Post-abortion syndrome

The relationship between induced abortion and mental health is an area of political controversy. Major medical bodies have found that women who have had a single first-trimester induced abortion are no more likely to have mental-health problems than those carrying their unwanted pregnancy to term, but the evidence was unclear for other cases such as repeat abortions and late termination of pregnancy due to foetal abnormality. Pre-existing factors in a woman's life, such as emotional attachment to the pregnancy, lack of social support, pre-existing psychiatric illness, and conservative views on abortion increase the likelihood of experiencing negative feelings after an abortion. Although studies have correlated negative mental health outcomes with more than one abortion, such outcomes could be caused by the same circumstances that caused the multiple abortions in the first place.

In 1990, the American Psychological Association (APA) found that "severe negative reactions [after abortion] are rare and are in line with those following other normal life stresses." The APA updated its findings in August 2008 to account for new evidence, and again concluded that a woman's first termination of an unplanned pregnancy in the first trimester did not increase the risk of mental-health problems. A 2008 systematic review of the medical literature on abortion and mental health found that high-quality studies consistently showed few or no mental-health consequences of abortion, while poor-quality studies were more likely to report negative consequences. In December 2011, the U.K. National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health published a systematic review of available evidence, similarly concluding that first-time abortion in the first trimester does not increase the risk of mental-health problems compared with bringing the pregnancy to term. A more recent review of the literature found that 13 studies showed a clear risk for at least one mental problem in the abortion group versus childbirth, five papers showed no difference, three studies showed a greater risk of mental disorders due to abortion compared with miscarriage, four found no difference and two found that short-term anxiety and depression were higher in the miscarriage group, while long-term anxiety and depression were present only in the abortion group.

Despite the weight of medical opinion that first-time abortions in the first trimester (the majority of abortions) do not result in increased risk of mental health issues when compared with live birth, some anti-abortion advocacy groups have continued to allege a link between abortion and mental-health problems. Some anti-abortion groups have used the term "post-abortion syndrome" to refer to negative psychological effects which they attribute to abortion. However, "post-abortion syndrome" is not recognized as an actual syndrome by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, or the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists;physicians and pro-choice advocates have argued that the effort to popularize the idea of a "post-abortion syndrome" is a tactic used by anti-abortion advocates for political purposes. Some U.S. state legislatures have mandated that patients be told that abortion increases their risk of depression and suicide, despite the fact that such risks are not acknowledged by the major mental health organizations or the higher-quality science publications on the issue.

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