A recent study is revealing some stark realities of the impact abortions can have on women’s mental health. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre, University of Sherbrooke, and McGill University was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research reviewed cohort study of 28,721 induced abortions and 1,228,807 births in hospitals of Quebec, Canada, between 2006 and 2022.  

The study found that women with induced abortions experienced higher rates of hospitalization for a psychiatric disorder, substance use disorder, or suicide attempts. Women with pre-existing mental health issues who experienced abortions were at an even higher risk. Women who were under 25 at the time of their abortion were also at a higher risk of association. The risk for hospitalization was at its highest within the first five years after the abortion.  

Tessa Cox, senior research associate at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, called the study’s revelations “particularly powerful.” “This recent study out of Canada, which has more comprehensive health care data than the U.S., adds to a mounting body of research suggesting that abortion can harm women’s mental health,” she said. “The abortion industry downplays the evidence, so the fact that this new study included more than a million women and took prior mental health and other related factors into account makes it particularly powerful. Women deserve to have all the facts — and women and men who have been harmed by abortion need to know that forgiveness and healing are possible.”  

Michael New, senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at The Catholic University of America called the study “robust.” He noted that previous studies about the mental health risks of abortions have been criticized but pushed back against previous claims. “While other research has found that women who obtain abortions are likely to suffer from mental health disorders, critics of these studies have argued that women with mental health problems are more likely to obtain abortions in the first place,” New said. 

“Most importantly it holds constant whether or not the women in the study had been hospitalized with mental health problems in the past,” he said. The study aligns with other studies, including a Danish study that showed a 50% increase in first time mental health hospitalizations the first year after an abortion.  

David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, noted that while it is unclear if abortion is the cause of the increased mental health issues or just a contributing factor, it is foolish to downplay abortion’s mental health impacts. “On the other hand, it is ridiculous to assert that abortion never contributes to mental health issues. We now know that the majority of abortion patients say that their abortions did negatively impact their mental health,” he said. “To insist that abortion never impacts mental health is, essentially, an assertion that all these women liars.  That is an absurd, ideologically driven fantasy.”