(CNN) It’s an unfounded message that experts say is repeated again: Having an abortion can harm a woman’s mental health, perhaps for years.
“There is so much misinformation, so many myths about abortion. Abortion will lead to substance abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts; abortion is bad for your health; every woman will regret it,” said social psychologist Brenda Major , distinguished professor emeritus. in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
In reality, decades of research have shown “the vast majority of women feel they have made the right choice, and do not experience regret,” said Major, who led the American Psychological Association’s task force. of 2008 exploring the science of abortion and mental health. .
Women who had an abortion in the first trimester were not more likely to have mental health problems than women who continued with an unplanned pregnancy, the APA review concluded.
A large, long-term study, called The Turnaway Study, tracked the mental health of nearly 1,000 women in 21 states who wanted and received an abortion and women who wanted but were denied an abortion between 2008 and 2010.
The women were interviewed every six months over the next five years. At the end of that time, 99% of women who had an abortion believed they had made the right decision – in fact relief was the prominent emotion, one analysis noted.
Women who received an abortion had similar or lower levels of depression and anxiety than women who refused an abortion and were more likely to experience post-traumatic stress than women who carried their baby for a long time, according to the results of the study.
Research also found no difference in mental health outcomes between abortion in the first trimester and abortion later in pregnancy.
Sources of misinformation
Misinformation about abortion can come from friends or family, an article or study read online, or during a mandatory pre-abortion counseling session that some states put in place during the Roe v. Read also : The Department of Health is launching a Monkeypox Vaccine Clinic for people who may have been exposed to monkeypox. Era. Wade, experts told CNN.
Of the 33 states that required patients to receive pre-abortion counseling, eight regularly included the potential for negative psychological reactions as part of the conversation, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research and policy organization that focus on sexual and reproductive rights worldwide.
“There have been states in which women have been told that because they are having an abortion, they are at increased risk for depression, suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress disorder and more,” said Julia Steinberg, an associate professor of family at The University of Maryland School of Public Health.
“Abortion does not cause depression, it does not cause suicide (or) suicidal ideation. It does not cause substance use. It does not cause anxiety disorders,” said Steinberg, who studied the impact on abortion’s mental health. for years.
In fact, the best prediction of not doing well after an abortion was “a prior history of mental health issues,” Major said. “The best prediction of substance use after an abortion was if you were already abusing substances, and the best prediction of post-abortion depression was if you were depressed before you had one.”
Misinformation about abortion also comes from studies published in academic journals that conclude that abortion causes mental health problems, experts say.
“Studies make it look like there’s debate, but what’s really going on is that those studies are performed very poorly,” Steinberg said. “They are not methodologically rigorous, and do not adhere to scientific principles.”
The 2008 APA task force published a strong rebuke of the quality of research of many studies that found mental health concerns after abortion. Studies have often failed to control for factors such as rape, sexual or partner violence, or a woman’s history of previous mental disorders or substance abuse.
“We have reviewed every legitimate study ever done on this subject,” Major said. “The methodological flaws in many of the studies being cited as showing harm to women’s mental health as a result of abortion were just egregious.”
A review of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine later in 2018 analyzed studies on the impact of abortion on future fertility and pregnancy outcomes, cancer risk chest, mental health disorders, and premature death.
“Much of the published literature on these topics fails to meet scientific standards for rigorous and impartial research,” the report stated, concluding that “having an abortion does not increase a woman’s risk of secondary infertility, hypertensive disorders. related to pregnancy, abnormal placenta (after abortion D&E), premature birth, breast cancer, or mental health disorders (depression, anxiety, and PTSD). “
However, this belief that abortion harms women’s mental and physical health has been used to justify “waiting period laws, two-trip requirements (in which women must return twice) and that women tell inaccurate information about abortion with medication, ”Steinberg said.
Being denied an abortion
The Turnaway Study also looked at the short- and long-term impact of denying an abortion. To see also : Wire WIC for better working families with no food. The results showed that women who were sidelined were more likely to experience significant anxiety and stress.
“In my research what we’ve found is that the challenges of having an abortion – finding a place, traveling, having to disclose your abortion to someone you’d rather not do – have increased the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, “he said socially. psychologist Antonia Briggs, one of the Turnaway researchers from the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) project at the University of California, San Francisco.
“And then at the time an abortion is denied, those symptoms go even higher. And then over time, they are released,” said Briggs, an associate professor at UCSF.
Women denied abortion who have carried their babies for a long time were “much more likely to experience physical health issues at the time of birth, as birth is much more risky than having an abortion,” Briggs said. Two of the women in the study died at birth.
A 2012 study found that the risk of death associated with childbirth is about 14 times higher than the risk from abortion.
After five years, the study found women denied abortion were more likely to “live in poverty and much more likely to suffer economic hardship, including more bankruptcies, debt and challenges meeting basic living needs,” Briggs said .
Women who were sidelined were also more likely to be linked to a violent and abusive partner, and to have chronic health conditions, Briggs said. “They also lowered their aspirations (for the future), and were less likely to meet them,” she added.
If a woman denied an abortion had existing children under 5, those children were less likely to reach their developmental stages, more likely to live in poverty, and less likely to have a bond with their mother, the study.
These results will affect more women now that Roe v. Wade overturned?
“I’m completely overwhelmed with trouble,” Briggs said. “I’m worried that people will be able to get the treatment they want. Some have to overcome a lot of obstacles in order to have access to care.
“Others hope to manage their abortion safely by accessing abortion pills with online medication, which we know are fairly safe,” Briggs said. Prior to the Supreme Court reversal, more than half of all abortions in the U.S. were performed using a two-prescription prescription medication method, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“Then there are some women who worry that they will use other less safe methods to handle pregnancy themselves or carry it for a long time in a situation that they consider not ideal for them,” Briggs said.
