Psychiatric aspects of induced abortion

Summary

Induced abortion is a ubiquitous practice, experienced throughout time by a significant number (approximately 15 million per year) of women all over the world. Its psychological effects have been ignored in some countries and hotly debated in others. Research is hampered by serious methodological challenges and misunderstandings, most prominent among them being the failure to include a control group and the failure to take into consideration the patients' baseline, and the circumstances of both the decision to have an abortion and the abortion itself. Nevertheless the existing data point firmly to the conclusion that abortion has fewer adverse psychiatric sequelae than childbirth. Though some women experience sadness and guilt, these reactions tend to be transient and not to rise to the level of psychiatric disorder. Risk factors for subsequent psychiatric problems include per-existing psychiatric illness, lack of social supports, and coercion.