Having an abortion does not trigger mental health problems, according to a Danish study of 365,550 teen girls and women who had an abortion or perhaps a baby between 1995 and 2007. Actually, why is a woman most in danger of mental health problems is having an infant, the study published in The Colonial Journal of Medicine found. No women studied had a prior history of psychiatric hospitalization.
Sorry to burst your bubble, anti-abortion extremists.
To hear extremists tell it, through an abortion is so traumatic it could send a lady to Bellevue. At so-called “purposefully mislead pregnant women about the facts of abortion and are currently under pressure by municipalities to place signs in their door stating they don’t have actual doctors within the company), women are told a good alleged affliction called “post-abortion syndrome.” The anti-abortion propaganda web site, PostAbortionSyndrome.org, claims, “Post Abortion Stress Syndrome (PAS) affects everyone and is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
There is a little problem: the American Psychological Association does not recognize that “post-abortion syndrome” exists. According to the data collected on ProChoice.org-which called “post-abortion syndrome” a “myth”-some women truly are upset after an abortion, but in general, women show a wide array of emotions after terminating getting pregnant. Some feel sadness, some feel relief, some feel scared, plus some feel very little. But there is no evidence to suggest that post-abortive women in general feel symptoms much like PTSD. I encourage you to on the “post abortion syndrome” myth here.
To be clear, some women do feel immense loss and sadness after an abortion; I’m certain we all know personal types of such women. However the Danish study found that of the 84,620 ladies who had an abortion during the time period studied, a similar rate of ladies (15 per 1,000 women) who sought psychiatric help following the abortion also sought help before the abortion. Additionally, it noted the demographic number of women who had abortions were more prone to have emotional issues, economic problems and unintended pregnancies-which may indicate, by my analysis, the abortion had little impact on these women’s causes of seeking mental health help.
Instead, having a baby is exactly what researchers found more often triggered mental health problems amongst the women studied. The rate of ladies seeking psychiatric help after giving birth, versus before giving birth, was “dramatically higher,” according to The Washington Post. “About seven per 1,000 women got mental health help inside a year of having a baby in contrast to four per 1,000 women pre-delivery.” While postpartum depression-feeling anxious, overwhelmed, sleep-deprived or sad following a baby’s birth-wasn’t specifically addressed within this study, it’s not hard to understand how that may be a factor.
I want to be clear: this research took place in Denmark, which isn’t the same culture as the U.S. I can’t speak to the Danish culture personally, however i can talk to the intimidation tactics of anti-abortion extremists here in America who stand outside abortion clinics, screaming that women are murderers. Being relayed through so-called “crisis pregnancy center” “counselors” that you’ll be traumatized and suffer from “post-abortion syndrome” doesn’t bode well for ladies, either. Obvouisly, being in an environment inhospitable to making one’s own reproductive choices might make anyone seem like crap after an abortion. Thankfully, though, there is a nationwide, non-political after-abortion counseling hotline called Exhale, which provides counselors for women who require to speak to someone after an abortion.
I should also observe that this study was funded through the Danish Scientific research Council and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the second of which supports abortion rights. However the study nevertheless backs up the findings of past studies, which you’ll find out about on ProChoice.org.
I suspect that even just in the face of the study, though, anti-abortion extremists is going to be undeterred.