Since the 1990s, abortion opponents have worked to advance the idea that abortion causes long-lasting psychological damage based on a combination of personal stories and (widely disputed) statistical analyses showing a correlation between abortion and mental health problems. “Emotional harm” has been cited by legislators in passing parental consent, mandatory ultrasound viewing, and waiting-period laws.
In 2008, Diana Greene Foster, a demographer and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, launched the Turnaway Study to examine what happens, emotionally and economically, to women who have abortions and also to those who wanted abortions but couldn’t have them. Nearly 1,000 women seeking abortions in their first and second trimesters were recruited from 30 facilities in 21 states. About a quarter had been turned away because they just missed their clinic’s gestational limit (10 to 24 weeks). Researchers followed up every six months for five years. The key findings: Most women had abortions because they didn’t think could afford another child, and they often turned out to be right. Of those who did have the procedure, 95 percent said it was the right decision, and their feelings — positive or negative — faded over time. Having an abortion did not lead to depression, PTSD or other mental-health problems, the project found. But being denied an abortion did seem to keep women tethered to abusive partners....
https://www.propublica.org/article/4-ways-research-has-reframed-the-abortion-debate
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