Via Bonnie Erbe, a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has shown that there is no scientific support to claims that “an abortion causes psychological distress, or a ‘post-abortion syndrome.’” The team reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found that there is “no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others”:
The researchers reviewed all English-language, peer-reviewed publications between 1989 and 2008 that studied relationships between abortion and long-term mental health.
They analyzed those that included valid mental health measures and factored in pre-existing mental health status and potentially confusing factors.
“The best quality studies indicate no significant differences in long-term mental health between women in the United States who choose to terminate a pregnancy and those who do not,” they wrote.
Despite the lack of scientific support for the abortion-depression link, conservatives on the Supreme Court cited it when they ruled against late-term abortions, saying “it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained.”
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