Abstract
Claims that women who have elective abortions will experience psychological distress
have fueled much of the recent debate on abortion. It has been argued that the emotional
sequelae of abortion may not occur until months or years after the event. Despite
unclear evidence on such a phenomenon, adverse mental health outcomes of abortion
have been used as a rationale for policy-making. We systematically searched for articles
focused on the potential association between abortion and long-term mental health
outcomes published between January 1, 1989 and August 1, 2008 and reviewed 21 studies
that met the inclusion criteria. We rated the study quality based on methodological
factors necessary to appropriately explore the research question. Studies were rated
as Excellent (no studies), Very Good (4 studies), Fair (8 studies), Poor (8 studies),
or Very Poor (1 study). A clear trend emerges from this systematic review: the highest
quality studies had findings that were mostly neutral, suggesting few, if any, differences
between women who had abortions and their respective comparison groups in terms of
mental health sequelae. Conversely, studies with the most flawed methodology found
negative mental health sequelae of abortion.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 24, 2008
Accepted:
July 2,
2008
Received in revised form:
May 19,
2008
Received:
January 28,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
