Study proportionate

In a University of Otago study of over 500 women, researchers have found abortion “leads to significant distress in some” and that those reporting adverse reactions were up to 80 per cent more likely to have mental health problems. The study, reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found the risk of mental illness was “proportional to the degree of distress” associated with the abortion. Professor David Fergusson, of the department of Psychological Medicine, and his team, studied data from women who had been interviewed six times between the ages of 15 and 30, each time being asked whether they had been pregnant and, if so, what the outcome of that pregnancy had been. More than 85 per cent of women reported a least one negative emotional reaction, including sorrow, sadness, guilt, regret, grief and disappointment. A similar number reported at least one positive reaction, including relief, happiness and satisfaction. It said the findings were “not consistent with strong pro life positions that depict unwanted pregnancy terminated by abortion as having devastating consequences for women’s mental health” nor did they “support strong pro-choice positions that claim unwanted pregnancy terminated by abortion is without mental health risks.”