Study: Abortions Cause Women Emotional Distress Even Decades Later

A new study suggests that nearly half of American women who have had abortions experience moderate to high levels of emotional distress related to the procedure, with symptoms persisting for decades and unaffected by the passage of time.

Researchers analyzed data from a 2022 online survey of 1,000 U.S. women ages 41 to 45, drawn from a nationally representative panel.

Of those, 226 reported having had at least one abortion, with an average of 20 years having passed since the procedure — ranging from less than a year to 31 years.

The study, published by OPAST Publishers, measured post-abortion distress through four self-reported statements on a 0-100 scale, covering negative emotions regarding the abortion; feelings of loss, grief or sadness; thoughts, dreams or flashbacks; and negative interference with daily life, work or relationships.

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Responses were combined into a Post-Abortion Distress scale, with 44.8% of women in the subsample reporting moderate (20.7%) to high (24.1%) levels of distress.

“Time since the abortion (mean 20 years, range 0-31 years) was not correlated with PAD (r = -.02, p .71),” the authors wrote in the abstract. “PAD did not diminish but persisted for decades.”

Among the women surveyed, 31.2% reported frequent feelings of loss, grief or sadness, while 24.6% described frequent thoughts, dreams or flashbacks. Nearly half — 47.9% — indicated high distress on at least one measure, and 11% met criteria for at least four symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress.

The findings translate to broad implications for the U.S. population, where an estimated 31.3 million women ages 15 and older have had abortions. Based on the study’s weighted proportions, about 14 million of those women experience some form of post-abortion distress, including 7.5 million with severe symptoms and 3.4 million showing multiple indicators of post-traumatic stress.

“These results indicate that, as a therapeutic strategy for resolving stress associated with undesired pregnancies, induced abortion was often unsuccessful,” the abstract states.

The prevalence of lingering distress tracked closely with shorter-term studies, the authors noted.

“The prevalence of PAD decades after an abortion was similar to that generally observed in previous studies at much shorter times following the abortion,” they wrote in the discussion section.

“About 7.5 million (24%) suffer from serious post-abortion distress (PAD), with just under half of these (3.4 million) showing multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS),” the authors added.

The study applied post-stratification weights to align with U.S. Census data on demographics and abortion exposure, aiming for a representative snapshot. It did not directly compare post-abortion distress to emotional outcomes after childbirth or other life events but cited prior research showing no systematic excess over childbirth-related stress.

This study’s focus on midlife women, however, highlights potential long-term effects in a group old enough to reflect on decisions from young adulthood.

“Net PAD does not greatly diminish nor increase over longer periods following an abortion,” the discussion section concludes, making it clear abortion hurts women for a lifetime.