(Filed: 12/12/2005)
Women who have an abortion can suffer mental distress, anxiety, guilt and shame at least five years afterwards, researchers say today.
A study in Norway compared a group of 40 women who had suffered a miscarriage with 80 women who had an abortion, questioning them 10 days, six months, two years and five years after the event. Although women who had a miscarriage suffered more mental distress up to six months after losing their baby, women who had an abortion experienced more mental distress at the two- and five-year intervals.
The study, by the University of Oslo, published in the journal BMC Medicine, measured the extent of intrusive thoughts, feelings and flashbacks about the end of pregnancy. The researchers also assessed how much women avoided thinking or talking about the event.
They found that after 10 days 47.5 per cent of women who had miscarried suffered from mental distress compared with 30 per cent of the abortion group. The proportion of women who had a miscarriage suffering distress fell to 22.5 per cent at six months and 2.6 per cent at two years and five years. However, levels of distress remained high in the abortion group, falling to 25.7 per cent at six months and 18 per cent at two years but rising to 20 per cent at five years. The women in the abortion group also had high levels of anxiety, guilt, shame and relief.Anna Pringle, from the pro-life charity Life, said the research confirmed that abortion can cause "massive" emotional suffering. "We believe it is time that the Government acknowledges the fact that abortion carries with it psychological risks that can affect women long after the actual event," she said.
Richard Warren, from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said it showed the need for continuing counselling and the importance of family planning. But a spokesman for the Family Planning Association said: "There is no evidence to suggest that abortion directly causes psychological trauma.
"Women can experience mixed feelings after an abortion such as relief or sadness. These are natural reactions and few women experience long-term problems."
posted by Antioco Dascalon at 11:14 PM
4 Comments:
dec 12th is my b-day. yay
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interesting
you do realize that you have a polish husar in the logo?
interesting
According to a population study of women in California, abortion is a very prominent risk factor for suicide, which of course indicates depression. Since we can assume that not everyone who tries to commit suicide actually dies, it is safe to assume there is a much larger group of individuals who are depressed but not to the point of suicide.
http://clinmed.netprints.org/cgi/content/full/2001030003v1
First World Congress on Women's Mental Health
Berlin, March 27-31, 2001
ABSTRACT
Design: Record linkage study. State funded medical insurance records identifying all paid claims for abortion or delivery in 1989 were linked to the state death certificate registry.
Subjects: A population of 173,279 low income women eligible for state-funded medical insurance in California, United States, who had either an induced abortion or delivery in 1989.
Results: Aborting women who had no known live births were significantly more likely to die than women with no known history of abortion, and women with a history of both abortion and childbirth. The relative risk was highest when comparing low income women with only one known pregnancy outcome. Compared to women who delivered, those who aborted had a significantly higher age adjusted risk of dying from all causes (1.62), from suicide (2.54), and accidents (1.82), as well as a higher risk of dying from nonviolent causes (1.44). Higher suicide rates were most pronounced in the first four years. Notably, the average annual suicide rates per 100,000 in our sample, 3.0 for delivering women and 7.8 for aborting women, bracketed the national average suicide rate of 5.2 for women ages 15-44. The higher death rates were significant across an eight year period and over four of the six age groups examined.
Conclusions: The pattern of death rates associated with prior pregnancy outcomes among low income women of California are similar to the pattern previously observed among the general population of women in Finland. Moreover, the apparent beneficial effects of childbirth and/or the detrimental effects of pregnancy loss persist over many years. Abortion experience may operate as a causal factor in suicide, risk-taking, or unhealthy behaviors or it may be a marker for other stress factors that increase the likelihood of death. The results are discussed in context of related literature.
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