Tanis Cortens:

A July study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that women who abort their children are more at risk for mental health issues than those who choose life.

Researchers assessed 28,721 women who aborted and 1,228,807 who gave birth in Quebec hospitals between 2006 and 2022. According to the study, mental health-related hospitalization was more common after abortion than birth, with a ratio of 52:21. Abortion was linked to a higher risk of “psychiatric disorders, substance use, and suicide attempts,” with risks greatest during the first five years after abortion. Age was also a factor: Women under 25 who chose abortion were more likely to be hospitalized for mental health reasons than their older counterparts.

Writing for National Review on August 24, Wesley J. Smith said, “This study is notable because of its size and scope, its contradicting previous understandings, and its publication in a mainstream, peer-reviewed medical journal by authors not identified with the pro-life movement. At the very least, if informed consent and ‘choice’ are to mean anything, abortionists should be duty-bound to inform pregnant women about this particular risk.”

Dr. Hector O. Chapa, commented on the study in an August 26 Live Action News guest column. “This new data is concerning and contradicts previous assertions that abortion is ‘risk-free’ from a mental health standpoint. Although this new published data is eye-opening, it is not surprising that major news outlets failed to cover the story,” he wrote. “As an OB/GYN physician, I feel it is our ethical duty to get this information out to the public.”

Other studies have yielded similar results: A June 2023 study in the U.S. analyzed 4,848 women’s use of mental health services before and after the end of their first pregnancy (either abortion or live birth), for a total of 17 years. It concluded that “(a) first pregnancy abortion, compared to a birth, is associated with significantly higher subsequent mental health services utilization,” adding, “Higher mental health utilization before the first pregnancy outcome for birth cohort women challenges the explanation that pre-existing mental health history explains mental health problems following abortion, rather than the abortion itself.”

Additionally, a study in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, published online in January 2025, surveyed 2,829 American women aged 41-45, asking about their reproductive histories and past suicide attempts. Per the self-assessments of women who had had one or more abortions, the abortion(s) tended to contribute significantly to “suicidal and self-destructive behaviors.” The study also said, “case reports indicate that at least a subset of women who have had abortions report feelings of guilt and self-hatred which fueled their subsequent suicidal thoughts and behaviors.”

As abortion is a highly politicized topic, so too has there been controversy in post-abortion research. According to a news release by the Elliot Institute, a May 2024 reanalysis of data from Denmark aimed to correct the methodological and statistical errors of a January 2011 study that had found “no differences in psychiatric treatment rates before and after a first abortion.”

The authors of the earlier Denmark study assessed women’s history of psychiatric treatments from nine months before to three months after a first-trimester abortion, and they concluded that “the finding that the incidence rate of psychiatric contact was similar before and after a first-trimester abortion does not support the hypothesis that there is an increased risk of mental disorders after a first-trimester induced abortion.” However, “research shows that the psychological effects of abortion are often delayed,” said David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute and author of the 2024 study. “(They) often don’t appear until the anniversary date of the abortion or even later, after a woman’s coping mechanisms begin to be overwhelmed by persistent grief, guilt, or other abortion related stressors.” Considering this, Reardon revisited the Danish data, comparing the nine-month period before abortion to the nine- and twelve-month periods after abortion. He found “that in the full one-year period following abortion the rate at which women sought mental health care after an abortion was 1.49 times higher…than the rate in the nine months prior to an abortion. Statistical significance was also noted when the time frame of consideration was nine months, a period equal to the pre-abortion observation period.”

Reardon’s findings were submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine, which had published the 2011 analysis. The editors rejected his study without peer review, deciding “not to consider (it) further” owing to “its focus, content, and interest.” “One would think that medical journals would welcome critical reviews and re-analyses that help to improve and clarify the medical record,” said Reardon, “but when it comes to abortion, most journals are afraid to publish anything that challenges the myth that abortion is anything but always beneficial to every woman in every circumstance.” Regarding the original study’s errors, he said, “Many population control and abortion advocates are ideologically and politically motivated to deny the studies showing that many women suffer from unwanted and unsafe abortions…Misleading research findings are not uncommon.”