Does Abortion Cause Mental Health Problems?
Can abortion really lead someone to mental health problems? There are many women in the United States who have had an abortion or are planning to obtain an abortion in order to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Have they ever thought about the psychological problems that can come after obtaining the abortion? And for those who have obtained one, are they dealing with any mental problems today due to the abortion? There are many factors which have to be taken into consideration before a woman decides to get an abortion. She not only needs to think about resolving a problem (the pregnancy) but also any psychological problems that may come with that decision. It may not be an easy decision to make but every factor should be considered.
According to the APA task force on Mental Health and abortion, there is no credible evidence which determines that an abortion can lead to mental health problems in adult women. The APA task force completed an entire review of all studies published in English in peer-review journals which compared women who did opt for an induce abortion from those who did not opt for an abortion. The research more frequent found that the backgrounds of women who seek an induce abortion were very different from each other. Many times the background of the women seeking an induce abortion can cause them to have psychological problems after the abortion is conducted. This means that a woman’s background can cause them mental health problems.
The APA task force research found that there were different factors in a woman’s life that when combined with pregnancy may lead to mental health problems. Some examples of these would be poverty, history of drug and alcohol abuse, prior emotional problems, exposure to violence, history of unwanted pregnancies, and not knowing how to resolve an unwanted pregnancy may lead to mental health problems. The different factors in a woman’s life are what can cause the psychological problems after obtaining an abortion. Women who go through the process of an induce abortion should not blame abortion itself for any mental health problems they may obtain after going through the process of an abortion. Abortion does not cause mental health problems.
Another thing that the APA task force found in their review of these studies was that many had false information. These studies connected abortion and mental health problems without knowing if it was true. They didn’t take into consideration the different factors these women had in their lives or the background in which they came from. They just falsely concluded that abortion lead to mental health problems. The end results that the APA task force found was that there was no true evidence that can connect abortion to mental health problems. Any woman who is planning to obtain an abortion should take their life factors into consideration and be able to see that if they experience any mental health problems after obtaining an abortion, the problems are due to their life factors. Once again I would like to address that no credible evidence was found to connect abortion to mental health problems. Here are a few links that provide more information on the topic discussed.
Related articles
- Study Linking Abortion to Mental Health Problems Is Flawed (healthland.time.com)
- Study Linking Abortion to Mental Health Problems Is Flawed – TIME (drugstoresource.wordpress.com)
- Researchers Debunk Abortion-Mental Health Study (blisstree.com)
- Abortions may up Risk of Mental Health Issues (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)
- Abortion-Mental Illness Link Doesn’t Hold Up, Researchers Find (livescience.com)
- Govt unveils mental health support (premierlinedirect.co.uk)
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (sanitydigest.wordpress.com)
- Untrue: Abortion Leads to Mental Health Problems (psychcentral.com)
I like your post, but it would’ve been interesting if you had given a list and explained the different problems women supposedly experience. What exactly is in the media that is being referred to when they are correlating the event of a woman getting an abortion and the subsequent deteriation of a women’s mental health? You talked about poverty, but I’m sure age plays into that as well. You also talked about factors that a woman should take into consideration before going through the procedure, but honestly I wouldn’t assume that every woman thinks of all of that beforehand. Should they? That all depends on the person’s values and family expectations. Maybe more information should be out there on not have unwanted pregnancies, since one of your links explains that 1/3 of women experience depression because of it.
Thanks for taking the time and leaving your comment, it was all very helpful and true.