Researchers surveyed 667 women who had abortions in 21 states a week
after they had the procedures and then once every six months for
five years. By the end of that period, 84% of women had either
positive or neutral feelings about their choice.
"We found no evidence of emergent negative emotions about the
abortion over the five years," said study leader Corinne Rocca of
the University of California, San Francisco.
"In fact, of all the emotions we looked at, relief remained the most
commonly reported one at all times, even five years out," Rocca said
by email.
Opponents of abortion have argued against legal access to these
procedures in part because of concerns that abortion harms women by
causing negative emotions and regret, researchers note in Social
Science and Medicine. This idea has contributed to state laws and
court decisions limiting abortion as well as state policies
requiring women seeking abortions to be warned it might cause
lasting emotional or mental health harm, the study team notes.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/21/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png)
For the current analysis, researchers asked women who got abortions
the degree to which they felt emotions like relief, happiness,
regret, guilt, sadness and anger. They also asked women whether they
still thought the choice they made was the right one.
At the start of the study, participants were 25 years old, on
average, and 62% were already raising children.
Slightly more than half felt the decision to have an abortion was
"very difficult" or "somewhat difficult." Women were more likely to
feel this way when they perceived higher levels of stigma surrounded
the decision to get an abortion.
One week after their abortions, 51% of women felt mostly positive
about their decisions, while 17% felt mostly negative and 12% felt a
mix of both emotions. Another 20% reported feeling few emotions, or
none at all, related to their decision.
After five years, anger was the only emotion that was more common
among women who perceived high levels of stigma about abortion, the
study also found.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/21/images/ads/current/lincolnheating_lda_LUAL_2018.png)
One week after the abortion, 98% of women felt they had made the
right decision, as did 99% of women five years later.
One limitation of the study is that asking women about their
emotions may have prompted them to report stronger feelings than
they might have otherwise experienced, the study team notes.
Even so, the results offer fresh evidence that concerns about
women's emotional health after an abortion shouldn't factor into
policies about legal access to these procedures, said Julia
Steinberg, a researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park,
who wasn't involved in the study.
"Abortion does not lead to decision regret or negative emotions,
negative emotions or regret do not emerge over time after the
abortion, and women overwhelmingly feel the decision was the right
one initially and over the entire five years after an abortion, even
if they had difficulty making it," Steinberg said by email.
Just because women struggled with the decision to get an abortion
doesn't mean it was the wrong choice for them, said Nada Stotland of
Rush University in Chicago.
"It's reassuring to women contemplating abortion that they are very
unlikely to regret it, but there is no valid evidence whatever that
women, including adolescents, can't make the best decisions for
themselves, their circumstances, and their families," Stotland, who
wasn't involved in the study, said by email.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2RqECEW Social Science Medicine, online
January 13, 2020.
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/21/images/ads/current/peggys_sda_LUAL_2018.png) |