Pregnancy Termination and the State of Mental Health

Despite limited evidence, some states require clinicians to tell patients that abortion harms women's mental health. To evaluate the psychiatric effects of abortion compared with childbirth, researchers analyzed cohort study data on mental health disorders among 259 women whose first pregnancies ended in abortion and 677 women who first gave birth.

Prepregnancy mental health disorders were more common among women who aborted rather than delivered their first pregnancies. After adjusting for prepregnancy mental health and adverse exposures, childhood economic status, age at first pregnancy, race or ethnicity, and miscarriage history, abortion was not a statistically significant predictor of subsequent anxiety, mood, impulse-control, or eating…