'Abortion does not harm mental health' is the headline in The Times, following a recent US report of psychiatric problems that occur after abortions. The newspaper suggests that the report s findings will hinder the latest efforts of a group of anti-abortion MPs to 'make it harder for British women to obtain terminations'. These MPs have tabled an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would require all women to be counselled about psychiatric risks before they can be cleared to have a termination. This bill is to be debated by the House of Commons in October.
The systematic review excluded unreliable research and found no 'credible' evidence that single abortions directly cause more mental health problems among adults with unwanted pregnancies than in those who deliver that pregnancy. They found one well-conducted study which provided reliable evidence that there was no difference between these groups for these outcomes. The evidence regarding multiple abortions was less certain, and the interpretation of the research is complicated by the fact that the studies often did not distinguish between abortions of wanted pregnancies (e.g. detected foetal abnormalities) and unwanted pregnancies, or consider factors such as poverty and drug use that raise the likelihood both of having an abortion and suffering mental illness.
Where did the story come from?
Dr Brenda Major was chairperson of the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion , which produced this report. The task force was established in 2006 to update a previous 1989 report on the topic, and is one of several task forces set up by the APA, an association of 148,000 psychologists based in Washington, DC. The report was published online on the APA website.
What kind of scientific study was this?
This was a systematic review of 50 English-language research studies published in peer-reviewed journals after 1989, which looked at the mental health of women who had an induced abortion, and the mental health of comparison groups of women. The review also looked at 23 studies which examined factors that may predict mental health among women who have had an elective abortion in the US.
In the report, the researchers outline the scope of their work and the background context to the establishment of the task force. They concentrate on the fact that since the 1989 report, four studies have supported its main conclusion, whereas four others have challenged it; reviewers of the newer literature have reached different conclusions.
