Washington D.C., Sep 3, 2016 / 15:55 pm
Abortion during the late teen and early adult years raises a woman's risk of mental health problems and may be linked to almost one in ten cases of these women's mental disorders, a new study says.
"Evidence from the United States confirms previous findings from Norway and New Zealand that, unlike other pregnancy outcomes, abortion is consistently associated with a moderate increase in risk of mental health disorders during late adolescence and early adulthood," said the study's abstract.
The study, conducted by sociology professor Donald Paul Sullins of The Catholic University of America, was published July 22, 2016 in the peer-reviewed Sage Open Medicine journal.
After adjusting for demographic differences and other factors, the study found that abortion during these years elevated a woman's risk of mental health disorder by 45 percent.