USA – Study Examines The Lasting Effects Of Having — Or Being Denied — An Abortion

Study Examines The Lasting Effects Of Having — Or Being Denied — An Abortion
In The Turnaway Study, Diana Greene Foster shares research conducted over 10 years with about 1,000 women who had or were denied abortions, tracking impacts on mental, physical and economic health.

June 16, 2020
Terry Gross
Fresh Air - 36-Minute Listen

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. When Mike Pence was running for vice president, he said, if we appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court, as Donald Trump intends to do, I believe we will see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs. Since then, Trump has appointed two conservative justices. The arguments used against abortion often refer to the medical risks of the procedure and the guilt and loss of self-esteem suffered by women who have abortions.

In order to explore what the impact of abortion is on women's health and women's lives, my guest, Diana Greene Foster, became the principal investigator of a 10-year study comparing women who had abortions at the end of the deadline allowed by the clinic and those who just missed the deadline and were turned away. The study focuses on the emotional health and socioeconomic outcomes for women who received a wanted abortion and those who were denied one.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877846258/study-examines-the-lasting-effects-of-having-or-being-denied-an-abortion

U.S.: Being denied an abortion could be more traumatic than getting one

Abortions don’t harm women’s mental health, new study says
by Rachel Becker Dec 14, 2016, The Verge

Women who receive abortions experience less short-term anxiety and low self-esteem than women who are denied them, according to a new study. This is consistent with previous findings that the vast majority of women who receive abortions feel relief. And it’s another nail in the coffin of the tired misconception that women who terminate their pregnancies are psychologically damaged by the experience.

In the United States, 35 states require a waiting period and counseling before a woman can terminate her pregnancy. In nine of those states, women are required to receive information about the supposed long-term psychological consequences of getting an abortion, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. But a new study published today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry reveals that those warnings aren’t actually based on scientific evidence.

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Source: The Verge

U.S.: Abortion Is Found to Have Little Effect on Women’s Mental Health

By PAM BELLUCK, DEC. 14, 2016, New York Times

It’s an idea that has long been used as an argument against abortion — that terminating a pregnancy causes women to experience emotional and psychological trauma.

Some states require women seeking abortions to be counseled that they might develop mental health problems. Now a new study, considered to be the most rigorous to look at the question in the United States, undermines that claim. Researchers followed nearly 1,000 women who sought abortions nationwide for five years and found that those who had the procedure did not experience more depression, anxiety, low self-esteem or dissatisfaction with life than those who were denied it.

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Source: New York Times