Monday, December 1, 2008

Second New Study: Mental Health Problems Up 30% For Women Having Abortions

Second New Study: Mental Health Problems Up 30% For Women Having Abortions

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 30, 2008

Wellington, New Zealand (LifeNews.com) -- A second new study points to the link between abortion and subsequent mental health problems for the women who have them. This new study, conducted by a New Zealand professor, comes after American researchers released their own study connecting abortion with numerous negative aftereffects.

Researchers at Otago University reported their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry and found that women who have abortions have an increased risk of developing mental health problems.

The study found that women who had abortions had rates of mental health problems about 30% higher than other women. The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance use disorders.

Abortions increased the risk of severe depression and anxiety by one-third.

The authors concluded that anywhere from 1.5 to 5.5 percent of all mental health disorders seen in New Zealand result from women having abortions.

The American study, released Friday, showed as much as 10 percent of all mental health problems in the U.S. result from abortions.

Professor David Fergusson, John Horwood and Dr Joseph Boden headed up the study that involved women who were interviewed on six different occasions between the ages of 15 and 30.

They surveyed 500 women who live in the city of Christchurch, located on the southern of the two New Zealand islands. It included 284 women who had a total of 686 pregnancies and 117 women who had a total of 153 abortions.

The women were asked whether the pregnancy was wanted or unwanted, and if this had caused them to be upset or distressed. They were also given a mental health assessment during each interview, to see if they met the diagnostic criteria for major depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol dependence and illicit drug dependence.

Ultimately, the New Zealand team concluded that abortion more adversely affects women's mental health while childbirth and miscarriages do not.

"Other pregnancy outcomes [including live birth] were not related to increased risk of mental health problems," they found.

The team wrote in the medical journal that the results show a "middle ground" position saying that abortions do affect women's mental health more so than abortion advocates are willing to acknowledge.

The results do not "support any strong pro-choice positions that imply that abortion is without any mental health effects," they said.

"For some women, abortion is likely to be a stressful and traumatic life event which places those exposed to it at a modestly increased risk of a range of common mental health problems," they added.

The researchers took other confounding factors which might be associated with increased risks of various pregnancy or mental health outcomes into account.

Reference:
“Abortion and mental health disorders: evidence from a 30-year longitudinal study.” Fergusson D, Horwood LJ and Boden JM (2008). British Journal of Psychiatry, 193: 444-451

Printed from: http://www.lifenews.com/int1008.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When will the world "get it" that no girl or woman on this planet EVER gets up in the morning and thinks, "who can I get to get me pregnant, so I can have an abortion", and no little girl EVER said to her parents, when asked "What do you want for Christmas this year", the girl answers "Oh Mommy, Daddy, all I want is to grow up and have an abortion!"

NO GIRL OR WOMAN 'WANTS' TO HAVE AN ABORTION.

Abortion is a symptom of a society that does not value women and children.

Society should take steps to HELP the girl or woman HAVE the baby, NOT wait till she is so scared and feels so alone and unsupported that she caves in and has the abortion, and then her society slowly stones her to death for the rest of her life. No wonder she drinks, takes illicit drugs all to dull the pain of her regret and agony over what she was forced into doing from lack of understanding and help from those around her, and no wonder she suffers from depression. Her society dumped her and left her with no help so she was forced to kill her unborn baby, then her society calls her a murderer and attacks and abuses her! The girl or woman is far more sinned against than sinning in my opinion. Unless you are actively supporting a prolife pregnancy care type of place by prayer, finances and or volunteer time, to actually HELP the girl or woman to HAVE her baby, then DON'T ask me to listen to your insane rants about how the girl or woman is a "murderer". Who says she wanted to be? Maybe with a little help from all her later attackers she WOULDN'T have been, she would have had the baby.

Those screaming the loudest against the girl or woman are usually the most horrified when challenged to actually HELP the next girl or woman in a crisis pregnancy that they come upon. Such HYPOCRITES. Drop dead unless you are willing to help. Otherwise SHUT THE HELL UP.

Sam and Bunny Sewell said...

I'm not sure what your comment had to do with the article. Seemed like a cut and paste job to me.

Except for your hostile attitude I agree with the main point of your comment. I would expect that your "solution focused" suggestions are widely accepted. Of course it is preferable to be supportive of those with "problem pregnancies". The fact that abortion causes emotional problems as an after effect is all the more reason to support enlightened programs that avoid abortions.

See: Some Abortion Foes Shifting Focus From Ban to Reduction

By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; A01