Study Shows Abortion Tied to Depression, Suicide

Women who have undergone an abortion have an 81 percent higher risk for mental health problems and are more likely to attempt suicide, abuse alcohol and suffer depression, Baptist Press reports. The study appears in the latest edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry and is getting considerable attention from both sides of the abortion debate. The researchers examined 22 studies from 1995-2009 involving 877,000 women, including 163,000 who had experienced an abortion. The paper's author, Priscilla K. Coleman of Bowling Green State University, said there actually are "hundreds of studies" showing a link between abortion and serious mental health risks, and that three recent studies that reached a very different conclusion had major flaws. "[T]here are in fact some real risks associated with abortion that should be shared with women as they are counselled prior to an abortion decision," Coleman writes, chiding the research community for not conducting unbiased research. The fact that the study was published in one of the world's leading psychiatric journals is important, those who monitor the abortion debate say.