Yes, when faced with the question, most women would rather not have aborted, and most experience feelings of sadness, guilt, and regret after the fact.
These are the results of a study published in May 2023 in the journal Cureus, a periodical of the prestigious science publishing company, Springer Nature Group.
Conducted by David C. Reardon of the Elliot Institute in St Peters, Missouri; Katherine A. Rafferty of the University of Iowa at Ames; and Tessa Longbons of the Charlotte Lozier Institute in Arlington, Virginia; the study found that 60% of women who had abortions would have preferred not to have aborted, and that these women experienced negative emotional and mental sequela connected with the abortion.
“Sixty percent reported they would have preferred to give birth if they had received more support from others or had more financial security,” researchers found.
Of the 226 women surveyed who had had abortions, 33% identified the abortion as wanted, 43% as accepted but inconsistent with their values and preferences, and 24% considered the abortion unwanted or coerced.
Only women who had considered the abortion wanted and consistent with their values associated positive emotions and gains in mental health after their decision to abort.
“All other groups attributed more negative emotions and mental health outcomes to their abortions,” researchers found.
The study, “The Effects of Abortion Decision Rightness and Decision Type on Women’s Satisfaction and Mental Health,” questioned the results of a 2015 study that purported to show that 99% of women have no regrets about abortion. That study had been conducted by the pro-abortion group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), which reported that 99% of women were satisfied with their abortions three years later. The finding was based on one question: “Given your situation, was the decision to have an abortion the right decision for you?” The ANSIRH researchers had refused, according to Reardon and his colleagues, to share their data with other researchers to conduct an independent analysis.
Contrary to the ANSIRH research, the new study found that genuine satisfaction with their decision to abort only applied to a minority of women.
“The one-third of women for whom abortion is wanted and consistent with their values and preferences are most likely over-represented in studies initiated at abortion clinics,” the researchers concluded. “More research is needed to better understand the experience of the two-thirds of women for whom abortion is unwanted, coerced, or otherwise inconsistent with their own values and preferences”, the 2023 study found.
Earlier in January, Reardon, Rafferty, and Longbons had published in Cureus an analysis of the same survey that focused on the relation between perceived pressure to abort and negative mental and emotional sequela. The findings were clear:
Perceived pressure to abort was significantly associated with more negative emotions; more disruption of daily life, work, or relationships; more frequent thoughts, dreams, or flashbacks to the abortion; more frequent feelings of loss, grief, or sadness about the abortion; more moral and maternal conflict over the abortion decision; a decline in overall mental health that they attribute to their abortions; more desire or need for help to cope with negative feelings about the abortion.
Both 2023 Cureus studies contradict the results of the 2015 study: one reason may be that the two new studies allowed women to report on a wide range of thoughts and feelings about their abortion decision.
The researchers called for studies on abortion to include those on both sides of the debate and to address a full range of female reproductive and social experiences.
Ideally, the full range of interactions between reproductive health experiences including abortion, natural losses, infertility, postpartum adjustments, newborn disabilities, and other interactions between these reproductive experiences, mental health, and socioeconomic well-being would be addressed in a dedicated longitudinal study.
