NEW STUDY LINKS CLINICAL DEPRESSION TO ABORTION
Springfield, Ill. - Women with a history of abortion are at significantly higher risk of experiencing clinical depression compared to women who give birth, according to a nationally representative study of 1,884 women published in the latest issue of Medical Science Monitor.
Researchers compared data for women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) who experienced their first pregnancy between
1980 and 1992. They found that, on an average of eight years later,
women whose first pregnancies ended in abortion were 65 percent more
likely to be at high risk of clinical depression after controlling for
age, race, marital status, history of divorce, income, number of years of formal education, and a pre-pregnancy measure of psychological state.
"This finding contributes to the growing number of studies showing that abortion is linked to elevated rates of psychiatric illness, substance abuse, and suicidal behavior," said Dr. David Reardon, head of the Elliot
Institute in Springfield, Illinois, and one of the study's authors.
Source: Elliot Institute News (dreardon@mine4ever.net)
May 2003
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