Voluntary abortion does not harm mental health

Abortion is an issue that is difficult to address, leaving behind ideological filters. It has always raised many strong passions and opinions, which has polarized the debate. This is partly why many women are very concerned about the prospect of having an abortion; It is an option that has been given great importance, either to portray it as a form of murder or to make it an expression of the freedom to decide on one's own body.

However, that there are political and religious ideologies at stake does not mean that science has nothing to say. In fact, a comprehensive investigation has recently been carried out in which it has been studied, over 5 years, how abortion or the absence of it has affected well-being in a number of women. In this way, it was possible to know if, in fact, in a large part of the cases, aborting produces a great feeling of sadness and guilt that can lead to a crisis of anxiety frequent, trauma, depression, etc.

Abortion and psychological damage

Part of the negative factors that are usually related to abortion is the high possibility of be traumatized, go into depression or, in general, damage one's mental health as a result of going through This process. However, the most comprehensive research that has been conducted on this topic has concluded that no,

there is no negative psychological effect that must necessarily occur after a voluntary abortion.

Does that mean that the fear produced by the prospect of abortion was the fruit of a propaganda campaign against this practice? That is too complex a topic to have a clear answer, for now.

But there is still more. It is not only given that the women who approach do not present significant psychological discomfort for years after going through the clinic but this happens with the other group of women, those who cannot abort.

A) Yes, women who are not allowed to have an abortion are those with symptoms linked to mental disorders and malaise in general. Specifically, these women were more likely to show a low self-esteem, much greater anxiety and a high level of general discomfort. In addition, her desire to have an abortion remained and her degree of anxiety had repercussions on many of the dimensions of her day-to-day life.

How does the study was realized?

To develop this research, a group of 956 volunteers was used and interviewed 11 times over 5 years. Some of them were able to abort, while others were not given that option, having attended the clinic in a too advanced stage of pregnancy.

So that, a large sample was used that was studied through a longitudinal study, conducting two interviews per year to be able to track the state of psychological well-being of these people.

As the waves of interviews unfolded, an image was created of the happiness (or lack thereof) of these women when it came to abortion.

The results of this research have been published in the scientific journal JAMA Psychiatry, and you can see them by clicking here.

Psychological impact

These results are proof of the psychologically damaging impact of making abortion impossible for women who choose this option. Although it may seem that pregnancy is the "normal" option and that tackling means going off the beaten path, these data indicate otherwise: Faced with an unwanted pregnancy, the path is bifurcated in two options, and abortion does not produce the mental effects that according to the myth it would generate.

Of course, this may be information that serves to weaken one of the positions in the abortion debate, but it is no less It is true that the study design was not carried out to favor that one of these outcome options had a better chance of leave.

In any case, in the end it is a struggle of moral ideas, and in this aspect science can only provide data that is used as a tool in these types of debates (without this having to be especially bad in itself).