Women Who Receive Abortion No More Likely to Have Suicidal Thoughts Than Those Denied Abortions

Astudy published Thursday inAJP in Advance found that having an abortion does not place women at higher risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts than being denied an abortion. In fact, the rates of suicidal ideation were low across groups, when compared with other studies of pregnant and postpartum women.“The study adds to the growing body of evidence that having an abortion does not lead to negative mental health outcomes,” study co-author M. Antonia Biggs, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, toldPsychiatric News. “Therefore, policies requiring that women be warned that they are at increased risk of becoming suicidal if they choose abortion are not evidence based.”Biggs and colleagues assessed the effects of having an abortion or being denied an abortion on women ’s experiences of suicidal ideation over five years, using data from the University of California, San Francisco’sTurnaway Study. This longitudinal study was designed to look at the effects of receiving an abortion compared with being denied an abortion on women ’s socioeconomic, mental health, and emotional well-being.The researchers examined data from nearly 1,000 women recruited from 30 U.S. abortion facilities. Women were interviewed by telephone one week after their abortion visit, then every six months for five years. Women completed the suicidal ideation items on the Brief Symptom Interview (BSI) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Women who received abortions within t...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: abortion Brief Symptom Interview M. Antonia Biggs mental illness Patient Health Questionnaire suicidal thoughts Turnaway Study Source Type: research