The Christchurch Health and Development Study, by a group of professors led by Professor David M. Fergusson, surveyed approximately 500 women from birth to 25 years of age, revealing that those who had abortions experienced elevated rates of suicidal behaviours, depression, substance abuse, anxiety and other mental problems.
The researchers had, according to Professor Fergusson, undertaken the survey expecting that the results to confirm that any mental health problems found after abortion would be traceable to prior mental illness or other “pre-disposing” factors.
“We know what people were like before they became pregnant,” Fergusson told The New Zealand Herald. “We take into account their social background, education, ethnicity, previous mental health, exposure to sexual abuse, and a whole mass of factors."
The researchers found that women who became pregnant before the age of 25 were more likely to have experienced family breakdown and adjustment problems, were more likely to have left home at a young age, and were more likely to have entered into a cohabiting relationship.
The study data still revealed, however, that women who had abortions were still significantly more likely to develop mental health problems, indicating that the abortion itself may have been the cause of the subsequent mental health problems.
When Fergusson presented his results to New Zealand’s Abortion Supervisory Committee, the Committee recommended that it would be “undesirable to publish the results in their ‘unclarified’ state”, reports The New Zealand Herald.
Fergusson, who is himself pro-choice, responded to the recommendations of the Committee with a letter in which he advised that it would be “scientifically irresponsible” to suppress the findings of the report simply because they were a highly sensitive issue politically speaking.Abortion is a traumatic life event; that is, it involves loss, it involves grief, it involves difficulties. And the trauma may, in fact, predispose people to having mental illness.
Professor David M. Fergusson, study researcher
“I remain pro-choice. I am not religious. I am an atheist and a rationalist. The findings did surprise me, but the results appear to be very robust because they persist across a series of disorders and a series of ages,” Fergusson told an Australian radio host. “Abortion is a traumatic life event; that is, it involves loss, it involves grief, it involves difficulties. And the trauma may, in fact, predispose people to having mental illness.”
