A new study shows that women who have abortions are at significantly greater risk of subsequent mental health problems. The study, reported at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society last June, examined the records of California women who received state funded medical care and either had an abortion or gave birth in 1989. Over the next six years, women who had abortions were more than twice as likely to have had treatment for mental health compared with those who had their babies.

Most other studies with different results have only followed women for a few months after the abortion. The researchers in this study found that problems often don’t occur until a year or more later such as an anniversary of the abortion or the due date of the child.

Published in the VSHL Lifesaver, October 2000