{"id":214350,"date":"2019-11-25T10:25:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T16:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=214350"},"modified":"2019-11-22T22:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T04:26:54","slug":"study-women-abort-depression-pregnancies-unwanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/study-women-abort-depression-pregnancies-unwanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Women who abort have higher risk of depression, even if pregnancies were unwanted"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A new study<\/a>, Affective and Substance Abuse Disorders Following Abortion by Pregnancy Intention in the United States: A Longitudinal Cohort Study,\u00a0found<\/a> that women who aborted their babies during wanted pregnancies suffered higher rates of depression and other mental disorders than those who aborted willingly. The “abortions of wanted babies” category includes women who aborted due to a disability in the baby, as well as those who were coerced into abortions by partners or parents. In the study, 20% of aborting women were classified as having aborted a baby they wanted.<\/p>\n

The study did not collect data on the reasons why women aborted their babies during wanted pregnancies. But extrapolating from other data, researchers estimated that at most, one fifth of the women who aborted wanted babies did so due to fetal anomaly. As many as four fifths of the total “wanted baby” abortions, then, were for other reasons. This leaves open the possibility that these women were coerced.<\/p>\n

The 20% figure would mean that possibly two out of every ten women entering an abortion facility are aborting wanted babies. The authors applied their data to the number of abortions worldwide, to get a figure of 6,997,200 abortions of wanted preborn children every year, with up to four-fifths of this number being coerced.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Bereaved siblings of aborted children speak out against abortion<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the study, women who aborted wanted pregnancies suffered from mental disorders 1.43 times more often than women who aborted ‘unwanted’ pregnancies. However, the study shows increased risks to mental health after women aborted during unwanted pregnancies too. <\/em><\/p>\n

For example, 25.8% of women who never aborted claimed to be depressed. For women who aborted their babies willingly, the number was 28.2%. For those aborting wanted babies, the number jumped to 37.5%. The study found that<\/a> women who aborted during their unwanted pregnancies even “had a 94% higher risk of subsequent suicidal thoughts than women without a history of abortion. They were also 270% more likely to report subsequent alcohol abuse or dependence.” Women who aborted willingly were much more likely than women who did not abort to suffer from drug addiction (15.8% to 5.3% respectively). Rates of depression and other mental health issues, however, were highest among women who aborted during wanted pregnancies.<\/p>\n