The vast majority of women who once had to terminate a pregnancy did not regret their decision later. This conclusion was reached by scientists who studied the psychological state of women who decided to have an abortion.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine followed a group of 670 women for three years, in particular by regularly asking them to answer test questions.1.
The participants in the experiment were from different ethnic groups, with different levels of education and employment, as well as life circumstances that forced them to terminate the pregnancy.
40% of women did it because of financial difficulties, and 36% because of “the wrong time”. For 26%, this decision was easy or very easy, for 55% it was very difficult or rather difficult.
According to the authors of the study, the vast majority of women are confident that their decision to have an abortion was the right one.
Moreover, they consider this not only immediately after the operation, but also after 1–3 years.
This data is in stark contrast to the anti-abortion claims that women inflict enormous emotional trauma on themselves. The authors of the new study make a distinction between abortion-related emotions and regret about abortion in general.
They then conclude that strong feelings after the procedure are natural and almost always fade with time. Only a very small number of women end up regretting having terminated their pregnancy.
“Obviously, feelings of guilt and regret that persist for some time after an abortion cannot be considered a mental disorder: these emotions are quite natural, given that the woman had to make a difficult life decision.
Our results show that the more time passes after the procedure, the better all indicators of psychological well-being become, including self-esteem and the degree of satisfaction with life, ”the authors of the study note.
1 R. H. «Decision Rightness and Emotional Responses to Abortion in the United States: A Longitudinal Study», PLOS One, July 2015.