a longer time span, suggesting that eventually both groups experience the same levels of mental health issues. The fact that women who do get abortions have a higher score of being dissatisfied long-term (over the five-year period) is no news for the scientific community.
However, the fact that women who do not have abortions experience the same issues, in addition to the short term ones, suggests that the effects of not having an abortions are inferior than the ones of having one.
Pregnancy Decisions Should Be The Result Of Scientific Information
"This research shows the information they are mandating women receive (is) inaccurate and out of date. We don't have evidence that abortion leads women to have worse mental health," noted Antonia Biggs, lead author of the study.
Additionally, information in the health care system should focus more on helping women make the right choice based on factual information rather than opinions on how abortions affect different aspects of their lives.
"Women considering abortion are best served by being provided with the most accurate, scientific information available to help them make their pregnancy decisions," noted the paper's authors.
