Mental health problems associated with abortion are often underestimated. Abortion can be a very traumatic event and have lasting negative effects. A new study released by scientists in China proves this to be the case. Lifesite news reports on a study that recently found a strong correlation between abortion and depression. Researchers from Anhui Medical College in China used a sample of 6,887 women oh which 3,264 had an abortion. It was found that women were 49% more likely to experience depression and 114% more likely to experience anxiety in the first trimester of a pregnancy when compared to the women who had not experienced abortion.
“The women with a history of induced abortions were significantly more likely to report more “cases” of depression during the first trimester than those with no history of abortion. Controlling for confounding variables yielded similar results,” they wrote. “These results suggest women who have experienced a previous induced abortion have omnipresent anxiety and depression symptoms during a subsequent pregnancy, especially during the first trimester.”
The results also found that women who have had a miscarriage(s) were not at greater risk of depression and anxiety in the first or second trimester of pregnancy when compared to women who have not had a miscarriage. These results were found within a year of the prior loss.
“The social, moral, and psychological context of an induced abortion may be more complicated than that of a spontaneous abortion, and may result in different psychological experiences” concluded the research team in China.
To read more about this recent study the researchers from Anhui Medical College in China published their results recently in the Bulletin of Clinical Psychopharmacology in an article entitled “The Impact of Prior Abortion on Anxiety and Depression Symptoms during a Subsequent Pregnancy: Data From a Population-Based Cohort Study.”
