Abortion Depression Link "Unproven"
August 19th 2008
Researchers have failed to prove that a single abortion will damage a woman’s mental health, according to a major analysis. 
But there is evidence that women who feel pressurised to agree to the procedure suffer serious mental distress, psychologists have said.
The analysis, at the conference of the American Psychological Association, concludes that most attempts to analyse the issue have been flawed.
Psychologists said one problem was that many abortions took place because of a women’s distressing circumstances - and that itself might be linked to long-term mental health problems.
The draft report of an APA task force is to be published this week at the organisation’s conference in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
The task force studied research on the subject published in English in the last 20 years.
It says women who undergo abortion may experience depression and anxiety - but none of the research proves this was caused by abortion rather than other social circumstances.
Chair Dr Brenda Major said the evidence was unclear about women who have repeated abortions.
She said: "The best scientific evidence published indicates that among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy, the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective first-trimester abortion or deliver that pregnancy."
The report calls for better quality research to be conducted in future - especially to compare the health of women who have an abortion with those who give up babies for adoption.
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