Abortion’s new battleground: Mifepristone’s effect on women’s mental health
LA TimesThe standard protocol for an abortion via medication is a combination of two pills — mifepristone to end the pregnancy and misoprostol to cause cramping and bleeding to empty the uterus. “Considering the intense psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress women often experience from chemical abortion,” Kacsmaryk wrote, the FDA’s omission is bound to cause lasting damage to women who take the pill. But abortion’s aggregated mental health effects on women who have terminated their pregnancies have been studied extensively — and the most rigorous research does not support Kacsmaryk’s assertions. Among them was a 2011 “study of studies” that said women who had an abortion had an 81% increased risk of mental health problems, with nearly 10% of them directly attributable to their procedures. Citing a 2000 study of women’s mental health after abortion, the task force said those who do experience depression, anxiety and regret “tend to be women with a prior history of depression.” Researchers at UC San Francisco launched an effort to generate more rigorous research on the mental and physical health of women after they received an abortion.
History of this topic
Mental health expert warns that new restrictions on abortion care will cause "psychological harms"
SalonDiscover Related
