Abortion not seen linked with depression

[LiberalNation]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081204/...ion_depression

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others.

"The best research does not support the existence of a 'post-abortion syndrome' similar to post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. Robert Blum, who led the study published in the journal Contraception, said in a statement.

"Based on the best available evidence, emotional harm should not be a factor in abortion policy. If the goal is to help women, program and policy decisions should not distort science to advance political agendas," added Vignetta Charles, a researcher and doctoral student at Johns Hopkins who worked on the study.

An estimated 1.29 million American women get elective abortions each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 25 million women globally have legal abortions every year.

Abortion is a hot-button political issue, with many voters and members of the U.S. Congress as well as state lawmakers seeking to ban it.

[moderate democrat]

conversely, the mere absence of such emotional distress should NOT be used as a green light to allow more abortions. I believe, reluctantly, that abortions should remain legal and a decision between a woman and her doctor and her diety, if she has one. I also believe that they should be rare and that the adoption option should be much more prevalent.

[PostmodernProphet]

/shrugs....and I think people should not be allowed to kill children simply because they won't be depressed about it....

[Yurt]

conversely, the mere absence of such emotional distress should NOT be used as a green light to allow more abortions. I believe, reluctantly, that abortions should remain legal and a decision between a woman and her doctor and her diety, if she has one. I also believe that they should be rare and that the adoption option should be much more prevalent.

now that you have thought about abortion in light of jesus' mother having one, do you still support jesus' mother's right to an abortion?

i think the word "reluctantly" is a cop out. you either believe it is good for your own sound reasons or you don't. no one is forcing you to believe abortion should be legal, no one.

[April15]

That report is depressing!

[Said1]

I don't understand what 'and others' means?

[LiberalNation]

pregnany on the other hand is proven to lead to high rates of depression so states that try to use depression afterwards as the reason to ban abortion are out of their minds.

[Said1]

pregnany on the other hand is proven to lead to high rates of depression so states that try to use depression afterwards as the reason to ban abortion are out of their minds.

I can see where you're going with this, but I think prolonged depression may be associated with abortion moreso than childbirth in some instances given that the end result is not typically the same? That can probably apply to miscarriage as well.

[Abbey Marie]

I suspect that none of the poll-takers have ever sat in on a post-abortion counseling session.

I also wonder the ages of the women polled. The depression does not always occur until much later in life. And because the pollsters decided which of the polls they studed were "high qaulity" does not make it so. Subjectivity is rampant in polling, as is making sure you reach the result you hoped for.

Either way, the possibilty, or even probability, of depression is not going to deter many women from getting an abortion, if they find that pregnancy an inconvenience in their life. So the pro-abortion crowd can relax.

[stephanie]

even thinking about killing my own child through abortion depresses me..

this "Pro-kill" your child study is full of crap..