NEWSWEEK: Abortion Fuels a Hidden Mental Health Crisis | Opinion
By Maureen Curley, Psychiatric nurse practitioner
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As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I've seen firsthand the harmful effects that abortion can have on a woman's mental health. Problems like severe and persistent anxiety, depression, and substance abuse are, unfortunately, just the tip of the iceberg: women who have an abortion are also at increased risk for suicide.
I've treated many patients who became suicidal after having an abortion, some of whom even need hospitalization. Women can reach these dark points in their lives even if they have no record of suicidal tendencies or mental health complications prior to their abortion.
Women deserve to know when they may be putting their health at risk, yet an abortion amendment up for a vote in Ohio next week, like many state referendums that preceded it last year, would override existing safeguards that educate women about the impact of abortion. And my clinical experience gives me great concern about the lasting mental health consequences these amendments will have.
The worst cases I've treated involve young women who felt so hopeless and desperate shortly after aborting a first pregnancy that they completed a suicide even while they were hospitalized on a psychiatric unit. Parents and other survivors, who may not be aware of the abortion, were left bewildered as they tried to make sense of the sudden and unexplained death of their young daughter.
Many patients have been referred to me after obtaining a medical abortion. They reported feeling depressed, hopeless, suicidal, and some required transfer to a psychiatric hospital.
Tragically, a few of these committed suicide. Not only were the families unaware of the reason behind the deaths, but the abortion clinics, who followed them only briefly, were also unaware, and thus concluded the abortions had been "safe procedures."
Numerous studies have found that women who have abortions show higher rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse in comparison to those who carry their child to term. Additionally, occurrences of destructive behavior and suicide are almost six times higher among women who have an abortion compared to those who deliver their child.
Abortion proponents often ignore these studies and deny that women suffer any negative mental health effects after abortion. But my years of clinical experience echo the data that reveals this association.
Abortions that happen after babies can feel pain in the womb also bring lasting mental anguish to the women who have them. Those who have abortions in the second or third trimesters—as the amendment in my home state of Ohio would allow—are at the highest risk of mental health problems and psychological distress after the procedure.
Unfortunately, a large majority of women who seek abortions do so because they feel pressured or coerced into undergoing the procedure. While some may think that ending the life of a child will save the mother from heartache and grief down the road, they are gravely mistaken. Instead, these women are put at greater risk of severe mental health complications and threats to their health.
The proposed Ohio amendment could open more young girls up to pressure from abusive partners and traffickers by erasing parental consent laws and keeping parents in the dark if their young daughter is considering abortion.
The truth is, parents are a key source of support for their children in these situations. They can help identify and prevent the mental anguish that their young daughters could face due to abortion. It's well known that young women—specifically those between the ages of 20 and 25—experience the highest rates of abortion, the highest rates of mental health disorders from abortions, and the highest rates of repeat abortions.
Those who experience mental health trauma from an abortion can access resources such as Project Rachel, Rachel's Vineyard, and Support After Abortion to help them heal, free of cost. Mothers also have access to free resources and support from pregnancy resource centers that provide women the physical and emotional care they need to embrace life.
Women must be made aware of the risks that accompany abortion before making such a life-altering decision. They deserve to know the dangers abortion can create for their personal health and safety. And they also deserve more than the false promises of health and safety touted by Ohio's abortion amendment.
Maureen Curley, Ph.D., is a psychiatric nurse practitioner and researcher in Cleveland. She treats women who experience mental health problems surrounding all types of reproductive events and advocates for underserved women.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.