Abortion Can Have Significant Psychological Consequences

Real Alternatives partners with government agencies in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Indiana to provide free pregnancy services and counseling for women in crisis. Due to Real Alternatives, numerous women have opted to give birth rather than undergo abortion.

Studies conducted at various times around the world have shown the serious emotional consequences that can follow abortion. 

For example, a study of more than 50,000 California Medicaid recipients found that women who had had abortions were 160 percent more likely to require psychiatric assistance over the following three months than their counterparts who had given birth. For some, this higher incidence of the need for professional mental health services continued for four years or more.

Another study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1980, reported that after only eight weeks, about one-third of women who had undergone abortion regretted that decision, and close to half experienced some type of nervous disorder.

The universality of the issue is also illustrated by a 2011 article in the Iranian Journal of Psychiatry. The authors reported that in a survey of almost 300 women seeking post-abortion care in Tehran, at least a third had experienced associated psychological problems. These problems included depression, a lower sense of self-worth, guilt, nightmares, and fears of not being able to conceive again.

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