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(LifeSiteNews) — Having an abortion does indeed correlate to negative mental health, a new Danish study has found, contradicting a previous study out of the country and corroborating other data finding cause for concern.

The study, published in Issues in Law & Medicine and led by the Elliot Institute’s David Reardon, reassesses the data from a 2011 study that found no increased risk of mental disorders after a first-trimester abortion. That conclusion, the new study’s authors write, was “inconsistent with similar studies that used longer time frames,” so they chose to take a second look at the same data “over slightly longer time frames.”

As a result, they found that a year after aborting, women exhibited a 50 percent higher likelihood of first-time psychiatric treatment and an 87 percent higher likelihood of personality and behavioral disorders.

“Our re-analysis revealed that the Danish data is consistent with the larger body of both record-based and survey-based studies when viewed over periods of observation of at least nine months,” the authors write. “Longer periods of observation are necessary to capture both anniversary reactions and the exhaustion of coping mechanisms which may delay observation of post-abortion effects.”

“The best research indicates that most women have strong enough suppression mechanisms that they can avoid thinking about their abortions for many months, or even years,” Reardon said. “Negative effects are more likely to manifest after an exhaustion of these coping mechanisms. This will frequently coincide with the anniversary date of the abortion or the birth of a later child. When mental health effects do materialize, they can come in the form of prolonged or complicated grief, guilt, substance abuse, or may simply trigger or exacerbate preexisting mental health issues.”

Abortion, which despite persistent media narratives is almost never sought for “medical” reasons, has long been known to carry significant risks on top of its intended lethality to preborn babies.

Abortion clinics across the country are regularly flagged for harming women though botched procedures, unsanitary tools and environments, and lack of regulatory protections such as requirements for staff to secure admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in the event of complications. With the rise of services dispensing abortion pills by mail in violation of federal law (a practice both major presidential candidates have vowed to let continue), chemical abortions self-administered completely without medical oversight are certain to increase those harms further still.

As this latest study affirms, however, abortion can be dangerous to the mother even when “responsibly” committed. 

“The Institute of Medicine lists surgical abortion as an immutable risk factor for preterm birth,” the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) has documented. “Women face a 35% increased risk of preterm birth in a future pregnancy after one surgical abortion and an almost 90% increase in preterm birth risk after two abortions. The increased risk of future preterm birth for women after they have an abortion represents a clear long-term health risk. Mothers who deliver preterm babies are at a higher risk of medical complications later in life, including cardiovascular disease and stroke.”

“From 1993 to 2018, there are at least 75 studies examining the link between abortion and mental health,” AAPLOG continues. “Two-thirds of those studies showed a correlation between abortion and adverse mental health outcomes. Studies show abortion significantly increases the risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidal behavior, when compared to women with unintended pregnancies who choose to carry the baby to birth. A study from Finland found a 7X higher suicide rate after abortion compared to when women gave birth.”

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